HOUSTON — Red Sox manager Alex Cora was ejected during a pitching change with two outs in the top of the seventh inning against the Astros on Wednesday.
It marked Cora’s 22nd career ejection as a manager, including his fifth this season.
Cora explained what happened after Boston’s 4-1 loss to Houston.
He already had left the dugout during the top of the sixth inning to speak with the umpire crew. At that point, a potential balk by Astros starting pitcher Hunter Brown was in question. It happened with Jarren Duran at third base and Houston leading 2-1.
“First of all, they got it right,” Cora said. “They got the call right. The only thing for me is like we’ve seen that situation before: that guys have a regular windup and they (the umpires) ask the guys (the pitchers) to declare. You don’t have to declare if you have a regular windup. It’s only if you have a hybrid windup. That’s when you have to declare because that way you’re not deceiving the runner. But throughout the last two years, we’ve seen situations that it’s a regular windup and they have asked the pitcher to declare. That was the only thing.”
Brown had already balked earlier in the sixth inning, sending Duran from first base to second.
The Red Sox failed to tie the game in the sixth, then starter Walker Buehler allowed a two-run home run to Yainer Diaz in the bottom half, making it 4-1 Astros.
“And then I went out there (in the seventh) just to educate myself to be honest with you,” Cora said. “That’s what I told him. I want to learn, I want to know. I don’t know if he took it that I was being sarcastic. I wasn’t. And then I was walking back and he threw me out.”
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