With the Boston bats ice cold at Yankee Stadium again, a couple of quick hooks by Red Sox rookie manager Chad Tracy led to another early postseason exit.
And top starter Sonny Gray wasn't happy about being lifted after only 70 pitches.
"I think I'm the best pitcher in the American League going through the order the third time. I think that's a fact," Gray said. "I would have liked to have been trusted in that moment."
For the second consecutive season, the Red Sox were sent home for the winter by their biggest rivals as the New York Yankees rolled to a 9-2 victory Wednesday night and a two-game sweep of their Wild Card Series.
Boston was outscored 18-2 overall and left to lament a miserable finish to this roller-coaster ride of a season that included Tracy taking over when Alex Cora was fired in April.
Tracy's decision-making came under scrutiny after both playoff games against the Yankees. In Boston's 9-0 defeat a night earlier, Tracy pulled rookie starter Payton Tolle after 4 2/3 innings and 83 pitches in a 1-0 game.
Last year, the Red Sox won their Wild Card Series opener before losing to New York in a deciding Game 3 as they got overpowered by Cam Schlittler, who pitched another playoff gem against his hometown team Tuesday night.
"To have it end here two times in a row is tough," shortstop Trevor Story said.
Facing a Yankees lineup missing injured slugger Aaron Judge, the Red Sox gave up 26 hits in two games despite a pair of effective performances from their starting pitchers.
At the plate, Boston mustered only seven hits and finally snapped a 26-inning postseason scoring drought that dated to last year when Willson Contreras homered just over the right-center fence in the sixth Wednesday.
"It's obviously been an eventful year," Tracy said. "In the moment right now you can't think much more other than anything but the fact that we just lost a playoff series."
Needing a victory to extend their season, the Red Sox sent Gray to the mound and the 18-game winner certainly gave them a chance. Boston trailed 1-0 in the fifth when the right-hander allowed a two-out single to Ben Rice that put runners at the corners.
Tracy then yanked Gray, eager to hand the ball to baseball's best bullpen during the regular season.
"I felt good. You know, I felt crisp. I felt sharp. I felt like I was just out there competing. And yeah, I mean, I got clipped for a solo homer and then some singles, but I felt like I stayed on the attack throughout. I was just executing what I wanted to do," Gray said. "I'm frustrated, for sure. You know, not ready for it to end. A lot of emotions."
Asked about the move, Contreras put his finger over his lips to zip them shut.
"It's not enough when you have talent or you have data or you have computers that's telling you what to do, because this is baseball," he said. "The data is here to help us, but at the end of the day you are going to have to need experience and veteran guys to win games."
In both games of the series, Tracy gave the ball to left-handed reliever Erik Miller after taking out his starting pitcher.
On Tuesday, Rice greeted Miller with a 423-foot solo homer to straightaway center field.
On Wednesday, Tracy summoned Miller to face a different left-handed hitter, Cody Bellinger - who batted .274 against lefties this season and .259 versus right-handers. In fact, his .310 batting average against left-handers over the past two years was the best of any left-handed hitter in the majors.
Bellinger made Tracy and the Red Sox pay, lining an RBI single to right field.
"We're struggling to score runs," Tracy said. "And when you get in spots where you're struggling to score runs and you're already trailing, you feel like you've got to be aggressive and go."
Back from a shoulder injury, ace starter Garrett Crochet entered in the sixth for his first outing since April 25 and first relief appearance since 2023 with the Chicago White Sox. The left-hander opened with a strikeout, but Spencer Jones reached safely on a wild pitch, and Crochet never got an out.
Bellinger's three-run homer off right-hander Garrett Whitlock capped a six-run inning that made it 8-1, and the Red Sox were done. A bullpen that led the majors with a 3.00 ERA during the regular season finished this series with a 20.25 ERA after giving up 15 runs, 15 hits and seven walks in 6 2/3 innings, with a .484 opponents' batting average.
Boston's latest downfall in the Bronx was a crushing end to a wild 2026 season for the Red Sox, who stumbled to a 32-46 start. Tracy was the skipper at Triple-A Worcester before getting promoted to interim manager in Boston, and the team finally began to take off with a four-game sweep of the Yankees at Fenway Park in late June.
After clinching a wild-card spot last week, the Red Sox removed the interim tag and named Tracy the 49th manager in team history, signing him to a three-year contract that runs through the 2029 season, with a club option for 2030. The team also exercised the 2029 and 2030 options on chief baseball officer Craig Breslow.
"I wasn't there for the highs and lows," Crochet said. "For this team to do what it did do, to make it to this point, was nothing short of miraculous."
Led by Gray and Contreras, among others, the Red Sox went on a 15-game winning streak in July that equaled a franchise record and used a 32-5 surge to climb back into contention. They became the fourth team in major league history to reach the postseason after falling 14 games under .500, and the first to qualify after losing as many as 44 of its first 75.
Gray, who can become a free agent after the World Series, went around the clubhouse to hug each of his teammates following Wednesday's defeat.
"I'm proud of what we accomplished," the pitcher said. "We were left for dead there for a while."
