The Red Sox walked out of the Bronx with more than just a season-ending loss. They left with a clubhouse full of frustration, a manager defending two bold pitching calls, and a roster that sounded as if it had already started airing out its grievances.
Boston’s year ended Wednesday night with a 9-2 loss to the Yankees in Game 2, sending New York on to face Tampa Bay in the ALDS and sending the Red Sox home for the winter after another knockout punch from their arch rival. The offense that carried them through a summer turnaround never showed up when it mattered most. Boston scored just two runs in the series, getting blanked in Game 1 before managing only a pair in Game 2.
That was the ugly finish to a season that had once looked completely lost before a 15-game winning streak in July changed the mood. But the Red Sox never found their footing again in September, when they scored a league-low 71 runs, and the cold bat carried straight into October.
The postgame scene matched the result. Players didn’t hide how irritated they were, and Sonny Gray was at the center of it.
The 36-year-old right-hander went 18-5 with a 2.72 ERA this season and was expected to be a major piece in Game 2. Instead, manager Chad Tracy lifted him with two outs in the fifth inning of a 1-0 game after just 70 pitches.
Gray made clear he didn’t love it.
“I think I’m the best pitcher in the American League going through the order the third time,” Gray said. “I think that’s a fact.
I would have liked to have lived or die with me in that moment but that’s the competitor I am. I think you you can probably ask the guys and they’d think the same way.
I felt strong, I felt confident, I felt convicted. But what can you do?”
Gray then added: “I would have liked have been trusted in that moment.”
Asked later whether he had spoken with Tracy about the move, Gray gave a one-word answer.
Gray is headed for free agency this winter after one season in Boston, and when asked whether what he did this year would make him want to return in 2027, he said, “I don’t know.”
Willson Contreras also let the frustration spill out. The Red Sox leader all season, and a voice that carries real weight in the clubhouse, took what sounded like a swipe at the team’s reliance on analytics.
"It's not enough when you have talent, or you have data, or you have computers telling you what to do, because this is baseball. The data is here to help us, but at the end of the day, you need experience and veteran guys to win games. There's a lot of stuff I would like to say, but I'll state it like that."
Contreras wasn’t interested in dressing up the reasons for Boston’s collapse down the stretch, either. When asked why the club faded after such a strong summer, he said, “That’s a good question,” Contreras said.
“I’m not going to answer it because I don’t want to give my honest answer. But we got eliminated.
That’s the bottom line. We didn’t produce.
We didn’t execute any part of the game, and that’s why we [lost].
“I know that we had a really good stretch. I’m really proud of what we did in the past, like I said.
We were able to turn the season around, for sure, 100%. But that’s not enough.
It’s not enough. And at the end of the day, you win games in the regular season to clinch the playoff, but then falling short in the playoffs, it’s tough.”
When asked directly about Gray being removed so early, Contreras didn’t say a word. He simply made the motion of sealing his lips, twice, and raised his eyebrows.
Tracy, who replaced Alex Cora in late April, defended the decision afterward. Boston had already fallen behind and was fighting to score, and he said the club wanted to be aggressive.
"We’re trailing, we’re struggling to score runs, and when you get in spots where you’re struggling to score runs and you’re already trailing you feel like you gotta be aggressive. Getting back to that top part of the lineup they got a couple hits against him.
See if you can put it out, and if you can put it out you’re kind of lined up where we wanted to go. And it just didn’t work."
Tracy had made a similar call in Game 1, pulling Payton Tolle in the fifth inning after the left-hander had allowed one run on 83 pitches. When a reporter asked whether he had considered letting Tolle and Gray work a little longer because of how well they’d pitched all year, Tracy answered, “No, they’re good. Our bullpen has been great all year, too.”
Tracy won over plenty of Boston fans during the summer turnaround, but the final six weeks and the two playoff games turned the whole thing sour in a hurry. Now the questions shift to next season, and to how the Red Sox plan to move past a postseason that left plenty of hard feelings behind.
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After the series, Gray did not sound like someone assuming he would be back in Boston next season. The veteran right-hander said he was disappointed by the early removal and signaled uncertainty about returning, even after a season in which he posted a 2.72 ERA and led the league with 18 wins. For a team that just got a close-up look at what he can still provide, the question now is whether it gets another one. [Read more 🡒]