Red Sox swept by Yankees as Gray rips early hook — SkimNews
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- Boston Red Sox swept by the Yankees 2-0 in the AL wild-card series, outscored 18-2 over two games and eliminated by New York for the second straight postseason.
- Sonny Gray publicly challenged his early removal after just 70 pitches in the fifth, saying "I think I'm the best pitcher in the American League going through the order a third time" and adding he was "frustrated" by the lack of trust.
- Chad Tracy's bullpen-first calls backfired in both games: he lifted Payton Tolle after 83 pitches in Game 1 (a 1-0 deficit) and Gray after 70 pitches in Game 2, then watched Cody Bellinger and Ben Rice punish lefty Erik Miller in both contests.
- Willson Contreras pressed a finger to his lips when asked about Gray's hook, then argued analytics alone cannot win playoff games: "this is baseball... at the end of the day you are going to have to need experience and veteran guys."
- Boston's bullpen — which led MLB with a 3.00 regular-season ERA — finished the series with a 20.25 ERA, surrendering 15 runs, 15 hits and seven walks in 6⅔ innings while opponents hit .484.
- Despite a 32-46 start, Tracy guided Boston into the playoffs via a franchise-record-tying 15-game winning streak and 32-5 surge, making them the fourth team in MLB history to reach the postseason after falling 14 games under .500.
Why it matters: Tracy's analytics-driven approach produced an MLB-best 3.00 bullpen ERA in the regular season, but that same philosophy yielded a 20.25 series ERA — a collapse that casts immediate doubt on his bullpen-first strategy just weeks after the Red Sox rewarded him with a three-year contract through 2029.
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