Alex Cora does not believe he earned ejection in Kansas City

BOSTON -- There are only a few things in baseball that will get a manager automatically thrown out of a game. Arguing balls and strikes is one of them, and arguing a decision made via replay review in New York would certainly be another.

Yet on Thursday night, when Alex Cora went out to the field to get an extended explanation from home plate umpire and crew chief Bill Welke, the Red Sox' manager wasn't arguing, per se. As such, he was left a little bewildered as to why he was sent to the clubhouse in the bottom of the seventh inning.

"I don't want to get into that. I don't think I deserved to be thrown out in that one," Cora said after the 7-3 loss to the Royals, per NESN. "I was very calmly asking what happened and whatever, he threw me out. It happens, I guess."

The ejection came after Salvador Perez hit a ball into the green pad at the base of the left field foul pole at Kauffman Stadium.

Replay showed that the ball hit the green pad at the base of the pole, a pad which essentially served to fill the gap between the outfield fence and a smaller fence in front of the fans in the front row. But the replay office in New York didn't quite see it that clearly, ruling to stick with the call on the field.

After Welke announced that the call on the field had been upheld, Cora walked calmly on to the field and asked for an explanation. Shortly thereafter, he was thrown out of the game.

"We all thought it was going to be overturned, that they were gonna place runners somewhere where they scored two and Salvy's at second," Cora said. "In our eyes and in the replay, I think we saw it was, the ball was in the ballpark and alive in play."