The Red Sox Beat Themselves in the Wild Card Round

2 hours ago, Alex Mayes said:

The 2025 season for the Red Sox has ended not with a bang, but with a whimper. The highs that the team, and the fanbase, were riding after Garrett Crochet’s dominant Game 1 outing were squashed on Wednesday night, and then got grounded into a fine powder under the heel of the Yankees on Thursday. The Wild Card series showed just how thin of a rotation the team finished the season with, and highlighted a few other areas where the team needs to improve as we now turn our attention toward the offseason.

Instead of going game by game for the series breakdown (our @Nick John already did a fine job of that throughout the series), I want to highlight the positive takeaway, as well as the negatives that ultimately sunk the Red Sox.

Positive: Garrett Crochet is an ace

As I wrote earlier this week, Garrett Crochet’s performance in Game 1 should have set the tone for the series. Outside of a badly placed sinker that Anthony Volpe deposited over the wall in right field, Crochet was dominant. He fired 117 pitches, touching triple digits on the last pitch of the night. He walked into the Thunder Dome that was Yankee Stadium and tamed the crowd. In the biggest game of his career, he showed up and showed out. The Red Sox traded for and then extended Crochet for these moments and he rewarded that trust. He is the anchor of this rotation moving forward, but he needs help.

Negative: Lack of starting pitching depth

For as dominant as Crochet was in Game 1, Brayan Bello was the complete opposite. We talked on the Game 1 postgame stream how Bello would likely be on a short leash Wednesday night, but no one expected him to only go 2 1/3 innings while giving up four hits and two earned runs with one walk and no strikeouts. Bello had been shaky all of September, but there was hope that his dominance against the Yankees would return when it mattered most. Unfortunately, Ben Rice made sure that Bello wouldn’t be long for the game.

On the other hand, Connelly Early performed fairly well until the wheels fell off in the fourth inning. On the radio call, Will Flemming correctly stated that every Yankees hitter that stepped to the plate in that inning ‘looked incredibly comfortable’ as they were taking their at-bats. It’s well documented that the Yankees are a league leader in picking up on and communicating tipped pitches, so there’s a chance this could have been occurring. But it’s also just as likely that Early and Carlos Narvaez fell into a predictable pattern as the former’s pitch count began to climb. Early was left in too long, and it came back to bite the Red Sox quickly.

Either way, the Red Sox needed Early to go more than 3 2/3 innings to have a chance in Game 3. The rookie was charged with three earned runs on the night, but the lack of defense behind him is more to blame for those than he is. His ERA for the game may have been 7.36, but his FIP was an incredible 0.68. Had his defense bailed him out as they were expected to, we may be having a different conversation about this series.

Negative: Shaky bullpen management in Game 2

The Red Sox have counted all season on a bullpen anchored by Aroldis Chapman and Garrett Whitlock to ensure that they either stayed in or won games. On Tuesday, Chapman put us all on the edges of our seats but ultimately pitched his way out of it. On Wednesday, Alex Cora seemingly hung Whitlock out to dry by allowing him to throw multiple innings. Yes, Whitlock was penciled in as the multi-inning relief option to open the season, but that didn’t work out. For the bulk of the campaign, Whitlock was a one-inning specialist and he should have operated as such in Game 2.

Also, why go to Payton Tolle after Whitlock when you could have flipped them on the depth chart and had Whitlock follow Tolle? You tasked Whitlock with throwing over 40 pitches but limit Tolle to just seven for the series. This was the hardest that Whitlock had been pushed since 2021, and he hasn’t been truly stretched out to be a multi-inning reliever after he assumed the role of set-up man earlier this season. Tolle has been an effective starter far more recently than Whitlock, so turning to him in that situation would have made more sense. Typically, Alex Cora is the master of pushing all the right buttons in do-or-die situations, but this Game 2 mismanagement was a factor in Early being hung out to dry in Game 3.

Negative: Lack of heads-up baseball

So far, we’ve talked a lot about Game 2 because honestly, the series should have ended there. The Yankees didn’t play clean baseball in that contest at all. First, Kyle Hudson’s lack of awareness on the throw from Jazz Chisholm to Ben Rice may be the most egregious error of the game. He immediately throws up the stop sign to Nate Eaton as Eaton rounds third when Masataka Yoshida is diving into first base to beat an errant throw. Jose Flores, from first, is signaling for Eaton to keep running while Hudson is doing the opposite. Sure, a veteran player likely blows through that stop sign and continues to try and score but, in that situation, when there are two outs already on the board, why not send the runner? At worst, Eaton is gunned down at the plate as he’s attempting to score. At best, Rice tries to recover and throw to third as Duran advances, likely throwing the ball away and allowing Duran to score as well. By the way, Rice’s arm strength (per Baseball Savant) is in the first percentile. If the Red Sox kept the same baserunning pressure in Game 2 that they showed in Game 1, the series likely ends on Wednesday night and the team is battling the Toronto Blue Jays right now.

