John Farrell and Wade Miley have downplayed the heated exchange that took place between them in the fourth inning Thursday night.

Miley went nose to nose with the manager, then waved him off as Farrell followed him down the tunnel to the clubhouse.

Both men said the cause of the argument was Farrell's decision to lift the left-hander after the fourth inning. Miley had allowed runs in each of the four innings he had pitched on a yield of nine hits, including three home runs.

"Oh, he's a competitor," Farrell said after the game. "You work four days for your start. He doesn't want to come out of the ballgame, and I fully respect that. I thought he had good stuff overall, but where we were on the scoreboard, [I] felt we needed a change in contrast, a change in style, and took him out."

The confrontation was caught on camera by NESN.

"Between me and John," Miley first said when asked about the incident. "It is what it is."

Asked whether there was more involved than being removed from the game, Miley said, "No. It's over. Everything that happened is over. You want to talk about the game, we can talk about the game."