NEW YORK – As the clock struck midnight and officially ushered in baseball in October, the Red Sox were packing up to leave Yankee Stadium and the postseason that had barely begun.
The energy in the visitors’ clubhouse was different than after the Yankees knocked off the Red Sox in three games almost exactly a year before. That night, many players sat or hovered near their lockers in stunned silence, looking helpless.
After Wednesday’s 9-2 loss, frustration and tense acceptance hung in the air like thermal haze. But there were clear signs of more heated emotions bubbling just beneath the surface, particularly from three veterans who seemed to feel the abrupt, brutal end to the tumultuous season was telling.
Right-hander Sonny Gray, first baseman Willson Contreras and utility infielder Isiah Kiner-Falefa subtly and not-so-subtly expressed their feelings on various aspects of the loss, the season as a whole, what the Red Sox are doing wrong behind the scenes and what might be to come.
“Not competitive. We did boat races,” Kiner-Falefa told MassLive. “Losing in the Wild Card is unacceptable.”
“We didn’t play well. At all,” Contreras said matter-of-factly. “We didn’t pitch. We didn’t hit. … We didn’t produce. We didn’t execute any part of the game, and that’s why we’re losing.”
“Oh man, I’m really proud of this group,” the first baseman continued with a deep sigh. “But we have to improve next year. In all aspects of the game. That’s the main thing.”
Gray, the starter for the night, was not happy about being pulled with two outs in the fourth, when his pitch count was only 70 and the Yankees led only 1-0 in what ultimately became a 9-2 final score.
“I felt good, I felt sharp, I felt sharp, I felt like I was just competing,” the 36-year-old right-hander began. “I think I’m the best pitcher in the American League coming through the order for the third time. I think that’s a fact.”
“I wish I had lived or died with me in that moment,” Gray continued. “I wish someone had trusted me then.”
The remarkable common thread was that all three were longtime big-time players who agreed, via free agency or waiving a no-trade clause, to come to Boston last offseason because they thought they were joining a team that was rising like a phoenix from the ashes of a (self-imposed) rebuild. Each had previously played for several major league clubs and made at least two postseason runs during careers of eight or more seasons, giving them perspective and points of comparison to measure against that their local Red Sox teammates did not have.
Contreras’ assessment of the team’s inability to sustain its summer success was cautious, but his opacity was illuminating in its own way: “That’s a good question. I won’t answer it, because I don’t want to give my honest answer.”
When asked what the team thought about Gray’s removal from the game, Contreras’ only response was to mime his lips. Twice.
However, Contreras didn’t hesitate when asked what he wanted to see changed or improved between now and the next Opening Day; in games and in organizational practices that play an important role in roster construction and on-field product.
“There is a lot of room for improvement in every area of the game,” he said. “You have to do a lot of different things, and that’s not enough when you have talent, or data, or computers telling you what to do. Because that’s baseball. And the data is there to help us, but at the end of the day, you’re going to need experience and veterans to win games. And yeah, I mean, there’s a lot of things I’d like to say, but I don’t say.”
Pressed to clarify whether he thought the Red Sox were relying too much on data, Contreras said only: “If you watch the game. »
“Like I said,” he later added, “it’s there to help us. But at the end of the day, it’s not about the data. It’s about executing the game plan.”
Contreras is under contract through 2027, with a ’28 club option. Kiner-Falefa is headed to free agency. But Gray has a $30 million mutual option, a $10 million buyout for next year, and plans to retire.
As Gray’s two young sons wandered around the club, chatting with players and practicing closeouts, their father seemed less enthusiastic about returning to Boston next year than when he spoke the day before.
“I know that in times like this, it is never beneficial for any party involved to make rash decisions,” Gray said.
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