Red Sox manager Alex Cora seemed to be calm, cool and collected as he discussed a bizarre home run call with home plate umpire Bill Welke. Then, out of nowhere, he was thrown out of the game.
The Red Sox were challenging a home run after Salvador Pérez scorched a 110 mph line drive down the left-field line. The ball ricocheted off an extension piece of the foul pole just near the bottom of the wall and darted into center field, but the umpires ruled it a long ball despite some confusion. Cora appeared to feel differently, and strolled out to home plate to discuss the call with the umpire.
In the middle of the discussion — as Cora appeared to be smiling — Welke suddenly tossed him out of the game.
Seemingly stunned by what had just happened, Cora angrily argued his case for several more minutes before walking off the field. His fiery departure did little to motivate the Red Sox, who lost the game 7-3.
The umpires had determined that there wasn’t enough evidence to overturn the call initially made on the field. According to the Red Sox broadcast on NESN, the umpires were unable to definitively tell whether the ball landed in foul territory or in play.
Shortly after the loss, Cora voiced his disapproval at being ejected.
“I was very calm asking what happened, and whatever,” Cora said. “He threw me out. It happens, I guess.”
Cora concluded that he believed the hit was a fair ball, but not a home run — instead a double or triple hit off the side wall. His confusion with the strange add-on at Kauffman Stadium was shared by one of his players who once called the field his home.
“I never remember a ball being hit off of that,” Eric Hosmer, who spent the first seven years of his career with the Royals, said. “I never remember a ruling like that. So that was a new one for me, as well.”