Alex Cora Weighs In On His Role In Red Sox-Brewers Scuffle

Boston Red Sox manager Alex Cora didn’t want to get in the middle of it. And he certainly wasn’t going to escalate things.

The Red Sox and Brewers emptied the benches at the end of the top of seventh inning Sunday at Fenway Park after Chris Martin and Milwaukee first base coach Quintin Berry got into a heated exchange.

Cora appeared to be a late arrival to the on-field festivities and tried to diffuse the situation. He definitely wasn’t looking for a fight, either.

“Na, I’m pass that bro,” Cora told reporters when asked if he was ready to mix it up, as seen on NESN postgame coverage.

Not everyone on Boston’s coaching staff took the same approach as Cora. Red Sox pitching coach Andrew Bailey immediately went up to Berry and confronted him while game planning coordinator Jason Varitek tried to chat with Berry, who played for Boston in 2013 and had another stint in the franchise’s minor league system, in an effort to cool him down.

There were no punches thrown in the incident and Cora stood firm in the role coaches should have when tensions get high.

“I think Q (Berry) took exception to something Marty said,” Cora said. “I mean, I don’t know. Players are the players. Our job is to avoid stuff like that as coaches.”

The jawing back and forth seemed to ignite the Red Sox, who pulled ahead in the bottom of the eighth inning thanks to a timely hit from Jarren Duran and avoided the sweep with a 2-1 win.