One of the Boston Red Sox‘s best players against the Toronto Blue Jays this season was made a late scratch Saturday in what was called a “manager’s decision” by Alex Cora.
After a 5-4 loss to the Blue Jays, the Red Sox manager did not elaborate on his reasons for benching outfielder Alex Verdugo.
“I decided not to play him,” Cora said. “Today we took a step back as a team. We have to make sure everybody is available every single day here for us to get to wherever we’re going to go. That wasn’t the case. As a manager, I have to take charge of this.”
Verdugo also did not offer a clear explanation for Cora’s call.
“Manager’s decision. We’re going to leave it at that and just be ready to play tomorrow,” he said.
“I don’t want to go too far into it. It’s his decision and that’s what we went with. Obviously, I want to be available and I want to help in big parts and I want to help this team win. All we can do now is look forward to tomorrow, come here and be ready to play.”
Ian Brown of MLB.com reported Verdugo showed up just two hours before the game started, a possible reason why Cora could have been upset.
But Verdugo, who is hitting just .148 in his past 15 games, told reporters he was on time.
Cora, who watched his team lose on a game-ending double play when former Blue Jays catcher Reese McGuire didn’t stay close to the bag at second on a ball that was caught at the wall by Toronto outfielder Kevin Kiermaier, called it one of his “worst days” as manager of the club, per Chris Cotillo of MassLive.com
“We have to be available. Everybody has to be available. For us to do this, we have to be available,” Cora said. “From coaches to players to analysts to the front office, everybody has to be available every single day. That’s the bottom line. Today, one guy wasn’t available.”
Verdugo played a huge role in the Red Sox winning their first seven games of the season against the Blue Jays. He hit one walk-off home run, one go-ahead home run in the ninth inning and threw out Bo Bichette at the plate to deny Toronto a tying run and end another game.
But now, the Red Sox have lost two in a row against the Blue Jays and have fallen four games behind Toronto in the race for the third and final wild-card spot.