NEW YORK — Gerrit Cole stuck out four fingers on his pitching hand, then pointed toward first base as Rafael Devers looked on incredulously. Having held the first 10 Red Sox batters hitless, the New York Yankees ace handed Boston’s slumping star an intentional walk with no one on base.
Boston then walked all over Cole and the Yankees.
Devers scored in a three-run fourth inning and hit a two-run single in a four-run fifth that rallied the Red Sox over New York 7-1 on Saturday.
“They grabbed the momentum. It inspired them,” Cole said. “I think, looking back, it’s the wrong move.”
Yankees manager Aaron Boone said he and Cole discussed in the leadup to the game being more aggressive in the use of intentional walks — Cole hadn’t issued one in seven years. Cole said he talked out the possibility with pitching coach Matt Blake while in the tunnel before the fourth inning, viewing it as a way to get the starter deeper into the game on a day when the Yankees’ bullpen was thin.
Yankees catcher Austin Wells wasn’t made aware of the plan.
“I was a bit caught off guard,” he said. “Thought he had some good momentum.”
Wells said he didn’t think about trying to get Cole to reverse his decision.
“We’re just kidding. We don’t actually walk him,” Wells proposed. “I don’t know if that’s a thing.”
Cole and Boone both took an unusually long time before speaking with reporters after the game.
“Just a rough day,” Cole said.
Cole (6-5) gave up seven runs, his most since June 9, 2022. He hit a career-high three batters and left after 4⅓ innings.
Saturday marked the first time a Yankees pitcher intentionally walked a batter with the bases empty and less than two outs since intentional walks became official in 1955, according to ESPN Research.
“He caught me by surprise,” Devers said through an interpreter. “I didn’t expect that from a future Hall of Famer and I feel like he panicked a little bit.”
Cole retired nine of his first 10 batters, allowing his only batter to reach when he hit Devers with a cutter in the first.
“I felt like the first at-bat he hit him on purpose,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora said. “He doesn’t want to face him. That’s the bottom line. He told us with the intentional walk that the first at-bat he hit him.”
At the time of the intentional walk, the Yankees led 1-0 behind Gleyber Torres‘ third-inning RBI single.
“Once we scored the run my preference would have been let’s attack them. But, obviously, I didn’t communicate that well enough,” Boone said.
Starting with the intentional walk, 10 of 12 batters reached against the 2023 AL Cy Young Award winner.
“It was just odd,” Boston’s Triston Casas said of Cole’s decision.
Devers entered 14-for-41 (.316) with eight homers and 15 strikeouts against Cole, including the postseason. His 1.410 career OPS against Cole is the fourth highest among players with at least 10 plate appearances against Cole, according to ESPN Research.
“Obviously, Raffy’s had some success against him, something that he’s also got to get through, too, making sure he understands, hey, the next 40 or 50 at-bats in my career against him I might have massive success because I’m Gerrit Cole,” Boone said. “But there is a psychological component to all that.”
Devers stole second and Masataka Yoshida hit an opposite-field RBI double into the left-field corner for Boston’s first hit, tying it at 1-1. Wilyer Abreu followed with a two-run single for a 3-1 lead, and Casas bounced into an inning-ending double play.
“If I make pitches after that and I continue to execute at a high level, then the plan works,” Cole said. “But evidently the plan didn’t work. So I need to make better pitches afterwards in order for it to work.”
The fourth inning is the earliest into a game that any batter has been intentionally walked with the bases empty and less than two outs since Barry Bonds on Aug. 10, 2002, against the Pirates, according to ESPN Research. Bonds was also walked with one out and no men on in the fourth inning, with his team trailing 1-0.
New York’s earliest bases-empty intentional walks had been in the sixth inning: to the Philadelphia Athletics’ Al Simmons by Roy Sherid leading off on Sept. 22, 1930, and to Washington’s Frank Howard by Fritz Peterson with two outs on April 22, 1970.
Trevor Story singled leading off the fifth Saturday and stole second, Danny Jansen walked and Enmanuel Valdez flied out as Story took third. Jarren Duran was hit by a pitch, loading the bases, and Devers lined a knuckle-curve into right for a 5-1 lead. Tyler O’Neill was hit by a pitch and Yoshida chased Cole with a two-run single.
“Obviously, because it backfired a little bit I think we all wish we could go the other way on certain things,” Boone said. “But at the end of the day, we didn’t make pitches when we had opportunities and it burned us today.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.