The Red Sox endured a difficult day on Saturday, losing on a brutal double play to the division-rival Blue Jays when they had the winning run at the plate. However, the troubles went further than that, as manager Alex Cora benched outfielder Alex Verdugo despite the importance of the game.
At Cora’s postgame press conference, he declined to explain why he benched Verdugo, but MLB.com’s Ian Browne reported that Verdugo arrived late to the ballpark. Still, without specifically naming Verdugo, Cora did explain in a rant that the entire team needs to be more focused moving forward.
“Today, we took a step back as a team,” Cora said. “We have to make sure everybody is available every single day here for us to get to wherever we’ve got to go, and that wasn’t the case. As a manager, I’ve got to take charge of this. I decided he wasn’t gonna play.”
