NEW YORK -- Roughly 13 hours had passed since his team¡¯s most recent devastating loss, but Red Sox manager Alex Cora refused to be defeated as he spoke to the media on Saturday morning.

¡°The season has been over like 15 times [for us] this season, and we're still there, right? So I wouldn't be surprised if we come here and put [together] a good game against Gerrit [Cole] and win the game,¡± said Cora.

While Cora proved to be prophetic, as his team knocked Cole out by the fifth inning in a 7-1 victory at Yankee Stadium, not even Nostradamus could have predicted the recipe for the in-game demise of the Yankees¡¯ ace or the way hostility would resurface between the rivals for the first time in a while.

The Red Sox had sent the minimum of 10 batters to the plate when Rafael Devers stepped up with nobody on and one out in the top of the fourth, his team down by a run.

It was then that Cole stunningly held up four fingers, signaling for the intentional walk of Devers, who has tormented him through the years.

Despite Devers coming into the game with eight homers in 39 at-bats against Cole, it was a most unusual time for a free pass.

And it made the Red Sox think more about Devers getting drilled by Cole on the second pitch of his first at-bat.

¡°He doesn¡¯t want to face him,¡± said Cora. ¡°That's the bottom line. You know, he told us with the intentional walk that the first at-bat, he hit him [on purpose]. They can say whatever they want. The intentional walk [made it] loud and clear that he didn¡¯t want to face him. So the second pitch of the game against Raffy, you see it. I¡¯m not going to back off. It was intentional.¡±

The whole sequence of events with the first two plate appearances for Devers seemed to fire up the Red Sox, who made Cole pay for the conservative approach with the star slugger. Boston scored three in the fourth after the walk to Devers and another four in the fifth to knock the ace out of the game.

¡°He only knows what happened out there,¡± Devers said. ¡°I just go out there and try to do the best and give the best I can. But at the same time, I know how he feels about me, and that¡¯s something that makes me proud and happy.¡±

¡°I didn't throw at Devers in the first inning,¡± said Cole. ¡°He can believe what he wants to believe. I didn't hit him on purpose.¡±

But why the intentional walk at such an odd point of the game?

¡°We had discussed the days prior to and during the game strategically walking him because of the past success that he's had,¡± said Cole.

In the game-breaking fifth, Devers finally got the chance to hit his way on base. With the bases loaded, Devers hammered a 100.4 mph, two-run single that nearly split the gap in right-center.

As for the resurfacing hostilities, in the bottom of the sixth, starter Brayan Bello threw a 97.4 mph sinker that went behind slugger Aaron Judge and nearly hit him on his back leg.

¡°If there's any question, we¡¯ve got to err on the side of protecting our guy for sure, and Raffy is the cornerstone of this organization, and we all know the history between the matchup, so we just want to take the precautions necessary in terms of protecting our guy,¡± said Triston Casas, talking in generalities and not specifically about the Bello-Judge encounter in the sixth.

Bello did his job, outdueling Cole by a wide margin by holding the Yankees to one run over 5 1/3 innings. What did he think about the intentional walk?

¡°I don¡¯t know what to tell you,¡± Bello said. ¡°I feel like he showed a lot of weakness in that move.¡±

With a win they badly needed, the Red Sox are 3 1/2 games behind the Twins for the third American League Wild Card spot with 13 games left, though the Tigers and Mariners are both 2 1/2 back of the Twins.

The Red Sox will try to turn the emotional win into momentum -- which they¡¯ve lacked since the All-Star break. The first step will be to take Sunday¡¯s finale at Yankee Stadium to salvage a split of the four-game rivalry series.