Sonny Gray didn’t hide how he felt after the Red Sox pulled him with the season hanging in the balance.
Boston lifted the former Cardinal in the fifth inning with the Yankees ahead 1-0 and two runners on base, choosing to go to reliever Erik Miller when Cody Bellinger stepped in. Gray had thrown just 70 pitches. Miller then allowed a second run to score before escaping the inning, and the Yankees blew the game open in the bottom of the sixth on the way to an 8-1 win and a two-game sweep in the Wild Card round.
Gray’s reaction made it clear he believed the Red Sox should have stayed with him.
"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."
The frustration didn’t stop with Gray. Another former Cardinal, Willson Contreras, also had strong thoughts about Boston’s decision-making in that moment, and the overall mood coming out of the clubhouse sounded plenty heated.
Gray’s complaint also landed against the backdrop of a rough year for Boston. The Red Sox fired manager Alex Cora earlier in the season, and that change exposed a larger mess around how the team was being run in both the front office and the dugout. Boston did steady itself enough to make a postseason push, but the finish line brought more unraveling, capped by the Yankees sending them home.
It’s easy to see why Gray felt the way he did. He has had his issues at times when asked to work deeper into games, and his track record in the Bronx has not been great.
But this season, he was good enough to trust in that spot. He is set to finish top 3 in American League Cy Young voting for the second time in his career, and that kind of arm is usually the one you leave out there when everything is on the line.
There have been times when Gray has wanted out before, and if that had been the case here, the decision would have looked different. Instead, the Red Sox seemed to overthink it. Maybe it wasn’t the reason they got eliminated, but it certainly didn’t help.
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