New York Yankees ace Gerrit Cole is under fire after a controversial decision led to a blowout loss against the Boston Red Sox on Saturday.
Despite cruising through the first three innings without allowing a hit, Cole made the surprising decision to intentionally walk Rafael Devers with one out and no one on base.
This came after Cole hit Devers with a 0-1 cutter in the first inning of the game, which was negated by an inning-ending double play during the following at-bat.
Considering the lopsided history between Cole and Devers in which the latter has utterly dominated, the fourth-inning intentional walk was a rare act of concession from the reigning Cy Young winner.
Gerrit Cole shows Rafael Devers the ultimate sign of respect and intentionally walks him with the bases empty 🫡 pic.twitter.com/XQzIc2DrrO
— MLB (@MLB) September 14, 2024
The baseball gods clearly took notice, punishing Cole for the odd move. The Yankees ace wound up surrendering five hits and seven runs (all earned) before exiting the fourth inning.
The Red Sox took advantage of the controversial decision, and they didn't hold back in ripping Cole to shreds after the game.
“I don’t know what to tell you,” Red Sox reliever Brayan Bello said. “I feel like he showed a lot of weakness in that move.”
Even Red Sox manager Alex Cora blasted Cole after the game, accusing the veteran of intentionally hitting Devers in the first inning.
"He doesn’t want to face him,” said Cora. “That's the bottom line. You know, he told us with the intentional walk that the first at-bat, he hit him [on purpose]. They can say whatever they want. The intentional walk [made it] loud and clear that he didn’t want to face him. So the second pitch of the game against Raffy, you see it. I’m not going to back off. It was intentional.”
The Yankees staunchly denied the accusation that Cole hit Devers on purpose, which is a ridiculous notion when considering the situation.
Bello himself clearly took exception to the way Cole pitched to Devers, though, as he took aim at Yankees superstar Aaron Judge when he came in for mop-up duty later in the game.
Pretty clear what was going on between Brayan Bello and Aaron Judge now... pic.twitter.com/xkwxVDbeMH
— Tyler Milliken ⚾️ (@tylermilliken_) September 14, 2024
Regardless, the Red Sox got the last laugh in this situation as they push into the wild-card race over the final two weeks of the season.
The four-game series wraps up Sunday afternoon at Yankee Stadium with Carlos Rodon taking on Kutter Crawford at 1:35 p.m. ET.
