HOUSTON — The Boston Red Sox beat the Baltimore Orioles 17-1 on Saturday afternoon. It was their most dominant win of the season. Their ace Garrett Crochet was sharp. The offense finally showed up. A 10-run ninth inning put the game completely out of reach.
Alex Cora walked off the field in Baltimore after the final out and said what any manager would say after a blowout win. “That’s baseball, man. It’s unreal.”
Hours later, he was fired.
The Red Sox let Cora go on Saturday night along with five members of his coaching staff. The announcement hit the baseball world like a thunderbolt. One of the longest-tenured managers in the game, gone just 27 games into the season, moments after a 16-run victory.
Aaron Boone heard the news from Houston. He had just finished managing the Yankees to their eighth straight win. He did not hide his reaction.
Boone is ‘very shocked’
Boone and Cora have gone head to head for years across one of baseball’s most heated rivalries. They faced each other this past week when the Yankees swept the Red Sox in three games at Fenway Park. Last October, the Yankees eliminated Cora’s Red Sox in the wild-card round. The two managers know each other well.
When a reporter in Houston told Boone about the firing Saturday night, the Yankees manager did not pretend to see it coming. He said he lacked full details but spoke honestly about what he knew.
“I don’t know many details,” Boone said, via the YES Network. “Very shocked.”
He then shifted to what he thought of Cora as a manager and as a person. His assessment was clear.
“I have a feeling he’ll do whatever he wants,” Boone said. “He’s a great manager. Smart, talented person, that I’m sure will have a lot of opportunities available to him.”
What the Red Sox fired and why
Along with Cora, the Red Sox dismissed five coaches: hitting coach Peter Fatse, bench coach Ramon Vazquez, third-base coach Kyle Hudson, assistant hitting coach Dillon Lawson, and major league hitting strategy coach Joe Cronin. Game planning and run prevention coach Jason Varitek was not fired but was reassigned to a new role within the organization, with details to be announced later.
Triple-A Worcester manager Chad Tracy, 40, was named interim manager. Tracy has managed in the Red Sox minor league system since 2022 and is familiar with many of the team’s young players. His father, Jim Tracy, managed in the major leagues for 11 seasons with the Dodgers, Pirates, and Rockies. Chad Epperson from Double-A Portland was named interim third-base coach. Worcester hitting coach Collin Hetzler joined the major league staff.
The timing shocked the sport. Saturday’s 16-run winning margin stands as the largest in any major league manager’s final game with a team in the Modern Era, since 1900, per the Elias Sports Bureau.
Red Sox owner John Henry issued a statement. He thanked Cora for what he called one of the greatest seasons in franchise history in 2018 and acknowledged how hard the decision was. “These decisions are never easy, but this one is especially difficult given what Alex has meant to the Red Sox since the day he arrived,” Henry said.
Cora’s record and what went wrong in 2026
Cora managed the Red Sox in parts of eight seasons across two stints. He was fired before the 2020 season for his role in the Astros’ 2017 sign-stealing scandal, served a one-year suspension, and came back. His final record with Boston: 620-541, third in franchise history behind Joe Cronin and Terry Francona.
His 2018 team went 108-50 and beat the Dodgers in five games to win the World Series. He reached the ALCS in 2021. He returned Boston to the postseason in 2025, where the Yankees eliminated the Red Sox in the wild-card round.
But 2026 went badly from the start. Red Sox hitters batted .226/.306/.335 through 26 games, dead last in the majors in wRC+ at 78. Crochet posted a 7.88 ERA through five starts. Bello had a 9.00 ERA. Roman Anthony had a .686 OPS. The Yankees were 18-9. Boston was 10-17. The division gap was 8.5 games.
The broader fallout from the firing
This was the first in-season managerial change under John Henry’s ownership, which began in 2002. The last time the Red Sox changed managers during a season was August 2000, when Jimy Williams was dismissed.
Reaction across baseball was swift. Newsday Yankees beat reporter Erik Boland wrote that Cora is considered across the industry to be far better at his job than Red Sox chief baseball officer Craig Breslow, and that it was not remotely close. Author Stephen King, a well-known Red Sox fan, posted that instead of firing the manager, Boston might consider firing the whole team.
Breslow, who assembled the 2026 roster and designed the club’s run-prevention strategy, was not part of the shakeup. He remains in place. That decision drew its own criticism.
The Yankees swept the Red Sox this week at Fenway. The Yankees beat them in October. And on Saturday night in Houston, the Yankees’ manager stood in the visiting clubhouse and said he was very shocked by what had just happened to his rival.
Cora was not available for comment Saturday night. His era in Boston is over. The Yankees lead the AL East by 8.5 games.
What do you think about Cora’s Red Sox tenure?
