The Yankees are trying to move on.
The Red Sox are relishing the Gerrit Cole mess and turning it into fuel.
After an eventful Boston win on Saturday, in which Cole intentionally walked Rafael Devers with the bases empty and one out in the fourth inning — which inspired the Red Sox and prompted a spiral from Cole — manager Aaron Boone took responsibility for a failure of communication.
Saturday, Boone said he would have preferred for Cole to face Devers.
Cole said that the team’s plan — including in a tunnel talk with pitching coach Matt Blake in the previous half-inning — involved the intentional walk.
The pitcher believing one thing and the manager believing another was an issue for which Boone took responsibility.
“At the end of the day, I certainly pride myself on communicating at a really high level,” Boone said before the Yankees and Red Sox finished a series in The Bronx on Sunday. “[Saturday] we didn’t do it well enough, and that falls on me. So we’re going to learn from it. We’re going to grow from it. And hopefully make sure we can eliminate those gray areas.”
Catcher Austin Wells said he was caught “off-guard” by the intentional walk and was not part of any meetings that discussed the strategy.
Boone said what sounds like a strange dynamic is not strange.
“Austin’s game-planning is involved on how we’re attacking, how we’re getting out, what pitches he’s calling,” Boone said. “So those [intentional walks] are a lot of times in-the-moment decisions that happen from the dugout.”
Boone said he did not want to “litigate” all the choices made 24 hours earlier. His counterpart, Red Sox manager Alex Cora, would love it if his own group continues to think about Saturday’s events.
Boston was angry not just at Cole’s refusal to pitch to Devers in the fourth inning, but Cole hitting Devers with a cutter in the first inning. Cora said he believed the pitch had intent, a sign that the Yankees ace did not want to pitch to a slugger who has had his number.
The Red Sox scored seven runs in the fourth and fifth innings Saturday, rallying against a pitcher at whom they had grown aggrieved. Cora hoped his group, which entered play Sunday four games back of a wild-card spot, carries that anger with them.
“If this [playoff run] happens, we’re going to look back at [Saturday], and we’re probably going to thank Gerrit Cole for getting us going,” said Cora, who acknowledged they have a long way to go. “Hopefully, it happens, and hopefully, we can face [Cole] in the playoffs because he will have to pitch.”
Cole said he did not intend to drill Devers. Boone, who said the same, had talked with Cora.
“I think it’s also a manager that’s using that moment a little bit to rally his troops,” Boone said.
