The Boston Red Sox defeated the New York Yankees 7-1 on Saturday afternoon at Yankee Stadium, and they scored all seven runs against starting pitcher Gerrit Cole.
Cole's seven earned runs against Boston in the loss was a season-high, but that wasn't the reason that this game will be remembered and may have refueled a rivalry that has been lacking energy recently.
Just days after he gave credit to Rafael Devers for the third baseman's success against him, Cole plunked him in the first inning of Saturday's matchup.
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Then, in the fourth inning, with one out and no one on base, Cole intentionally walked Devers, leading to three runs in the inning.
In their third meeting of the game, Devers hit a two-run single with the bases loaded in the fifth, and Cole was knocked out not long after.
After Boston's win, starting pitcher Brayan Bello mocked Cole for the intentional walk.
"I don't know what to tell you. I feel like he showed a lot of weakness in that move," Bello said through a translator.
Manager Alex Cora took it further, calling out the Yankees starter for the hit-by-pitch in the first at-bat.
"I wasn't surprised at all because I felt the first at-bat he hit him on purpose," Cora said. "He doesn't want to face him. That's the bottom line. He told us with the intentional walk that the first at-bat he hit him [on purpose]. We leave it at that.
"After that, he had bases loaded, and he had to face him. We took exception to (the HBP) because it was loud and clear that he didn't want to face him that first at-bat. Now, after the intentional walk, we were like 'OK. That's what happened."
On whether or not the call was bush league or not, the manager was pretty clear in his thoughts.
"I mean, we don't wanna hit people on purpose, right? You can get hurt," "Especially, in the position they're in, right? They're 20-whatever games over. We hit somebody and somebody gets hurt and that puts us in a bad spot. We want the best players to be playing every single day out there. I want Aaron Judge to be out there every single day, regardless of what he does against us. That's when our sport is at its best. Raffy got hit. They can say whatever they want. The intentional walk was loud and clear. 'I don't want to face him.' The second pitch against Raffy. You see it. It was intentional. I'm not going to back off. It was intentional."
Even Devers himself was a bit taken aback by Cole's moves.
"I feel like caught me by surprise," Devers said through a translator. "I didn't expect that from a future Hall of Famer. I feel like he panicked a little bit."
It will be interesting to see if there's any more fallout from Cole's actions going forward.
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