Aaron Boone leads the American League managers with six ejections this season. His latest, which took place during Monday night's 5-1 loss to the Chicago White Sox, was his most entertaining one yet.
The New York Yankees skipper took issue with a called third strike on rookie shortstop Anthony Volpe in the eighth inning. He berated home plate umpire Laz Diaz while drawing a line in the dirt and mocking Diaz's strike call.
You can watch the entire sequence below:
Boston Red Sox manager Alex Cora got a kick out of his former ESPN colleague's antics. Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, he revealed that he called Boone and the two shared a laugh about the incident.
“I talked to him today,” Cora said, per MassLive.com's Sean McAdam. “I can’t...I get upset and all that (with umpires), but he’s so good at that, you know, the impersonations...He’s awesome, he’s awesome. That was really good. I told him the hips were really good. He got it right. He friggin’ got it right. I’d call Mike (Hill, senior vice president of on-field operations for MLB) and I’ll probably pay half the fine. ‘We got it, we got it.’
“(Boone) was embarrassed. The thing is, you have kids. In my situation, if I do something like that, my daughter is 20....yeah. And by the way, it was a strike. I don’t know what (Boone) was complaining about. That was good, that was good.”
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While Boone unloaded on Diaz, Cora was on the right side of a controversial call in Boston's dramatic win over the Kansas City Royals. With two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning, Red Sox second baseman Luis Urias walked to load the bases after a checked swing that should have resulted in an inning-ending strikeout. Instead, Pablo Reyes stepped up to the plate next and belted a walk-off grand slam.
Both the Red Sox and Yankees are fighting to stay in the playoff conversation with less than two months left in the regular season. Boston enters Tuesday night five games behind the Toronto Blue Jays for the third American League wild-card spot. New York is 5.5 games back.
The Red Sox will visit the Yankees for a three-game series in the Bronx starting on Aug. 18.
