Sonny Gray and Willson Contreras didn’t hide their frustration after Game 2, and both made it clear they weren’t buying the logic behind Boston’s choices in a Yankees beatdown that ended the Red Sox’ run.
Gray, who was once a headache at Yankee Stadium after arriving in 2017, looked sharp and in control over 70 pitches. He wasn’t able to get through five innings, but he appeared positioned to keep going deeper before manager Chad Tracy went to banged-up deadline lefty Erik Miller. Gray didn’t like that call one bit.
"I'm the best pitcher in the American League going through the order for a third time. I think that's a fact.
I would've liked to live or die with me in that moment...ask the guys in here if they felt the same way. I felt strong, confident."
Gray also was asked whether Boston would ever be a place he’d consider returning to as a free agent. His answer was short: "I don't know." The moment carried extra weight given that he has hinted at retirement before, and after watching Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer get storybook sendoffs, he was pulled at 70 pitches in a playoff game at the ballpark he dislikes most.
Contreras, meanwhile, went after the larger process behind the decision-making. He first responded to the hook with a zipped-lips gesture, then launched into a pointed critique of how data gets used.
"It's not enough when you have talent, or you have data, or computers that are telling you what to do. This is baseball. The data is here to help us...but you need experience and to bet on the guys to win games."
Boston’s move to Miller backfired quickly. Miller, who has struggled since the deadline, gave up the second Yankees run for the second straight day.
Contreras had earlier homered in the sixth to cut the deficit in half, then later set up on the wrong side of first base to take a throw from Adley Rutschman. After that, a swinging Spencer Jones strikeout opened the floodgates, and the Yankees piled on from there.
The bigger picture around the Red Sox is just as ugly. The club stayed committed to Tracy and Craig Breslow this season after a 32-5 run that may have masked deeper tension and disagreement inside the operation.
That stretch helped sell the idea, but October told a different story. Boston scored just two runs in 18 innings this week, and after that kind of collapse, it’s hard to pin this one on analytics alone.
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