Tensions between the Red Sox and Yankees are once again bubbling at Fenway Park. In the top of the first inning, Rick Porcello drummed Yankees leadoff hitter Brett Gardner with a fastball on the elbow. In the bottom of the inning, Yankees starter Luis Severino responded by unleashing his first pitch of the game – a 95-miles-per-hour fastball – in the vicinity of the head of Mookie Betts. When home plate umpire Adam Hamari elected to issue warnings to both the Red Sox and Yankees, Sox manager Alex Cora ran to home plate to question the decision. Hamari immediately ejected Cora — the first forced departure of Cora’s managerial career – who then went on to speak with considerable animation to the umpire while also gesturing in the direction of the Yankees.<doc-sep>A second straight win over the Yankees , a 4-1 decision made easy by Rick Porcello’s complete-game, one-hit gem puts the Sox 7½ games ahead of their closest, most heated rival now. But on a night when Cora tried his best to pile the praise on his pitcher, it was the manager who made the loudest statement of all, standing up for his best player, sticking up for his entire team, and sticking it to the Yankees more than a little bit along the way. From dugout to ejection took about five seconds, just long enough for Alex Cora to get under the skin of home plate umpire Adam Hamari so deep the first-year manager would earn his first-ever early dismissal from a baseball game . Five seconds these Red Sox won’t soon forget, not as they continue to roll on in a historic season, not when they want to look back and remember that moment their leader went so public in their defense. To set the scene: One batter into the home half of the first inning and there was Cora, sprinting toward home plate, wildly objecting to the dual warnings Hamari had just issued to both benches, furious at the preemptive punishment for what he believed was a one-sided crime. Advertisement Mookie Betts (50) goes down as he ducks a high and inside pitch during the first inning. Barry Chin/Globe Staff Yes, Rick Porcello had hit Yankees leadoff hitter Brett Gardner in the top of the first inning. But that was on an 0-and-2 count with no conceivable message behind it. When Luis Severino answered in the bottom of the inning with a head-and-shoulders pitch to Sox leadoff hitter Mookie Betts, Cora was furious, caught on camera screaming obscenities at Severino, caught up in defending a player he would later describe as “the best player in baseball,” caught in a frenzy he admitted was “not polite,” was “out of character” and for which he would later apologize to his family, after getting a phone call from his daughter. Advertisement “I didn’t appreciate them throwing at my leadoff guy and I didn’t like the fact that they gave a warning,” Cora said. “If they felt that way, that that pitch had intent, just throw him out of the game. “I was upset at the whole situation. If they retaliated because we hit Brett Gardner on an 0-2 pitch that’s their problem. At the end we won the game, we move on, we’re going to show up tomorrow, we’re going to turn the page tonight, show up and play the game the way we do.” But this is Red Sox-Yankees, where moving on is never quite that easy, where tensions rise and emotions simmer, ready to boil over at any moment. Maybe Hamari was right to waste no time telling both sides to cut it out. But Cora felt equally justified wasting even less time voicing his anger, not simply to let the umpires or the Yankees know how he felt, but to let his players know he had their backs. Is it any coincidence the home team responded so quickly, using an Andrew Benintendi double and another Steve Pearce home run to take a 2-0 lead after three batters, using an Ian Kinsler walk and stolen base with an Eduardo Nunez blooper to add a third run before the inning was over? Advertisement Related: ‘It was like a dream come true’: Mookie Betts happily moves to second base “We definitely got emotional,” Porcello said. “More than anything it probably fired us up. We definitely didn’t take it lightly. We didn’t like it.” Porcello provided the strongest on-field case, but Betts’s surprise move to second base after the injury departure of Kinsler was additional evidence to how much this Sox team sticks together, how much it is ready to do whatever it takes to win, how much distance it is capable of putting between itself the nearest competitor. How much it follows the ethos of its leader, even when said leader is banished to an office watching the game on television, forced to leave the in-game machinations to bench coach Ron Roenicke. “He’s been our emotional leader the entire year, he is our leader,” Porcello said. “He reacted and we followed and tried to take care of business on the field after he got ejected.” First base umpire Phil Cuzzi holds back Alex Cora from home plate umpire Adam Hamari after Cora was ejected in the bottom of the