Brett Gardner gave Red Sox extra motivation with Alex Cora dig

Brett Gardner may have given the Red Sox extra ammunition this weekend.

Before the series, the Yankees’ veteran outfielder said seeing Alex Cora in the opposing dugout made him want to beat Boston even more, following Cora’s suspension for his involvement in the Astros’ sign-stealing scandal.

The Red Sox heard that comment, even if Gardner would later add he was “halfway joking.”

“Obviously, Gardner said a couple of words before the series started. It kind of got us fueled up a little more,” Xander Bogaerts said on ESPN after his two-run, 10th-inning single capped Boston’s first sweep in The Bronx in a decade.

Later, over Zoom, Bogaerts seemed to step away from that comment somewhat.

“I think we were talking about it a little bit,” Bogaerts said. “Pretty much before we came here. I think that’s when it came out. But once we were here, it wasn’t much of that like, ‘Hey, we’ve got to win tonight because he said this or said that.’ It wasn’t any of that. As soon as it came out I was like, ‘Aw. All right.’ “

Gardner is hitting .190 this season with one home run and four RBIs in 126 at-bats.