Boston Red Sox manager Alex Cora had a much better reaction to the latest review of a home run at Kauffman Stadium.
Granted, this time the call went Cora and the Red Sox’s way.
After getting ejected from the series opener after Salvador Perez’s controversial homer, Cora sat back and watched the umpires go to replay again on Saturday. This time it was for Alex Verdugo’s solo shot to right-center in the top of the sixth inning, which came in Boston’s 5-4 defeat to the Kansas City Royals, that needed a second look.
The home run call on the field stood, as the umpires ruled there was no fan interference. For Cora, being on this end of the call certainly brought out a different emotion.
“I was like, ‘It didn’t go through the wall,'” Cora told reporters, as seen on NESN postgame coverage. “But glad they didn’t overturn it and gave us a chance to win.”
Cora also enjoyed seeing Verdugo, who went 2-for-4 in the walk-off loss, snap his homerless streak as the left-handed hitter hadn’t gone yard since June 29.
It was a much-needed hit in the middle innings for the Red Sox, too, with Verdugo leveling the score for the third time in the game.
“If you see Dugie’s at-bats the last month and a half, they’ve been clutch,” Cora said. “He’s been hitting the ball hard. He’s been patient. Sometimes he doesn’t get rewarded, sometimes he does. But that was a beautiful swing.”
There’s still one more chance for video replay to make its way into a Red Sox game at Kauffman Stadium with Boston closing out its four-game series with the Royals on Sunday. First pitch is scheduled for 2:10 p.m. ET, and you can watch the game, plus an hour of pregame coverage, with NESN 360.
