Cora sees Cole-Devers as spark: We'll 'thank Gerrit' if we make playoffs

Gerrit Cole's avoidance of Rafael Devers may have reignited baseball's most famous rivalry.

The Red Sox had some harsh words for Cole and the New York Yankees after his decision to walk Devers while throwing a no-hitter in the fourth inning. Cole, who also hit his longtime nemesis earlier in the game, unraveled after putting Devers on base in an eventual 7-1 Boston win.

A day later, Red Sox manager Alex Cora is viewing the incident as a potentially galvanizing moment for his club as it fights to make the postseason.

"If this (making the playoffs) happens, we're going to look back at yesterday. We're probably going to thank Gerrit Cole for getting us going," Cora said before Sunday's game, according to Chris Kirschner of The Athletic. "Hopefully it happens and hopefully we can face him in the playoffs because he will have to pitch to him. Hopefully it happens. We still have a long way to go.

"I'm not promising that we're going to make the playoffs, but if we do, we're going to look back on Saturday."

The Red Sox are trying to claw their way into October after they dropped out of a playoff spot in August. Having won five of eight heading into Sunday's game, Boston now sits 3 1/2 games back of the Twins, who hold down the final AL wild-card berth, and a half-game behind Detroit and Seattle.

The anger in Boston's dugout after Cole walked Devers was seemingly unanimous, to the point that starter Brayan Bello - who called Cole's move weak - threw behind Aaron Judge in the sixth inning. Cora essentially confirmed that Bello's pitch was intentional but stated Sunday that there won't be any more attempts at retaliation.

"(The situation was) closed around the sixth inning. We had our chance. Didn't happen, and we have to move on," he said, according to Gary Phillips of the New York Daily News.

Cora indicated that he and Judge have since spoken about the incident, according to Phillips. He also confirmed that a conversation with Yankees manager Aaron Boone took place on Saturday.

"We (Boone and I) talked," Cora said of Boone, according to Larry Fleisher of The Associated Press. "There's two ways of seeing it, their dugout and our dugout. Like I told him, put yourself in our shoes and you will understand why we feel this way."

Barring a playoff matchup, Sunday marks the final Yankees-Red Sox game of 2024. The winner of the contest will clinch the season series.