Alex Cora earned his first ejection of the season on Thursday, and you will understand why the Boston Red Sox manager was so irate when you see the call he was arguing.
With the Red Sox and Minnesota Twins tied 3-3 in the bottom of the eighth inning, Boston reliever Matt Andriese got catcher Ryan Jeffers to swing at a ball in the dirt. For whatever reason, home plate umpire Jordan Baker thought Jeffers got a piece of the ball. Cora was baffled that Baker didn’t ask for help from the first base umpire.
You could hear Baker telling Cora that the call is “100 percent me” and that he doesn’t need to appeal. He’s technically right about that, but he should have asked for help. Even Jeffers knew he didn’t make contact, which is why he began running to first. Just look at how bad this call was:
Andriese got Jeffers to swing and miss at the next pitch as well, so the awful call didn’t end up hurting Boston. That doesn’t make it any less awful. Cora had every right to be furious.
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