Alex Cora did everything Yankees fans despise about Aaron Boone in Game 2

When Aaron Boone, Master Communicator, was revealed to have texted Jazz Chisholm Jr. to let him know he wouldn't be starting Tuesday's Game 1, it set off scorned panic among Yankees fans. When Chisholm stared at a locker full of jackets while making his post-loss remarks, that anger calcified. When Luke Weaver's entrance after Max Fried's 102nd pitch was revealed to have been a pre-planned move (according to Michael Kay) because of the ideal lane, glasses were shattered across every household from Ronkonkoma to Mamaroneck.

"HOW many more World Series would the Yankees have won since 2018 if they had Alex Cora and Boston had Aaron Boone?!" was the common refrain. That screech became far more ironic only 24 hours later, when the Yankees won Game 2 in large part because of Cora's spot-on Boone impression. Now we're even.

Brayan Bello toed the rubber with a 1-0 series lead and all the anti-Yankees momentum in the world on Wednesday night in the Bronx. Bello is quite possibly the preeminent Yankee killer in the game today. Garrett Crochet is Cy Young no matter the opponent, and other elite aces handle the Yankees well, sure, but Bello raises his game specifically against them. He allowed a two-out home run in the first against Ben Rice — credit to the Yankees, they seem to have had Bello's pitches — and put two men on in the third inning of a tie game.

That's when Cora came with the hook.

Desperately trying to secure a series sweep to avoid the uncertainty of a Game 3? Acting quickly and breaking glass in case of emergency? That's so Cora. What amazing instincts.

Except ... that's actually not what happened. Cora had planned to pull Bello at the first sign of trouble before the game even began. Bello, as it turns out, had not been informed of that plan. Man. He could've at least texted him the night before!

Alex Cora's pregame plan was to pull Brayan Bello vs. Yankees. That's Aaron Boone's music!

Cora has long seemed to have the magic touch — against the Yankees in general, and every time he's reached the postseason. Silly moves, like using Nick Sogard and his .197 average vs. righties against Luke Weaver, tend to work out for the better. Cora can't be criticized if his every whim is smiled on favorably by the baseball gods. Why did Justin Wilson induce a 109 mph lineout from Ben Rice last night in a potentially game-changing AB? Who knows! Cora!

Using the entire bullpen — including Garrett Whitlock for nearly 50 pitches — by design might end up working out. But Cora's hope was clearly to finish things in two games instead of turning to inexperienced rookie Connelly Early with the season on the line, and a 'pen full of pitchers breathing heavily behind him.

After the game, Cora displayed another Boone tendency, proving once again that the Yankees aren't the only team that goes through this kind of thing. The Sox manager was told by the media that Nate Eaton could've scored on a hotshot up the middle corralled by Chisholm, followed by a throw that skipped away from Rice. He could've. Absolutely could've. Could've scored twice, actually.

Cora's thought? You're not down on the field. You wouldn't know. Only we have access to super secret baseball goggles that prove he wouldn't have scored.

Lie. Straight to their faces. Straight out of the Boone playbook.

Cora gets perceived to have a better feel for the game because his players deliver more often in big moments, and seem to have slower heartbeats. He deserves credit for cultivating that culture. But on Wednesday, he did everything that Yankee fans rage at Boone about and got bitten for it. Let's retire some of this mythmaking once and for all. Both men are modern managers. One's hunches have gotten paid off more often than the other's. And now, Game 3 will be for all the marbles. Nobody blink.