Boston Red Sox
The better team probably won last year. This year? There is no doubt. The Red Sox were out-managed, outclassed, and as usual since the start of September, outhit.
Playing nine innings while wondering why not-ready-for-prime-time Chad Tracy thought it was a good idea to yank his two best starting pitchers after 4⅔ innings each …
1. This lousy new wait ‘til next year that the Red Sox stuck us with Tuesday night? It feels an awful lot like last year’s season sayonara. Maybe even a little worse.
In last year’s wild-card round duel with the Yankees, at least the Sox won a game, with ace Garrett Crochet delivering a gem in Game 1. The 2025 Yankees won the next two in the silly best-of-three format, with Cam Schlittler and friends shutting out the Sox in a suspense-free Game 3.
This year? The Sox went down wheezing. Schlittler, the heavy favorite for the AL Cy Young award, rendered them hopeless in a 9-0 Game 1 win Tuesday. The Yankees ended the Red Sox’ season with a 9-2 pummeling Wednesday night, and you don’t need a calculator to tally up a run differential between these teams. (Yankees, plus-16.)
The better team probably won last year. This year? There is no doubt. The Red Sox were out-managed, outclassed, and as usual since the start of September, outhit. It stinks to lose to the Yankees once, and it double-stinks to lose to them in back-to-back years.
2. But if we’re being honest with ourselves, there is justice with this outcome. Red Sox chief baseball officer Craig Breslow did not build a good enough offense; we suspected it pretty much since their magical, improbable 32-5 stretch from late June through early August curved back to reality.
And wouldn’t you know it, their bats snoozed through another abrupt postseason stay. Yes, the Red Sox were stung by injuries. But deep retrospection is not required to recognize that they never quite had enough offense.
3. We have all winter to deconstruct this most peculiar, uneven season, but this we can declare now. Breslow must get at least one high-end bat, and preferably two, presuming the possibility of a lockout doesn’t halt team-building long before the games begin.
Some marginal players had wonderful stretches for the Red Sox this season, but earth eventually called them back from the stratosphere.
For the last month, I’ve been wondering what this team would have looked like if Breslow had retained Alex Bregman (28 homers, .819 OPS for the Cubs) and signed Pete Alonso (an American League-leading 43 homers and 113 RBIs for the Orioles).
4. I don’t understand any reaction to Roman Anthony’s latest injury other than disappointment for him and deep concern that serious injuries are going to prevent him from becoming the superstar his talent suggests he can be.
Anthony was good for 3.3 wins above replacement in just 75 games upon coming up to the majors last June as a 21-year-old. An oblique injury — rotten to have as a hitter, as James Wood and Drake Baldwin, among others, discovered this season — ended his season abruptly.
Just more than six months ago, he proved he belonged on stage with the best players on the planet during the World Baseball Classic. Hard to believe that was this calendar year.
5. Not much has gone right since the WBC, to put it mildly, and the vast majority of that is not his fault. He started slowly, which happens. A complicated hand/finger injury cost him four months this season, and another ended his season Tuesday night.
Yet in 126 career regular-season games, he has an .803 OPS and 126 OPS+ at 22 years old. It stinks that a player of such obvious promise keeps suffering legitimate injuries.
6. Oh, and it’s borderline pathetic that a portion of the fan base — no doubt including a number of hot takers who think they should get a weekday gig at WEEI whenever the next lineup shakeup comes — have taken to calling Anthony soft or some other synonym.
It’s not as if he’s sitting out with a sprained hair follicle or something. This is an alarming, recurring injury that makes you wonder if his immense promise will be fulfilled.
7. Turns out that Garrett Crochet, who hadn’t pitched in a big league game since April 25 due to shoulder inflammation and then a lat strain, wasn’t quite ready to get back on a big-league mound, let alone under win-or-go-home circumstances.
Crochet allowed four earned runs without recording an out in the sixth inning, though he should have had one — he struck out Spencer Jones, but a wild strike three evaded Adley Rutschman and allowed Jones to reach first base. A tip of the cap to Crochet, however, for giving it a shot.
8. Payton Tolle and Sonny Gray each allowed a single run in 4⅔ innings during their starts. Those single runs each gave the Yankees a 1-0 lead that felt more like 5-0. They both did their jobs, and as noted above, their manager should have allowed them to do it a little longer. Tolle was the best thing about this season, wasn’t he?
9. The Red Sox have not played a postseason game at Fenway Park since a 9-1 loss to the Astros in Game 5 of the 2021 ALCS. The Red Sox lineup that night included Kyle Schwarber, Rafael Devers, Xander Bogaerts, and J.D. Martinez. Five years later, the Sox could have used those guys in the lineup in this series. Yep, even Martinez.
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