SAD NEWS: Boston Red Sox manager Alex Cora puts OF Alex Verdugo back in lineup day after benching
BOSTON (AP) — Red Sox outfielder Alex Verdugo returned to the starting lineup for Sunday’s game against Toronto, a day after he was benched by manager Alex Cora.
“Hopefully we learned as a group from what happened yesterday and that’s the reason that we did it,” Cora said before the Red Sox lost the series finale to the Blue Jays, 13-1. “It was my decision not to play him and I have my reasons and we’ll leave it at that.”
On Sunday, Verdugo went 3 for 4 with three singles and made a nice running catch on Matt Chapman’s fly ball near the Pesky Pole in the fourth inning.
On Saturday, the Red Sox scratched Verdugo about two hours before their 5-4 loss to the Blue Jays. No reason was given during the game. He was replaced in the lineup by Adam Duvall.
Following the game, Cora said: “We took a step back as a team. We have to make sure everybody’s available every single day here for us to get to wherever we’re going to go. And that wasn’t the case. … I’ve got to take charge of this and decided he wasn’t going to play.”
