Red Sox

Carlos Correa on Eduardo Rodriguez’s celebration toward him: ‘I loved it personally’

"You need to let the players have fun."

By Conor Roche

October 19, 2021

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When Carlos Correa hit the go-ahead home run in Game 1 of the ALCS, he pointed at his wrist and declared, “It’s my time.”

Since the first inning of Game 2, it’s been the Red Sox’ time. Boston won Game 3 on Monday 12-3, two days after winning Game 2 by a score of 9-5.

One of the big reasons for the Red Sox’ win on Monday was starting pitcher Eduardo Rodriguez. The lefty gave up three runs on five hits, no walks, and seven strikeouts over six innings in Game 3. The final hitter he put out on Monday was Correa, and with the Sox up 9-3 at the time, Rodriguez pointed at his wrist and looked at Correa.

Red Sox manager Alex Cora was visibly upset by Rodriguez’s gesture, yelling “No! No!” from the dugout as Rodriguez walked off the mound. Correa actually felt the opposite about Rodriguez’s celebration.

“He did my celebration. I thought it was kind of cool,” Correa said with a smile while talking to reporters. “It’s just the way baseball should trend going forward. We talk about making baseball fun. We talk about making baseball growing and more people watching the sport — you do things like that, you need to let the players have fun. I loved it personally.

After showing his appreciation for Rodriguez for his celebration, Correa called for more players to show their emotion on their sleeves and for people to be more accepting of that.

“I think the game should move in that direction, where you can show emotions and be yourself and can keep it real,” Correa said. “I know in the media, you ask me questions, I keep it real all the time and I say how it is. There’s a lot of fakeness out there and the cliche answers that you get. I feel like players should be more real. I feel players should be able to express themselves and have fun. I loved every single bit of it.”

Correa also tipped his cap to Rodriguez for his all-around performance on Monday.

“He pitched a great game,” Correa said. “He threw six innings, struck out seven. I mean, he was nasty. His fastball coming out was great. Whenever you have a great performance like that, against the No. 1 offensive team in the whole season, you can do whatever you want. And you should have fun with it.”

Correa didn’t have a good day at the plate on Monday, going 0-for-4 with a strikeout in the Astros’ loss.