Additionally, Ceddanne Rafaela’s poor attempt at bunting against a split-finger specialist made zero sense. Of course the ball is going to be weakly popped up right back to the pitcher when Rafaela is throwing the head of the bat at a ball in the opposite batter’s box. Also, the two men on base were the fastest guys on the team. Take your chances with a double steal with no outs over Rafaela attempting to lay down a bunt when he’s been mostly unsuccessful with it during the regular season. Give me a competitive strikeout over that weak pop up; at least it would make the pitcher work harder.

Finally, Jarren Duran’s defense in left field likely cost the Red Sox the game. Him clanging that fly ball off of his thumb directly led to the run that put the Yankees in a position to secure the win. He then admitted that he’s had trouble getting reads on balls hit to left field all season. If Duran can’t read a fly ball off the bat when it’s hit to him, he doesn’t need to be in the field. Last season, the Red Sox had one of the best defensive outfields in baseball, anchored by both Duran and Rafaela at times. This year, though, Duran has looked lost in left more often than not. It reared its ugly head at the wrong time on Wednesday night.

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The disappointment across Red Sox Nation is palpable, and it’s likely to hang around for the remainder of October. That being said, there’s a lot to look forward to as we turn our attention to the offseason and the improvements that need to be made for 2026 and beyond. This series loss hurts, no question about it, but Game 1 gave us a glimpse of what’s to come in the very near future. As long as improvements are made, expect the Red Sox to be a constant presence in October for years to come.

 

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Yes plenty of Blame to go around from Cora on down, and all their flaws reared their heads at the wrong time, and the results showed it. They were the Little League Red Sox at various times during the season too.

2 hours ago, Bellhorn04 said:

No.  We were badly undermanned without Anthony, and when Giolito went down that was a death blow.  Our rotation was down to Crochet and Prayers.

Cora did a fine job getting this team to 89 wins and he gave it his best shot in this series.  He tried to lean hard on his studs and he considered Whitlock one of his studs.

Being objective the Yankees were in much better shape than us and we did well to make it a tough series.

I agree the Red Sox were outmanned, and all of that, but that doesn’t change the FACT that a few catchable balls in the OF being caught, and better decisions on the base paths, and the Red Sox still could have won, and that’s be objective too.

3 minutes ago, Bellhorn04 said:

Everybody hates those kind of mistakes, but when you have a lot of young players and backup types playing I think some of it's to be expected.    

The big thing is we scored 6 runs in 3 games.  

As it turned out we faced 3 good pitchers also.

16 minutes ago, Bellhorn04 said:

Everybody hates those kind of mistakes, but when you have a lot of young players and backup types playing I think some of it's to be expected.    

The big thing is we scored 6 runs in 3 games.  

And the Yankees only scored 9, fairly low for the highest scoring team in MLB.  They also only left the yard twice, 0 times by Judge.  
 

Just now, Bellhorn04 said:

Yes.  And our rotation was decimated once Giolito went down.

Early was outstanding.  He gave up 4 runs in an inning where the hardest hit ball was a routine grounder to short (unless the SS happens to be up the middle for a DP).   

18 minutes ago, notin said:

Early was outstanding.  He gave up 4 runs in an inning where the hardest hit ball was a routine grounder to short (unless the SS happens to be up the middle for a DP).   

For all the shortcomings, and being undermanned that the Red Sox were to me bad fundamentals in the field, and on the base paths was what ultimately did them in.

It looked like we greatly improved on fundamentals over the season, but it did come back to bite us in the ass in the Yankee series.

Defense:

First 81 games: 319 ERs allowed/ 50 UnEarned

Last 81 games: 279/ 28

Baserunning:

First 81: 4.0 fangraphs rating (5th)

Last 81: 4.1 (6th)

2 hours ago, Bellhorn04 said:

No.  We were badly undermanned without Anthony, and when Giolito went down that was a death blow.  Our rotation was down to Crochet and Prayers.

Cora did a fine job getting this team to 89 wins and he gave it his best shot in this series.  He tried to lean hard on his studs and he considered Whitlock one of his studs.

Being objective the Yankees were in much better shape than us and we did well to make it a tough series.

Completely agree.  My suspicion is that the OP is simply trying to provoke because his arguments are shallow. 

Point 1.  The Yankees should have been heavily favored to win Game 2.  Bello was starting against the best lineup in MLB.  Rodon with his 4.6 WAR, 18-9 record, and 3.09 ERA was going against a throw-together Sox lineup.  Thus did the Yankees score 2 runs in the first freaking inning against Bello, who lasted 2.1 IP, after which Cora used 6 relievers with Slaten giving up a 3d run in the 5th inning.   However, the Sox tied the game in the 6th inning at 3-3. 

Point 2.  Whitlock came came in for the 7th, it was one inning earlier than usual, but not unreasonable.  He was throwing on 5 days rest and should have been good for 2 IP.  His ERA in September was 0.0 in 8 appearances.

