MLB launched a brief investigation into recent remarks from Boston Red Sox manager Alex Cora in which he hinted that pitcher Brayan Bello may have intentionally thrown at (or behind) New York Yankees superstar Aaron Judge during their weekend matchup.
Ultimately, MLB opted against disciplining Cora or the Red Sox for the incident which occurred on Sept. 14.
When asked about Cora escaping unpunished, Yankees skipper Aaron Boone indicated that he was already past the incident and looking toward the future, though he didn't hesitate to sneak in a subtle diss at his team's arch rivals.
"I feel like we're past this weekend. Chances are, we're not going to play them anymore this year. We've got too much important things going on in front of us to really get caught up in that," Boone said via Bryan Hoch of MLB.com.
As it currently stands, Boston is on the outside of the wild card race looking in, sitting four games behind the Minnesota Twins for the final postseason seed in the American League. Meanwhile, the Yankees hold a three-game lead atop the AL East. Boone made clear that New York is focused solely on contending for a World Series, rather than a feud with a team that likely won't be suiting up at all in October.
During the game that sparked the feud, Gerrit Cole hit Rafael Devers with a pitch during the first inning before intentionally walking the Red Sox's slugger during his next at-bat. That, Cora felt, was a sign that Cole hit Devers on purpose to avoid pitching to him. In the sixth inning of the same game, Bello threw a pitch that went behind Judge. MLB investigated after Cora's postgame comments, which suggested that Bello's actions were intentional, though ultimately it found there was no wrongdoing.
