The Red Sox’s season ended in a mess, and one of the loudest reactions came from an old familiar name.
Boston was swept out of the American League Wild Card Series by the Yankees, falling 9-0 on Tuesday and 9-2 on Wednesday. The loss sent the Red Sox home while New York moved on to face the Tampa Bay Rays in the American League Division Series.
Wednesday’s defeat had a couple of moments that stuck with people, and not for the right reasons. In the bottom of the second inning, with two outs, Jazz Chisholm Jr. chopped a ball up the middle that Trevor Story handled with a diving stop.
There looked to be a chance for an out at first, but Willson Contreras was not at the bag, and Chisholm reached safely. The mistake did not end up hurting Boston in that moment.
Later, though, the defensive issues piled up.
Garrett Crochet came on in the bottom of the sixth with the Yankees up 2-1 and immediately got Spencer Jones to strike out swinging. But Jones swung through a pitch in the dirt that got past catcher Adley Rutschman, who was slow getting to the ball and making the throw to first.
Jones reached anyway, with Contreras covering first but stationed on the back of the bag. He wasn’t solely to blame, but if he had been set at the front of the base and stretched for the throw, Jones likely would have been out.
From there, the inning unraveled. Jones stole second, advanced to third on a throwing error by Rutschman, and scored on an RBI single by George Lombard Jr. The Yankees kept pouring it on from there, tacking on five more runs in the inning to push the lead to 8-1.
Contreras did contribute at the plate, finishing 2-for-2 with a home run and two walks. Still, the defensive lapses were what drew the most attention after Boston’s lopsided exit.
After the game, Contreras took aim at the Red Sox’s approach, suggesting the club leans too heavily on data. Boston had also pulled right-hander Sonny Gray after he gave up two runs on 70 pitches across 4 2/3 innings.
"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," Contreras said. "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."
That prompted a sharp response from Doug Mientkiewicz, the former Twins fan favorite and member of Boston’s 2004 World Series team.
"How about cover first- or maybe one of your 15 coaches should say something," Mientkiewicz wrote on X. "Oh but they will shoot balls out of a tiny machine on a slab of turf though during pregame. Embarrassing."
The Twins traded Mientkiewicz to the Red Sox at the 2004 trade deadline. During seven seasons with Minnesota, he hit .275/.367/.408 with 43 home runs and 266 RBI. After his time in Boston in 2004, he went on to play for the New York Mets, Kansas City Royals, New York Yankees, Pittsburgh Pirates and Los Angeles Dodgers before retiring after the 2009 season.
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