Red Sox’s Alex Cora takes shot at Yankees’ Luis Severino

Red Sox manager Alex Cora takes shot at Yankees ace Luis Severino after Severino nearly hit Mookie Betts in the head with a fastball with the first pitch of a 4-1 loss to Boston on Friday night.

BOSTON — Red Sox manager Alex Cora used loud, colorful language with Luis Severino after the Yankees ace nearly clocked his star slugger, Mookie Betts, in the head with his first pitch of the game.

At night’s end, Cora opted for a weirdly worded dig at Severino.

Cora was asked if the bad blood between the Yankees and the Red Sox could spill into Saturday at Fenway Park for Game 3 of the series.

“I don’t know,” he said. “We scored four runs in less than six innings. Is that a quality start?”

Cora was referencing the performance of Severino, went just 5 2/3 innings and coughed up all four runs in the Yankees’ 4-1 loss on Friday.

A quality start is considered six innings of work while allowing no more than three runs.

Most hated Red Sox — ever

It all started in the game’s first at-bat.

Boston starter Rick Porcello hit Yankees leadoff man Brett Gardner on the elbow in an 0-2 count. Gardner looked displeased, to say the least, to get hit.

Then Severino went up and in on Betts with the game’s first pitch. It was a 96-mph fastball that put Betts on his back.

First base umpire Phil Cuzzi, the crew chief, issued warnings to both benches to prevent them continuing throwing at each other. If another pitcher did it, he would be automatically ejected.

Cora flipped out after the pitch to Betts, cursing at Severino. Then he went after plate umpire Adam Hamari.

Hamari tossed Cora, which caused the Boston skipper to go even more nuts. Cora appeared to push Hamari at one point, too.

While Severino told reporters he wasn’t trying to hit Betts, Cora wasn’t buying it.

“I know what I said,” Cora said. “I know I feel about it, and now they know how I feel about it. I don’t appreciate them throwing at Mookie Betts’ head. If they felt an 0-2, backdoor sinker had intent, well the first pitch of the game went right at the head of the best player in baseball. There’s intent. It is what it is. We won the game and we’ll move on.”