The Red Sox just got eliminated by their biggest rivals for the second consecutive season.
The Yankees made Boston pay in grand fashion Wednesday night in a 9-2 defeat to sweep the American League Wild Card Series. New York heads south to meet the Tampa Bay Rays in the ALDS while the Red Sox head back to Boston far sooner than they could have hoped for the second year in a row.
Willson Contreras and Nick Sogard homered. At least Nate Eaton wanted to play baseball Wednesday night. Sonny Gray pitched
pretty well. None of it mattered.
Both putrid losses followed a similar script: starting pitcher pulled too early, offense fails to create any momentum, bullpen calls backfire and Yankee fans party in the bleachers. And now – with the lockout looming – the Red Sox head into winter with problems to solve.
Here’s three takeaways from Wednesday night’s season-ending loss.
SONNY DESERVED BETTER
The veteran right-hander looked the part of a frontline starter in an elimination. Man, did his stuff look on from pitch one. Ben Rice smacked the staff around last night and Gray finished him off to start the night with a fantastic curveball. He showed flashes of a great two-seam fastball, including a filthy front-door one to strikeout Spencer Jones.
Gray racked up 12 swings-and-misses (16 was season-high) in 4 2/3 frames. He truly made just a single “mistake” on the evening – not that bad of a pitch – on the breaking ball that Luis Garcia Jr. golfed into the right field seats for a solo home run. He allowed another earned run that Erik Miller, who entered for Gray with two on and two out in the fifth inning, allowed to score on an RBI single for Cody Bellinger.
Even more so than the debate with Payton Tolle for Game 1, there was no reason to take Gray out of the ballgame given how he had thrown the ball to that point at just 70 pitches – especially to turn to Miller amid his struggles from the end of the regular season and Tuesday night’s mistake pitch to Rice.
Gray’s future – both as a Red Sox and as a player with hints toward retirement throughout the year – will be up in the air. He more than did his job Wednesday night.
CHAD TRACY HAS A LONG WAY TO GO
The Red Sox really didn’t score enough to make this point that headliner, but Chad Tracy spun himself in circles with his bullpen usage that consistently burned him – usually immediately after. Erik Miller imploded in both outings. Trusted arms in Brayan Bello and Garrett Whitlock gave up back-breaking homers after getting the call way after when they should have to keep the game close. Every bullpen button he pressed was wrong.
He ditched the interim tag and has a three-year contract to look forward to. If he really wants to earn it, he has to gain some feel and conviction beyond his calming presence in the clubhouse and stretch beyond the miraculous stretch of July baseball Boston used to even reach this point.
OFFENSE NEEDS AN OVERHAUL
The Red Sox did enough to get here, but let’s be honest. Even if Roman Anthony was healthy, did this lineup scare anyone in the playoffs? Was there any chance to hang a crooked number?
Wilyer Abreu and Ceddanne Rafaela have been zeroes offensively in both years they’ve made it. Caleb Durbin finished quietly. Too many AAAA players have been asked to take playoff at-bats at Yankee Stadium in each of the last two seasons. That cannot continue
People will be upset that the Red Sox did not earn a home playoff game. That’s because they didn’t earn it. Complaints about the current playoff are honestly irrelevant.
Want playoff baseball back at Fenway Park? Build a team that wins more games and can actually thump their opponents in the playoffs. Until then, the Yankees will run circles around you in The Bronx for the rest of the decade, no matter the fun the kids find in the summer at Fenway.
Contreras’ homer finally snapped a 26 2/3 inning scoring drought in the postseason dating back to Game 2 of last year’s series in New York. The Red Sox need to overhaul the lineup that doesn’t have a one player or one position solution. Creativity has to prevail to try something else because the offense clearly hasn’t worked for two years running against the Yankees.
Get to work.
