{"id":42870,"date":"2025-05-21T04:10:10","date_gmt":"2025-05-21T04:10:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/42870\/"},"modified":"2025-05-21T04:10:10","modified_gmt":"2025-05-21T04:10:10","slug":"walker-buehler-alex-cora-reflect-on-double-ejection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/42870\/","title":{"rendered":"Walker Buehler, Alex Cora Reflect On Double Ejection"},"content":{"rendered":"

BOSTON \u2014 Red Sox pitcher Walker Buehler and manager Alex Cora were front and center for the most chaotic moment<\/a> of the season, thus far, during Tuesday night\u2019s 2-0 victory over the Mets at Fenway Park. <\/p>\n

Buehler was activated from the 15-day injured list and returned to the mound for the first time since April 26. The team was hoping he\u2019d log a quality start to get back in rhythm, but in the third inning, all hell broke loose with home plate umpire Mike Estabrook, who partook in a shouting match with Buehler<\/a> before ejecting the 30-year-old.<\/p>\n

The pitch in question was a clear-as-day missed strike call<\/a>, thrown just before Red Sox catcher Carlos Narv\u00e1ez gathered in an attempt to gun down New York\u2019s Francisco Lindor, stealing second base. Buehler offered some choice words, Estabrook fired back and Cora, too, got tossed trying to defend Buehler. <\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, I put (the bullpen) in a really tough spot off of a day that we asked a lot out of them, so I\u2019ve been in this league too long for that to happen,\u201d Buehler said. \u201cFor me personally, it\u2019s one of those things that you\u2019re very conflicted in how you feel, very convicted in what I felt and saw. But at the same time, this is a team game and something I let get out of hand, and personally, that\u2019s the dissapointing part of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

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It wasn\u2019t the ideal situation for the Red Sox to navigate. Just 24 hours ago, bench coach Ram\u00f3n V\u00e1zquez filled in<\/a> for Cora as the team\u2019s acting manager, and four relief pitchers logged appearances to help snag a series-opening win. This time, six bullpen arms contributed \u2014 Brennan Bernardino, Garrett Whitlock, Justin Wilson, Greg Weissert, Justin Slaten and Aroldis Chapman \u2014 to seal the deal. <\/p>\n

Granted, the Red Sox had no other choice. With Buehler gone early, the team had to turn to its bullpen crew, and for the second straight instance against the Mets, Boston\u2019s relief arms delivered. The six-man unit held New York\u2019s offense, which ranks seventh in MLB in slugging percentage (.412), scoreless. Lindor, Juan Soto and Pete Alonso combined to go 2-for-10, and the Mets only mustered up four hits in total. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Cora, too, had just returned from a brief one-day absence<\/a> to attend his daughter Camila\u2019s graduation from Boston College on Monday night, and the seven-year skipper had already gotten thrown into the fire of a tense situation. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was weird, they were going back and forth,\u201d Cora said. \u201cI don\u2019t know what the exchange was, but I\u2019ve been doing this for a few years. I was begging just to give him a break, like, \u2018I\u2019ll go out and you can throw me out, just keep the pitcher in the game.\u2019 But I guess (Estabrook) had enough. I don\u2019t know why. At that point, I had to go too. But initially it was a good day for us without me, so I decided to do it again.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Cora continued: \u201cI don\u2019t want to make excuses, but it looked very aggressive. But he\u2019s the umpire. We have to respect that and move on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ultimately, the Red Sox did their job despite the untimely circumstances that arose. Boston will go for the series sweep on Wednesday night before hosting the division-rival Baltimore Orioles for a four-game series to close out the homestand. <\/p>\n

Here are more notes from Tuesday night\u2019s Red Sox-Mets game:<\/p>\n

\u2014 When asked about the confrontation with Estabrook, Buehler refrained from getting into the specifics and further expressed regret for the entire feud. <\/p>\n

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\u201cI\u2019m not gonna talk about what he did or didn\u2019t do,\u201d Buehler said. \u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s my place obviously. Those guys don\u2019t get interviewed and we do. So I\u2019m not gonna talk about this side of it. It kind of spiraled a little bit, and I said some things that I probably shouldn\u2019t have and whatnot. At the end of the day, putting our team in a position like that is the only thing that really hurt that situation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014 Cora unintentionally broke the team\u2019s bullpen phone in the dugout, which pitcher Tanner Houck used as a rally prop<\/a> to help energize the group. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt hurt, too, by the way,\u201d Cora mentioned. <\/p>\n

\u2014 Red Sox catcher Carlos Narv\u00e1ez did everything to intervene midway through the third-inning madness, but both Buehler and Estabrook were adamant about where they stood. <\/p>\n

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\u201cThat was so quick. I ran to the mound, trying to get Buehler to calm down a little bit,\u201d Narv\u00e1ez recalled. \u201c\u2026 I saw the pitch, it was in the strike zone. I was in motion to throw to second, so probably the umpire didn\u2019t see really good.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014 Rafael Devers and Narv\u00e1ez both belted solo home runs, pushing the Red Sox to 51 round-trippers hit across their last 34 games. That\u2019s the second-most in MLB through that span, right behind the New York Yankees (54). <\/p>\n

\u2014 Cora notched his 18th career ejection as a manager, the first since 2024, and Buehler tallied his second, the first since 2021 (also against the Mets). <\/p>\n

\u2014 Boston improved to 25-25 with the victory. <\/p>\n

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\u2014 The Red Sox will look to go three-for-three in Wednesday night\u2019s series finale with the Mets. First pitch from Fenway Park is scheduled for 6:45 p.m. ET, and you can catch the game, plus an hour of pregame coverage, live on NESN. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BOSTON \u2014 Red Sox pitcher Walker Buehler and manager Alex Cora were front and center for the most…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":42871,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2375],"tags":[858,5,141,48,2542,4,89,2543,115],"class_list":{"0":"post-42870","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boston-red-sox","8":"tag-alex-cora","9":"tag-baseball","10":"tag-boston","11":"tag-boston-red-sox","12":"tag-bostonredsox","13":"tag-mlb","14":"tag-red-sox","15":"tag-redsox","16":"tag-walker-buehler"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/114543869075753832","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42870","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42870"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42870\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42871"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}