NEW YORK – Trying in vain to defeat longtime tormenter Rafael Devers on Saturday afternoon, Gerrit Cole opted for a similar strategy to that of the St. Louis Cardinals against David Ortiz in Game 6 of the 2013 World Series: Don’t pitch to him.

Ortiz hit .733 with a 2.017 OPS over the first five games of that Fall Classic, so by Game 6, the Cardinals threw in the towel and intentionally-walked him three times. The cowardly gambit – though who could really blame them? – didn’t pay off: though hitless, Ortiz drew a fourth walk, scored twice, and the Red Sox won their third championship in a decade.

Cole found himself on the losing end of a similar battle with Devers, who entered the day hitting .333 with a 1.370 OPS and eight home runs (five more than any other pitcher he’s faced) in 39 career regular-season at-bats. And in front of a sold-out crowd, the Red Sox feasted on the reigning AL Cy Young, knocked him out after 4 ⅓ innings, and won 7-1.

It began with a plunk. With one out in the top of the first, Cole hit Devers on the second pitch, a 91.2 mph cutter. Of all the ways the Red Sox third baseman had gotten on base against the right-hander over the years, this was a new one.

The second time Devers came to the plate, with one out and the bases empty in the top of the fourth, Cole dispensed with pitching altogether. Raising his throwing arm in the air, he put four fingers out and waved towards first base.

For a moment the Red Sox slugger looked confused, and rightfully so: he’d just become the first Red Sox batter to be intentionally-walked with the bases empty since David Ortiz in 2016.

“He caught me by surprise,” Devers said via translator Carlos Villoria Benitez. “I didn’t expect that from a future Hall of Famer, and I feel like he, to say it some way, panicked a little bit.”

It was a perplexing move on Cole’s part for several reasons. At the time, the Yankees had a 1-0 advantage, and Cole was 3 ⅓ innings into a no-hit bid; after hitting Devers in the first, he’d retired the subsequent eight batters. It was also out-of-character for the righty, who hadn’t intentionally walked anyone in just over seven years (Sept. 12, 2017), and had only done so six times in his career. And despite the unceasing damage – including homering and collecting his 1,000th career hit off him back in July – Cole has sung Devers’ praises in the past, even famously telling reporters that the slugger deserved a $300 million contract months before the Red Sox gave him to the first one in franchise history.

“We really didn’t know if (the hit) was intentional or not,” said first baseman Triston Casas. “The next at-bat being an intentional walk with nobody on was suspicious, to say the least, in terms of the intention of the first at-bat.”

“Everybody knew what happened,” Devers said diplomatically.

“Definitely wasn’t throwing at him,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone told reporters. “Raffy was right on the line, and he threw a cutter trying to get it in there, and didn’t. I don’t think there was any intent from Gerrit there. … We’re not playing that kind of game.”

His rival manager, however, was heated, adamant, and said he “wasn’t surprised at all” by the hit.

“It felt like the first at-bat, he hit on purpose,” said Alex Cora. “He doesn’t want to face him, that’s the bottom line. He told us with the intentional walk that the first at-bat he hit him. He hit him, and we leave it at that. … We took exception to that because he was loud and clear that he didn’t want to face him.”

“We had discussed, in the days prior to and during the game, strategically walking him because of the past success that he’s had,” Cole told reporters. “We were in the tunnel before the inning and had discussed that if (Jarren) Duran was retired, were we going to stick to aggressively, intentionally walk him, and that was the plan. And then during the inning, I looked to the dugout and stuck with the plan.”

Boone, however, said he would’ve preferred Cole not intentionally walk Devers in that spot, and described his starter as “a little over-thinking.”

Like every other route Cole has taken in his quest to emerge victorious over Devers, the intentional walk didn’t pay off. Devers promptly stole second base, then came around to score the tying run on Masataka Yoshida’s ground-rule double. The Red Sox took a 3-1 lead on Wilyer Abreu’s two-run single before Cole could get out of the fourth.

In the fifth, Cole set himself up for disaster. Trevor Story led off with a single and stole second, and Danny Jansen followed with a walk. After getting Enmanuel Valdez to fly out, Cole hit Duran, loading the bases for none other than his worst nightmare.

This time, rather than walking Devers to force in a run, Cole pitched to him. Devers singled to right-center, bringing another two runs home to make it 5-1.

“I saw the opportunity and I took it,” Devers said of the stolen base, his third of the season. “I was happy to be able to come through for the team, but at the same time I wanted to do a little bit more damage.”

With Devers on first and Duran on third, Cole walked Tyler O’Neill to reload the diamond. For the second inning in a row, Yoshida came through, singling to score another pair.

Powerless to stem the tide, Cole’s afternoon was over after 4 ⅓ innings. He’d allowed seven earned runs on five hits, issued three walks, hit three batters, and struck out two on 68 pitches, 38 for strikes. Four of the runs were Devers-related; he’d scored twice and driven in a pair.

Not only was it Cole’s worst start of the season, but one of the worst of his career: a new season-high runs allowed, earned or otherwise, and his first time ever hitting three batters in a game (he’d only hit three total this season). In Cole’s final moments on the field, his own fans showered him with boos.

The Red Sox tallied nine hits, four walks, and only struck out five times. They were 4-for-7 with runners in scoring position and left five men on base. Yoshida and Story contributed multiple hits, including Story’s first 3-hit game since before his early-April injury.

After the chaos atop the fifth inning, neither team scored again. Brayan Bello gave them 5 ⅓ innings of one-run ball, holding the Yankees to four hits, two walks, and striking out two. Bailey Horn, Josh Winckowski, Zach Penrod – making his Major League debut – and Greg Weissert pitched the rest of the way.

“It was an OK game from the mound,” Cora said, noting that the arms didn’t throw many strikes. “Bello was on and off, but he did an outstanding job giving us a chance.”

Bello, too, weighed in on the Cole drama, saying the rival starter “showed a lot of weakness.”

There will be no sweep for the Yankees in the Bronx this weekend, and the Red Sox are a winning team once again, now 75-74. As to whether Saturday’s game will carry over into the series finale Sunday afternoon, both managers seemed to be in agreement.

“We don’t want to hit people on purpose,” Cora said. “We want the best players to be playing every single day out there. I want Aaron Judge to be out there every single (game), regardless of what he does against us. That’s where our sport is at its best.”

Even so, the Sox skipper wasn’t ready to back down.

“Raffy got hit, you know. They can say whatever they want, but the intentional walk was loud and clear: I don’t want to face him,” Cora said. “It was intentional! I’m not gonna back off, it was intentional.”

Whereas Cora was incensed, Devers was calm and jovial.

“This is the type of baseball that I like, I’m never gonna be angry,” the slugger said. “This is a type of baseball that is not being played anymore, so for me to be back in that situation, it just gets me excited. … I feel like everybody, somebody got hit by pitch, they start a brawl, screaming, all that, they don’t know how to take it.”

“I know also how he feels about me, and that’s something that makes me proud and happy,” said Devers.

He has lived, as fans like to say, “rent-free” in Cole’s head for some time. It was evident in what YES Network identified as the earliest bases-empty IBB ever issued by a Yankees pitcher.

And it was clear days before the Red Sox even arrived in the Bronx; on Hispanic Heritage Day, Cole was asked which Latin hitter has given him the most trouble in his career.

“Rafael Devers.”