BOSTON -- Frustration boiled over for the Red Sox in the late innings of their 5-4 loss to the Yankees Wednesday night.
In the seventh, manager Bobby Valentine went out to lift reliever Alfredo Aceves, who had given up a two-run homer to Curtis Granderson to stretch the Yankees' lead.
Aceves, who blew up when he wasn't tabbed to close a game by Valentine nearly three weeks ago and received a three-game suspension from the team for his behavior, handed the ball to catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia instead of Valentine.
Then, with infielders gathered on the mound, Aceves walked around the back of the mound, seemingly to avoid Valentine, as he headed to the home dugout.
"Who cares if he showed me up?'' asked Valentine. "If I have to explain Aceves's actions, I'll end up going across the river and work for Harvard.''
"Tonight was a bad night -- that's it,'' said Aceves.
Aceves denied it was his intent to embarrass Valentine.
"I'm good,'' he said. "Ask (Valentine) if he's good.''
In the bottom of the eighth, tempers really flared.
Cody Ross, batting with two outs and a runner on second, took a called third strike from home plate umpire Alfonso Marquez. Ross erupted, was ejected almost immediately and had to be restrained by third base coach Jerry Royster --who was also ejected -- and Valentine.
"I didn't like the way that Cody got thrown out and called out on a pitch,'' said Valentine. "Cody was really upset. I was just doing everything I could do to keep Cody away from (Marquez). He should be upset. He was battling his butt off, representing the tying run and ends up getting called out.''
Valentine returned to the dugout and incurred the wrath of Marquez when he separated his hands a foot apart -- indicating how much the umpire had misjudged the pitch.
It was the sixth ejection of the season for Valentine, the most ever for a Red Sox player or manager in a single season.