On a scale of whatever to whatever, how would you rate your current emotional state?
I’m writing this only a few minutes after the final pitch, so water hasn’t found it’s level yet, but man, the emotion is raw. On one hand, the Red Sox are on the ascent and will likely keep getting better
over the next year or two. But even if they build on this, they’re probably never getting an AL that sucks this much again. The path to the 2025 World Series was wide open, and I consider this season a missed opportunity. For now, I’m just going to be sad for a while.
— Matthew Gross
No witty words or pithy commentary; I’m just sad.
— Maura McGurk
I didn’t think they’d make the playoffs in March but they did as a husk of the great team they were in July and August. It was hard to watch a group that really had no business being in October playing overmatched, but Garrett Crochet patched over all the problems for one day. Roman Empire 2026.
— Mike Carlucci
I had a morning to reflect, and although I was the only one to predict the Yankees winning this series and one of few to even predict the series going to 3 games (and I even got that Ben Rice would burn the Sox) this absolutely doesn’t feel like the type of win to gloat about. I said on many occasions as the team was acting their meltdown out in mid-September before rebounding the last week of the season that the team already out-performed expectations, and that I’d be happy with a first-round exit, but that was moreso if they played the Tigers or Guardians. To lose to the Yankees sucks.
— Dean Roussel
One day later, I’m just bummed that the season is over. It’s with us every day for six months and then it just disappears. And at the end of the season I always end up wishing I watched even more baseball than I did. Goddamn, it’s going to be a long time before the next game of Red Sox baseball.
— Dan Secatore
On a Scale of being eliminated in 2003 to being eliminated in the Bobby Valentine year, I’m squarely in the middle. While I did take the Red Sox to win the Yankees series, I knew that their ceiling was capped this year. They couldn’t get to the calendar date where Roman Anthony would return without Roman Anthony helping them get to that date. As I feared in the series preview, they didn’t have enough thump in the lineup and that felt like it was an avoidable problem to have.
— Bob Osgood
What was the worst moment of the series?
Take your pick on any mistake in Game 2. The Duran drop, the atrocious bunt attempts by Rafaela on two balls out of the zone, Nate Eaton not going home when the ball got away from Ben Rice. The Sox had many chances to ensure Cam Schlittler’s outing tonight never happened, and they let them all slip away.
— Matthew Gross
No single, monumental moment, but Game 2 was a compilation of little tiny cuts that led us to bleed out.
— Maura McGurk
As Maura said, there weren’t big moments, they just got beat all over the place in little ways. But for all Cora’s saying “everyone is on deck” how about the moment of the Early/defense collapse with no one ready?
— Mike Carlucci
Alex Cora leaving Whitlock to burn in game 2 after prematurely pulling Bello and setting us up with a depleted staff on Thursday night. A lot of talk about him outsmarting Boone in game 1, but I, for one, don’t take someone outsmarting Aaron Boone as a measuring stick for how adept a manager one is. Boone would fall for the “got your nose” trick that people use on babies most nights.
– Dean Roussel
It’s the Eaton non-send for me. The Yankees are a sloppy team who blew a World Series last year because they play sloppy defense. I don’t know how you don’t put pressure on the Yankees’ fielders when the fastest guy on the team is rounding third with a chance to score. It would’ve altered the whole game and the whole series.
— Dan Secatore
Jarren Duran’s collective defense, take your pick on the singular moment. The error hit on Aaron Judge’s fly ball to left field in Game 2 was the difference in a one-run game, followed by an even more inexcusable effort on Giancarlo Stanton’s double in Game Three. I expected Duran to turn it up a notch when the lights were brightest, but instead, he finished dead last on the playoff roster for Win Probability Added.
— Bob Osgood
What was the best moment of the series?
Garrett Crochet going 117 pitches deep into Game 1 and stamping his mark on the postseason. Hopefully it’s a sign of things to come over the next several Octobers.
— Matthew Gross
Masa’s pinch hit RBIs.
— Mike Carlucci
Agreed with Mike here.
– Dean Roussel
Crochet’s performance is the easy (and probably correct) answer, but I’ll go with Connelly Early’s first time through the Yankees order in Game 3, because I am now absolutely dreaming about a rotation with Crochet, Early, and Payton Tolle in it next September.
— Dan Secatore
Garrett Crochet showing everyone why you make that trade ten times out of ten, and why you extend that player entering his prime ten times out of ten. We knew he was the number one pitcher on this roster entering the season, and now we’ve seen him hold up for a full season and shove in the playoffs, so we can consider him a certifiable Ace.
