Aaron Judge receives massive compliment from Red Sox manager Alex Cora (Image source - Getty)Aaron Judge receives massive compliment from Red Sox manager Alex Cora (Image source – Getty)

The New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox share one of the biggest, if not the biggest, rivalries in baseball. While rival fans and players don’t often see eye to eye, the Red Sox manager had a massive compliment for Yankees captain Aaron Judge.

In the latest episode of “The Mayor’s Office with Sean Casey,” the Red Sox manager talked about Aaron Judge’s humility while discussing the best pull hitters in the game.

Cora mentioned former Red Sox great Manny Ramirez’s ability to pull at Fenway Park and a similar strategy employed by Judge at the ballpark.

He said (19:20 onwards)

“I remember Manny Ramirez saying that the wall was his friend. It’s not the wall I’m going toward, now my wall is my friend….Now talking to you about guys like Aaron Judge and other players have talked about him. I’ve heard all he is trying to do is hit a line drive over the second baseman.”

He continued:

“Last year was the first year we actually interacted and what a great guy, what a humble guy. He understands who he is in this game, there’s a presence but very humble, good guy. Coming back to hitting, it seems like anything soft in the zone is going to hit it out of the ballpark especially at Fenway.”

Aaron Judge had a remarkable 2024 as the Yankees captain claimed a second AL MVP title after a 58-home-run campaign. Out of his 58 homers, one of the biggest came against the Red Sox at Fenway in July when he smoked a 470-foot home run, the fourth-longest hit at Fenway, per Statcast.

Alex Cora was surrounded in controversy after hinting intentional pitch at Aaron Judge

The Red Sox-Yankees rivalry made headlines after Alex Cora’s comment hinted that the Red Sox intentionally tried to hit the Yankees captain. During a game in September, Yankees ace Gerrit Cole drilled Rafael Devers with a pitch in the first inning and Red Sox’s Bryan Bello threw a pitch behind Aaron Judge in the sixth.

The two incidents seemed connected after Alex Cora said they had their chance (seemingly referring to the pitch at Judge).

“It was closed [Saturday] around the sixth inning,” he answered after losing the series finale a day later. “We had our chance. It didn’t happen.”

The Red Sox manager’s comment sparked controversy with a potential disciplinary action from MLB. However, no action was taken on Alex Cora after a reported investigation.