first inning. Omar Rawlings/Getty Images I asked Cora if he thought his ejection fired up his team, and after a quick and decisive, “No. Nope,” I asked him why not. His answer seemed as much about the Yankees as it was about his Red Sox. “They’re ready to play every day,” he said. “They don’t need quotes, they don’t need a manager to be ejected, they don’t need a race to show up every day and play the game the right way. We don’t need to have team meetings to fire them up. They know where they’re at, they know what they’re doing, and on a nightly basis I can sleep well because I know my team is going to show up and play the right way.” Advertisement Shots fired. Because while Cora sat back and watched his well-oiled machine churn through yet another dominant nine innings, the Yankees faded further into the background, fighting a faltering pitching rotation, searching for consistent offensive production while big bats like Aaron Judge and Gary Sanchez sit idled by injury, forcing an early Friday night confrontation no one saw coming. “That was the first pitch of the game. I’m not going to hit anybody,” Severino insisted. “If I’m going to hit somebody, I’m not going to miss. I’m not trying to hit nobody. It was too close. “First pitch of the game, if I got a [expletive] warning, it’s going to be surprising, of course. I wasn’t trying to hit nobody. I know Mookie. Mookie is a great guy. If I’m going to hit somebody, I’m not going to throw at the head. That’s not right.” It sure didn’t sit right with Cora, who pulled the rare press conference walkoff by taking a parting shot at the Yankee ace. Asked if he thought this drama was over or whether it would carry into the weekend’s final two games, Cora said, “I don’t know,” before adding, “We scored four runs in less than six innings. Is that a quality start?” With that, he pushed back his chair and headed for the door. Statement made, loud and clear. Advertisement Alex Cora walks off the field after he was ejected during the first inning. Barry Chin/Globe Staff Tara Sullivan is a Globe columnist. She can be reached at tara.sullivan@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @Globe_Tara.<doc-sep>
BOSTON — Alex Cora was mad. Mad at the umpires for issuing warnings to both benches in the bottom of the first and mad at Luis Severino and the Yankees for what he felt was head-hunting. “I didn’t appreciate them throwing at my leadoff guy,” the Boston manager said after Severino threw up and in with Betts at the plate to lead off the game for the Red Sox. “I didn’t like the fact they gave a warning. If they felt that way, that the pitch had intent, just throw him out of the game. That’s it.” Instead, the Red Sox tagged Severino for four runs in 5 ²/₃ innings Friday in a 4-1 win, their second straight over the Yankees at Fenway Park. After Boston right-hander Rick Porcello hit Brett Gardner with a 0-2 pitch to lead off the top of the first, Severino immediately buzzed Betts. Severino said he didn’t do it on purpose: “The first pitch of the game, I’m not hitting anybody. If I’m going to hit somebody, I am not going to miss.” Cora, who was ejected and watched the rest of the game from the clubhouse, didn’t buy it. “They know how I feel about it,” Cora said. “If they felt [a] 0-2, front-door slider [to Gardner] had intent, well, the first pitch of the game, right at the head of the best player in baseball, there’s intent.” The pitch resulted in warnings being issued to both benches by first-base umpire Phil Cuzzi. That decision set off Cora, who charged at home-plate umpire Adam Hamari. Cora said he wasn’t “polite” about his displeasure and could be seen yelling — seemingly across the field at the Yankees. Betts said he thought Severino might have “missed his spot up and in.” Once play resumed, the Red Sox continued their dominance over the Yankees over the past two days. After Betts grounded out, Andrew Benintendi hit a ground-rule double and Steve Pearce — who homered three times in Thursday’s blowout win for the Red Sox — took Severino deep to give Boston a 2-0 lead in the first. The two teams brawled in April, when Boston right-hander Joe Kelly retaliated for a Tyler Austin high slide into second base by drilling him. Both players were suspended. Austin was traded to the Twins in the deal that brought Lance Lynn to the Yankees before Tuesday’s non-waiver trade deadline. There were no fights this time around, as Aaron Boone and Gardner said they didn’t believe Porcello threw at him intentionally. Still, it made for a few tense moments in the first. “It definitely got emotional,’’ Porcello said. “I think more than anything, it fired us up. … It’s more important for us to win ball games than to play in a beanball war.” Asked if it was over between the teams, Cora instead seemingly took a shot at Severino: “I don’t know. We scored four runs in less than six innings [against Severino]. Is that a quality start?”