NEW YORK — Roughly 13 hours had passed since his team’s most recent devastating loss, but Red Sox manager Alex Cora refused to be defeated as he spoke to the media on Saturday morning.
“The season has been over like 15 times [for us] this season, and we’re still there, right? So I wouldn’t be surprised if we come here and put [together] a good game against Gerrit [Cole] and win the game,” said Cora.
While Cora proved to be prophetic, as his team knocked Cole out by the fifth inning in a 7-1 victory at Yankee Stadium, not even Nostradamus could have predicted the recipe for the in-game demise of the Yankees’ ace.
The Red Sox had sent the minimum of 10 batters to the plate when Rafael Devers stepped up with nobody on and one out in the top of the fourth, his team down by a run.
It was then that Cole held up four fingers, signaling for the intentional walk of Devers, who has tormented him through the years.
Despite Devers coming into the game with eight homers in 39 at-bats against Cole, it was a most unusual time for a free pass.
And the Red Sox made Cole pay for the conservative approach with the star slugger. Tyler O’Neill followed Devers with a traditional walk. And that set up Masataka Yoshida (RBI double) and Wilyer Abreu (two-run single) to give the Red Sox a 3-1 lead.
An inning later, Cole still appeared unnerved. After he hit Jarren Duran to load the bases, there was nowhere to put Devers. Cole came after him with a 1-0 knuckle curve, and Devers hammered it to right-center for a two-run single. Yoshida came through again, knocking Cole out with a two-run single that made it 7-1, Boston.
Brayan Bello turned in a solid start for the Red Sox, holding the Yankees to four hits and one run over 5 1/3 innings.
With 13 games left in the season, Boston trails the Twins by four games for the third American League Wild Card spot, pending the result of Minnesota’s game against the Reds on Saturday evening.
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