– Bob Osgood
Which Yankee do you hate the most?
All of them! And their fans are insufferable as well:
I can’t even split hairs like that right now. Probably still Aaron Judge. I hate that smirk.
— Maura McGurk
Can I say Aaron Boone? The clown has ridden one (1) hit to an entire post-playing career. No 2003 homer and he’s not manager now.
— Mike Carlucci
Right now, Schlittler, because I spent most of Wednesday preventing my friends from slandering the Walpole native who grew up a Sox fan unlike his South Shore teammate, Ben Rice, and then he goes and mouths off after the game, saying he’s glad Boston’s season is over. That’s okay, though; I have a feeling I’ll be using that clip as an uno reverse card very shortly once Schlitt has to pitch against a Toronto team that isn’t decimated by injuries.
– Dean Roussel
Anthony Volpe. It doesn’t look like he’s going to turn into the star that Yankees fans hoped for (three straight seasoons of a sub.300 OBP!) but in lieu of being treated as a bust, the TV media has immediately penciled him in as the next gritty, clutch playoff performer in pinstripes. I am going to hate hearing his name for the next 10 Octobers.
— Dan Secatore
Tim Hill. I was certain they pulled him out of the crowd when he ran in from the bullpen in the ninth inning of game one. This look is unacceptable if you’re trying to avoid being banned from a school zone.
— Bob Osgood
What’s one thing the Red Sox really need to do this offseason?
Correctly identify which pieces are part of the core to their next championship team while also having the fortitude to move on from the guys who are not. Most of the big pieces are already here, but getting the final balance right is easier said than done.
— Matthew Gross
Bolster starting pitching. Stop taking fliers on guys who are cheap because they’re already injured, or “projects.” Oops, that’s two, maybe three. Who’s counting.
— Maura McGurk
You can’t predict pitcher injuries (see Lucas Giolito Spring Training 2024) and depending on how many players opt for free agency (Story, Bregman, etc.) add starting pitching behind Crochet besides the inevitable Dustin May contract.
– Mike Carlucci
Acquire one more rotation arm that is not a reclamation project and don’t get comfortable with the wave of talent that’s made its way through the season this year. Tanner Houck was a borderline Cy Young candidate two seasons ago; this season he looked very uncomfortable on the mound before ultimately going on the IL. Players so early in their careers are still lottery tickets and nothing is guaranteed, not Early, not Dobbins, not Tolle. Pick up that phone and call the Mariners, or see what Mr. Ryan would cost you in the winter.
– Dean Roussel
Get another top-of-the-rotation starter, which is the same thing I wanted them to do last offseason.
— Dan Secatore
Replace Rafael Devers with someone who has a similar power output and playoff experience. You know, like Breslow promised us he would do in July.
– Bob Osgood
How will this series be remembered in 10 years?
Hopefully it won’t. If it’s going to be remembered for anything it will be for Cam Schlitter’s coming out party, but ideally the Yankees will get bounced in the next round, their postseason run will become forgettable, and Schlittler’s career will flame out.
— Matthew Gross
I don’t think it enters the pantheon of great Red Sox-Yankees series, so it won’t be remembered that way, but maybe as the end of one chapter and the beginning of a more successful one. I’m thinking of something akin to 2003. It hurts, but it will force some reflection and adaptation. At least I hope it will.
— Maura McGurk
It won’t is the short answer. Here’s a longer explanation: I was listening to WEEI when Keith McPherson of New York sports radio came on the horn and proclaimed that this was the year that the tides turned for New York after two decades of watching Boston dominate the rivalry, and I had to laugh because of how ridiculous it sounded as someone who grew up with the Yankees being a perennial contender, but also because Boston objectively has a much better future. Roman Anthony will be a top ten player in baseball within two years. Marcelo Mayer is an echelon below but still very promising. Garrett Crochet is an ace, and most of the players the Yankees tout as the future of the team are either in their 30s or named Anthony Volpe.
– Dean Roussel
The rekindling of the Red Sox-Yankees rivalry. Neither one of these teams is going anywhere and we’re going to get a few more of these over the next five-to-seven years. I can’t wait.
— Dan Secatore
The Cam Schlittler Breakout. Whatever Trajekt batting machines that the Red Sox are developing this offseason, they need to be equipped with Cam Schlittler’s entire arsenal so that this doesn’t happen again in 2026.
— Bob Osgood
As a missed opportunity in a weak American League. But ultimately it won’t be remembered at all because of the four division titles that came after, with Roman Anthony struggling to fit another World Series ring on his hand.
— Mike Carlucci
