NEW YORK – As the Red Sox were outscored 18-2 and eliminated in a two-game Wild Card sweep by the Yankees on Tuesday (9-0) and Wednesday night (9-2) at Yankee Stadium, the aura of “Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me” was brutal and undeniable.
A week after the 2025 Red Sox fell to their perennial rivals in the Wild Card round in the Bronx, including a shutout in the deciding Game 3, director of baseball Craig Breslow sat in the interview room at Fenway Park, flanked by manager Alex Cora and team president Sam Kennedy, and said adding the home run powerhouse to the lineup would be a top priority for the offseason 2025-26.
Breslow reiterated this throughout the ensuing months as the front office failed to sign any top free hitters, including Alex Bregman, who opted out of his Red Sox contract and went to the Chicago Cubs after the former refused to give him a no-trade clause.
The week after Bregman signed his five-year contract with the Cubs in mid-January, Breslow signed left-hander Ranger Suarez to a five-year contract. Breslow then proclaimed during Suarez’s introductory conference: “I don’t think there’s any question anymore that the identity of our team, the strength of our team, will be our pitch.”
And it was. So much so that when the Red Sox and Yankees met again this week in the Wild Card round, Boston’s bats remained silent as the grave.
The strikes, or lack thereof, were far from the only problem. Chad Tracy’s inexperience was evident, especially when it came to pitching decisions. The new Red Sox skipper has handled both contests, not like the must-win games they were, but like a Triple-A game, where the runway is endless because the priority is player development and any victory is just a nice bonus.
The Yankees hitters did a lot of damage and the Red Sox played non-emergency defense at times. But the offense remained Boston’s most glaring problem, as it was the biggest unmet need during the offseason.
Yankees left-hander Max Fried allowed one earned run on three hits, walked one and struck out six in six innings (98 pitches, 62 strikeouts).
Red Sox starter Sonny Gray was largely dominant in 4 2/3 innings. He allowed two earned runs on six hits, allowed no walks and struck out five.
But for the second straight game, Tracy retired his starter with two outs in the fifth in favor of left-hander Erik Miller, who had allowed earned runs in four of his last five regular-season appearances, and immediately gave up a homer to Ben Rice in the opener.
Rice scored on Miller again in Game 2, in the form of a lead-off single off Gray and Cody Bellinger’s RBI single against the Sox left-hander.
“I felt good, I felt sharp, I felt sharp, I felt like I was just competing,” Gray said after the game. “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 lived or died with me then,” continued Gray, who plans to retire after this career year. “I wish someone had trusted me then.”
But the real implosion occurred when Garrett Crochet took the mound in the bottom of the sixth, his first game at any level since April 25. All four Yankees batters reached before Tracy called on right-hander Garrett Whitlock. An Austin Wells RBI sacrifice fly and a Ryan McMahon RBI groundout increased the lead to 5-1. After an intentional walk to Rice, Bellinger pushed Whitlock deep to plant a long game firmly in the ground.
New York beat Boston 14-4 on Wednesday night. The losing team drew two walks, struck out eight times, was 0-for-2 with runners in scoring position and left four men on base. The Red Sox’s only runs were solo home runs by Willson Contreras and Nick Sogard.
Contreras’ sixth-inning blast was the Red Sox’s first run in their last 27 postseason innings dating back to Game 2 last year.
“We didn’t play well at all,” the veteran first baseman said. “We didn’t pitch. We didn’t hit.”
The 2026 Red Sox have taken steps forward. The pitch was much better, despite the playoffs. The defense was significantly better, an irony that cannot be escaped by Cora, who spent years bemoaning his team’s poor defense, only to watch them improve just before and after his late April firing.
But the Red Sox also took a step back this year; some confusing, some beyond their control, others by their own design.
They finished that regular season 87-75, two losses worse than last year.
The offense was significantly worse. The 2025 Red Sox collectively slashed .254/.324/.421 with 324 doubles and 186 home runs in the regular season. They finished that regular season with a .245/.319/.397 line, 285 doubles and 163 home runs. (Bregman finished the regular season with 28 home runs, more than any player on the Red Sox roster; he drove the point home, literally, by hitting Boston’s final two pitchers in Game 162 on Sunday.)
Granted, the Red Sox struck out far fewer this year – 1,326 compared to 1,419 – but they also finished one walk short of last year’s total (518).
Above all, they scored 689 points this year, 97 fewer than last year.
The two things the 2025 Red Sox needed most in October, runs and home run power, were even more scarce Wednesday night. As a result, their “October run” ended before the month even started.
The 2026 Red Sox were a horror show from start to finish.
But in the immortal words of the movie “Grease”, “Oh! Those summer nights.”
Gn sports
