The Boston Red Sox hosted the New York Mets for a three-game series at Fenway Park this week. The second encounter between the two East Coast rivals grew quite heated, as Red Sox starting pitcher Walker Buehler and manager Alex Cora both got ejected from the game, with Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor playing a key role in the incident.
Alex Cora Offers His Perspective on Francisco Lindor’s Role
It had all unraveled in the top of the third inning with the game still scoreless, as Lindor reached first base on a hit-by-pitch call. The video replays showed that he seemed to have leaned in to the low inside curveball from Buehler as it struck him on his left shin, even though he did not make any attempt to swing at the pitch.
This brought Juan Soto up to the plate next. On a 1-0 count, Buehler delivered a 90 mph cutter on the low inside corner that the Mets hitter left alone for Lindor to steal second base. However, home plate umpire Mike Estabrook deemed it a ball, sending the Red Sox pitcher into a frenzy after his frustrations with the decision in the previous at-bat.
Buehler let loose a torrent of abuse at Estabrook, and the latter eventually tossed the 30-year-old right-hander out after a couple of quick warnings. The Red Sox skipper rushed out like a bullet to make his protest at the decision, but the umpire swiftly ejected him as well, since MLB managers are not allowed to argue any calls on balls and strikes.
Lindor later admitted to reporters the next day that he had been egging the officials on from his position at second base to throw the Red Sox pitcher and manager out of the game. The Mets superstar said he did so knowing that it would expose their bullpen for the rest of the series.
“You’ve got to get a guy who wasn’t expecting to pitch. Now he has to come in. So, it puts him in jeopardy. It stretches the bullpen. It puts them at a disadvantage. And as a competitor, I want all of the advantages possible. We had opportunities. We just didn’t capitalize on it. But how everything crumbled yesterday, hopefully it can help us today.”
The Red Sox were able to maintain their composure despite the two ejections. Catcher Carlos Narvaez led off the fifth inning with a solo home run, and designated hitter Rafael Devers followed with one of his own as their bullpen came up with a sizzling display to get a 2-0 win and secure the series.
Meanwhile, Cora diffused the tension from the game during an appearance on the WEEI Sports Radio Network on Wednesday, saying that he held no hard feelings with Lindor. The 49-year-old Puerto Rican revealed that he shared some laughs about the incident while sharing breakfast with his compatriot in the morning.
Alex Cora says he and Francisco Lindor had breakfast this morning and laughed about Lindor trying to get Cora and Walker Buehler ejected last night pic.twitter.com/qRVhHNgnPg
— Jomboy Media (@JomboyMedia)
“We had breakfast together in the morning,” Cora smiled. “I saw the clip of him saying, ‘Throw him out. Throw him out.’ And they threw him out. Then Trevor [Story] told me that after Walker got thrown out, he was doing the same for me. ‘Throw Alex out. Throw Alex out.’ So, Francisco told me all this morning.”
“Listen, it’s all fun and games, man. It’s a game. We’re allowed to show emotion. I had to protect my players in that incident. It was hard to swallow because I knew where we were,” Cora added. “The cool thing is we won the game.”
The Mets responded with a 5-1 win in the final game of the series on Wednesday. As a result, they move up to 30-20 for the season and stay in second place in the National League East. Meanwhile, the Red Sox now have a 25-26 record and lie 5.5 games behind the leaders in the American League East.