Less than a week after popping champagne, the Red Sox clubhouse went quiet last night. But the team is already looking ahead to next year. “It sucks to say right now that we’re looking forward. But ultimately,
that’s our reality,” said Garett Crochet. “Right now, it’s kind of that, ‘So what? Next pitch’ mentality. Next pitch for us is in five months.” (Alex Speier, Boston Globe)
And the somber mood in the post-game clubhouse serves a purpose. Alex Bregman’s message to his teammates was to “remember this feeling… [t]ake it into your offseason and continue to get better.” (Chris Cotillo, MassLive)
Alex Bregman did not have a message about the future of his time with the Red Sox, though, a future that is very much up in the air given his opt-out. But while he said he’s not ready to think about that, he did say that “it was an honor to put on this jersey.” Note the past tense. (Conor Roche, Boston.com)
The question of what will happen with Bregman is probably the biggest one of the offseason right now, along with what will happen with Trevor Story and how will the Sox rebuild a rotation that couldn’t hold up for the whole season. (Jen McCaffrey, The Athletic)
Of course the pitching wasn’t really the issue last night. Despite strong overall numbers, anyone who was paying attention after the Rafael Devers trade — and especially after the Romany Anthony injury — knew that the Sox offense might be a big problem in playoffs. And last night, Cam Schlitter shut the bats down with ease. It’s just that much more painful that he’s a local kid who took extra motivation from the trash talked by his friends back home in Walpole. (Tara Sullivan, Boston Globe)
But it wasn’t just the bats that were the problem last night. The Game 3 loss to the Yankees exposed a lot of issues the Sox had been dealing with all season long. (Sean McAdam, MassLive)
And even some of the things we’ve come to expect these Red Sox to excel at failed them last night. Like outfield defense. (Christopher Smith, MassLive)
In fact, while anything can happen in the playoffs, the Sox never really looked like World Series contenders, with too many flaws and holes on the roster. (Michael Hurley, NBC Sports)
And no matter what buttons Alex Cora pushed, he couldn’t make up for those deficiencies. And by the end of Game 3, the post-Game 1 narrative that Cora easily outmaneuvered Boone seemed to have been flipped on its head. (Ken Rosenthal, The Athletic)
Craig Breslow, meanwhile, still has some work to do on his own front office, as the departure of Paul Toboni has forced the Red Sox brass to rethink some things. (Tim Healey, Boston Globe)
