Tuesday night’s 2-0 victory against the Mets at Fenway Park could prove to be one of the galvanizing moments of the season for the Red Sox.
On a night starting pitcher Walker Buehler and manager Alex Cora were ejected in the third inning, the Sox turned to a parade of six relievers to finish the game.
They combined to record 20 outs and allowed only one runner to reach third base as the 25-25 Sox won for the third time in four games.
“They were amazing,” Cora said.
Brennan Bernardino, Garrett Whitlock, Justin Wilson, Greg Weissert, Justin Slaten, and Aroldis Chapman followed Buehler to the mound.
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Whitlock (2-1) was the winner with Chapman earning his eighth save. Sox pitchers retired the final seven batters in order.
The Mets had four hits and were 0 for 7 with runners in scoring position.
The Sox had only five hits but two were home runs by Carlos Narváez and Rafael Devers in the fifth inning off Clay Holmes (5-3).
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The first four innings were scoreless but quite eventful.
With one out in the top of the third inning, Buehler hit Francisco Lindor with a pitch. With Juan Soto up, Lindor stole second on Buehler’s second pitch, which was clearly a strike before Narváez threw it to second trying to get Lindor. Umpire Mike Estabrook called it a ball.
Microphones picked up Buehler saying, “It’s right down the [expletive] middle.”
Estabrook shouted at Buehler to get back on the mound. The righthander was then ejected and walked off the field.
“He can say stuff from the mound. But once he comes off the mound, he’s leaving his position to argue balls and strikes,” crew chief Laz Diaz told a pool reporter.
“Once anybody leaves their position to argue balls and strikes, that’s an immediate ejection.”
Cora tried get between Buehler and Estabrook but the ejection came quickly.
“It looked like it was very aggressive, but he’s the umpire,” Cora said. “We have to respect that and he threw him out.”
Cora was then ejected. He stayed on the field and tried to get at Estabrook but was held back by Diaz.
Cora pushed against Diaz several times during a heated exchange.
“Alex Cora told [Estabrook] that he was bad,” Diaz said. “He didn’t use those words. But he used some words to get ejected so he got ejected.”
Buehler was activated off the injured list to make the start after being out 23 days with a sore shoulder and looked sharp.
With the Red Sox having used their bullpen for 4⅓ innings on Monday, Buehler acknowledged he should not have put himself in a position to be ejected.
“I’ve been in this league too long for that to happen,” he said. “For me personally, it’s one of those things that I’m very conflicted.
“You feel very convicted in what I felt and saw. But at the same time this is a team game and it was something I let get out of hand.”
It was Buehler’s second career ejection. The first was against the Mets in 2021 when he was with the Dodgers.
It was Cora’s first ejection this season and his 18th as a manager.
After he was ejected, Cora smacked the box that holds the bullpen phone in the dugout, knocking it off the wall.
“It hurt, too, by the way,” he said.
Bernardino replaced Buehler. Soto walked to put two runners on but the Mets didn’t score.
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The Sox broke through against Holmes in the third inning as Narváez and Devers hit solo home runs into the first row of the Monster Seats.
Holmes threw a sinker that was up and stayed over the inside corner. Narváez kept his hands inside the ball and drove it for his fifth home run.
“That was big, especially against Holmes,” said Narváez, who caught Holmes last season with the Yankees. “I just wanted to put the ball in play, get under it because it’s a big sinker. I’m glad that we had the Green Monster there.”
Devers’s homer was on a slider that stayed over the middle and he went the other way with it. It was his 10th home run of the season and No. 210 for his career.
Devers is tied with Rico Petrocelli for 10th in franchise history. Hall of Famer Jimmie Foxx is ninth with 222.
It was not a conventional win, but the Sox may be gaining some momentum.
“I feel like the kind of baseball we played the last two days is what we’re capable of and what we expect out of ourselves,” third baseman Alex Bregman said.
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