What Red Sox’s Alex Cora Said Before Justin Verlander’s Expletive

Tuesday night’s Red Sox-Astros matchup got heated, and it arguably started at the top of the second inning.

Houston beat Boston, 7-3, at Minute Maid Park in a game where the Red Sox committed three key errors and Alex Cora and Alex Verdugo were ejected. The latter was confused by his dismissal, and the former got into it at the start of the game with Justin Verlander.

Cora believed the three-time Cy Young winner was pretending to have issues with his PitchCom device in order to avoid a pitch-clock violation since the 40-year-old appeared to shake off pitches, which would indicate his device was working.

“The clock ran out,” Cora told reporters, per MassLive’s Christopher Smith. “And we’ve seen this before. I think we’ve been in that place, too, kind of (acting) like the PitchCom doesn’t work. But when you’re shaking off, shaking off, shaking off, what are you shaking off for? Is it the PitchCom? Can you not hear it? I told him he shook off a few times. He said he did not. I said, ‘Just go pitch’ and then he blew me off.”

The broadcast specifically caught Verlander on the hot mic telling the Red Sox manager to “(expletive) off.” The 40-year-old tossed six scoreless innings Tuesday night and threw nine strikeouts. Cora and Verlander won the World Series together when Houston won in 2017, and the respect was still there despite the verbal spat.

“This is a kid I have the utmost respect (for),” Cora said. “We talk and all that stuff. It’s just the heat of the battle, whatever. He’s one of the greatest pitchers in the history of the game, especially the last 12, 13 years.”

Cora was ejected in the seventh inning for arguing balls and strikes, but Boston plans on moving on and will try to break its two-game losing streak.

NESN will have full coverage of Wednesday’s Red Sox-Astros matchup starting with pregame at 7 p.m. ET.