Alex Cora has had it with the umpires in this Minnesota Twins series, and he let them hear it after another controversial call.
A livid Cora earned an ejection for disputing a call that overturned what should have been a strikeout of Minnesota Twins batter Ryan Jeffers by Red Sox reliever Matt Andriese.
The play in question happened with one out and two runners in scoring position in the 8th inning of a 3-3 ball game. Jeffers swung and missed at a 1-2 breaking ball in the dirt from Andriese, but home plate umpire Jordan Baker said Jeffers fouled the ball off to keep the bat alive.
The replay appeared to show Jeffers clearly miss the ball. But foul tips are not reviewable under Major League Baseball’s replay rules. After a brief conference from the umpiring crew, the call was upheld, and Jeffers’s at-bat resumed.
Jordan Baker personifies what’s wrong with umpires. “No way anyone’s going to overrule that,” he shouts at Alex Cora as he ejects Cora after Baker called a foul ball on a pitch with the game on the line that was swung at and missed by nearly a foot. Bad umpire. ‘tude. Acessories
— Peter Gammons (@pgammo) April 15, 2021
Cora vehemently argued the call before being thrown out of the game, saying “That’s two!” as he exited the field. The complaint referring to another foul ball call that went against the Red Sox earlier in the series.
It was the manager’s fourth career ejection.
Andriese managed to strike out Jeffers on the next pitch, with catcher Christian Vazquez pumping his fist as Jeffers waved and missed at a breaking ball.
The Red Sox got out of the inning without giving up a run but lost the game 4-3 on a Max Kepler RBI single in the bottom of the 9th, snapping the team’s nine-game winning streak.
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