Red Sox Players Question Crucial Decisions After Season-Ending Sweep by Yankees
Sonny Gray and Willson Contreras questioned Boston’s pitching decisions after the Red Sox were swept out of the postseason by the rival Yankees.
NEW YORK — In his pre-start media availability, Payton Tolle thought that game one of the best two out of three series against the archrival New York Yankees would be a "slobberknocker." From a Red Sox standpoint, the adjective to describe their performance in the two-game sweep at the hands of the Yankees is "subdued."
"No, I mean, obviously there was games that were close late that kind of got away." Red Sox manager Chad Tracy said after the 9-2 season-ending loss Thursday. "But I think you're thinking we're going to play closer games. They swung the bats extremely well. You've got to give them credit."
The Yankees led 1-0 in both games when Tracy had a rather quick hook on both Tolle and game two starter Sonny Gray before the bullpen came in and allowed eight runs to score in each of the two games, making the contests non-competitive.
"It was frustrating," Tracy added.
The hook on Tolle could be justified. He did not have his best stuff in the outing in general and was clearly fatigued in the fourth inning and got some help by some bad baserunning from Yankees rookie shortstop George Lombard Jr. Tracy not letting Tolle face Yankees star DH Ben Rice a third time is understandable, given Rice was on him all night. The decision to go to Erik Miller is the one that merits questioning.
Between the month of September and the postseason, Miller combined to pitch 8.0 innings to the tune of a 7.88 ERA. In the first game of the series, he gave up a solo home run to Rice as soon as he entered the game. In the second game, he gave up an RBI single to Cody Bellinger before Luis Garcia Jr. also singled, but the inning was ended with a play at the plate.
"I think with where we were at in today's game, we pretty clearly knew who we were going to throw." Tracy said of the move to Miller in the second game. "Those are the best ones we have to offer. So it was pretty obvious that we were going to be aggressive in using that group. Like I said, they swung the bats. Didn't work out."
Sonny Gray was in a jam but was only at 70 pitches in his outing. Gray, as he cited in his postgame media availability, was one of the best pitchers in the game three times through the order.
“I think I’m the best pitcher in the American League going through the order a third time,” Gray told the media at Yankee Stadium. “I think that’s a fact. I would have liked (for him) to live or die with me in that moment, but that’s the competitor that I am. I think you can probably ask the guys, and I think they felt the same way. So, I felt strong, I felt confident, and I felt convicted. But what can you do, you know?”
The numbers back up what Gray was indicating with batters slashing .180/.235/.280 with a .515 OPS against Gray third time through. The Yankees had some hard contact against him, but in a do-or-die scenario, every run is at a premium; it was not a good decision to pull Gray out of the game.
Between Garrett Crochet and Garret Whitlock being ineffective out of the bullpen in the sixth inning, giving up six runs, the writing of the Red Sox season was on the wall.
“It’s not enough when you have talent or you have data or you have computers that’s telling you what to do." Boston first baseman Willson Contraras said postgame. "Because this is baseball,” Contreras said. “And the data is here to help us. But at the end of the day, you’re gonna have to need experience and veteran guys to win games.”
Contraras was among the players who disagreed with Tracy pulling Gray out of the game but understood that these decisions were collaborative but disagreed with the analytical side.
“At the end of the day, we can talk, we can share ideas, but like I said, I’m not making decisions,” he said. “And we’re not going to make decisions. We are employees. We get paid to play baseball, and we get paid to be out there on the field to perform. I mean, that’s the bottom line. Of course, we can have some conversations.”
The Red Sox have a lot of decisions to make this offseason after their performance in New York.