Alex Cora had himself a night

It’s starting to slip away from the Boston Red Sox. After an excellent July, the Carmines have run to nowhere in August with a 10-10 mark which has left them five games adrift of the last wildcard spot. Which isn’t a huge surprise, given that this team was built to basically win 84 games and give the faintest hint of competitiveness and that’s about it. But we know that doesn’t really cut it in The Hub, and it won’t cut it in the dugout, at least given Alex Cora’s demeanor last night in Houston.

It all started when Cora, apparently, objected to the time Justin Verlander was taking to get a new PitchCom earpiece:

Certainly Verlander had his own thoughts about Cora emerging from the dugout for something that had nothing to do with him. On another level, it is quite adorable to watch Cora come out to bitch about the use or maintenance of technology that only became necessary after the cheating scandal that Cora spearheaded in 2017 came to light. But then, don’t all scientists/deities come to abhor and be ashamed of their biggest creations? Don’t they always fall short of intentions, or pass commentary on their creators that the latter can’t face? Perhaps seeing PitchCom only causes Cora to see who he was, and who he may still be, and turn away.

His night didn’t get much better:

Manager tantrums aren’t all that common anymore. No one’s throwing a base like Lou Piniella anymore, because we’ve basically all realized it was all for show and didn’t really do much. Perhaps still poisoned by having to see what he has wrought through PitchCom, Cora had to lash out. Maybe combined with the Sox season sliding pretty quickly toward the purgatory of .500 is too much to bear. Throw on top the knowledge that FSG probably isn’t going to turn the Sox back into the financial monster they once were, and this just might be the Red Sox for the next little while, and maybe it’s all too much for one man.

But hey, his ejection did inspire the Sox to score three runs in the 8th and 9th innings. Shame about the seven they gave up before that, though.

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