Point 3.  Whitlock got 5 outs, including the first two (Rice and Stanton) batters in the bottom of in the 8th, on 23 pitches.  So of course Cora wanted him to finish the 8th.  Then came the first real glitch--walking Chisholm on 7 pitches, pitch count now 30.

Point 4.  The next Yankee batter "singled" and drove Chisholm all the way home from 1b. score now 4-3, which is how the game ended.  So the real issue is whether Tolle or Whitlock should have pitched to Wells, a lefty bat.  It turns out lefty hitters have a .938 OPS against Tolle, who came into the game with an ERA of 7.06.   So, who's a better choice against Wells, Whitlock with 30 pitches and a 0.0 ERA in September, or rookie Tolle?  

Point 5.  After Wells single, Whitlock gave up a single to Volpe and a walk to McMahon, but nobody scored before Tolle came in for the last out.  He threw 7 straight fast balls, all about 97 mph.  The 7th was right down the middle, but Grisham grounded out, Sogard to Lowe.  

Point 6.  Game 1, which the Sox won, 3-1.  In that game Crochet, who was fantastic, threw 117 pitches, the most in his career ,and made it through 7.2 innings, when Chapman took over.  How many other times this season did Cora ask Chapman to get 4 outs?  Once.  Moreover, he left Chapman in there in the 9th with the bases loaded and no one out.  I believe Cora managed game 1 that way so that he could use the rest of his bullpen in game 2 to fill in for those innings Bello was unlikely to pitch.  If necessary the could do the same in game 3.  However, the Sox never scored any runs in game 3, so Sox pitching was irrelevant.  

2 hours ago, Old Red said:

I agree the Red Sox were outmanned, and all of that, but that doesn’t change the FACT that a few catchable balls in the OF being caught, and better decisions on the base paths, and the Red Sox still could have won, and that’s be objective too.

Duran's was the only catchable that wasn't caught, and the official scorer called it a single.  

As for Eaton's not scoring from 2b on Yoshida's single, it was an infield single and Eaton was just rounding 3b when the throw arrived at 1b where it could easily have been caught.  If it had, Eaton was a dead man if he tried for home plate.  The Sox 3b coach had his eyes on that throw and signaled stop when he saw the throw was bouncing to 1b and therefore catchable.  

That said, I agree game 2 was winnable.  

On the other hand, you have to like how the Sox actually made it to the postseason. Their clinching game was against Detroit, who beat Cleveland in the wild car and yesterday beat Seattle in game 1 of the ALDS.  Harrison, the Giants reject, started that game, 

Well we are seeing that this yankees team is nowhere good as they seemed to be. 

2 hours ago, Maxbialystock said:

Duran's was the only catchable that wasn't caught, and the official scorer called it a single.  

As for Eaton's not scoring from 2b on Yoshida's single, it was an infield single and Eaton was just rounding 3b when the throw arrived at 1b where it could easily have been caught.  If it had, Eaton was a dead man if he tried for home plate.  The Sox 3b coach had his eyes on that throw and signaled stop when he saw the throw was bouncing to 1b and therefore catchable.  

That said, I agree game 2 was winnable.  

On the other hand, you have to like how the Sox actually made it to the postseason. Their clinching game was against Detroit, who beat Cleveland in the wild car and yesterday beat Seattle in game 1 of the ALDS.  Harrison, the Giants reject, started that game, 

Replays show Eaton clearly at 3rd when Jazz stopped Yoshida's ball UP THE MIDDLE. And if his bad throw was "easily caught" for a force-out at first base, the inning was over, and no throw would be made at home.

1. With 2 outs and a 3-2 count, baserunners take off as soon as the pitcher lifts his front foot one centimeter off the ground. 

2. With two outs, baserunners also take off on contact. But baserunners in scoring position aren't just running on contact, they're trying to score on contact. 

If Eaton doesn't slow up, which he never should have because runners going on 3-2, 2 outs are supposed to glance at the plate -- in case there's a wild pitch, walk, K, or ball in play -- then he's at full stride when Yoshida makes contact... and HUDSON IS WIND-MILLING HIM HOME, and he's at least halfway to the plate when the throw is completed...TO FIRST BASE...

... there were two outs, so it DIDN'T MATTER IF JAZZ MAKES A GOOD OR BAD THROW TO FIRST BASE. Eaton at full speed just keeps heading home. 

It would've been a miracle for first baseman Ben Rice to dive over Yoshida's back, retrieve the bouncing ball from foul territory and from his back or knees make a perfect throw home that catcher Wells would've made a perfect catch and tag on... somehow on the Red Sox fastest runner who most likely was already in the dugout after scoring standing up.

Eaton, Hudson and the Red Sox blew scoring the easy go-ahead run late in the game that should've won the 2025 AL Wild Card series. Revisionist history should never change that.

5 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

I said all year that due to the high number of errors and bad baseball IQ that this team showed, that they didn't exhibit "playoff baseball." Once they got to the playoffs, those mistakes became magnified and they are now the reason the Sox are out of the playoffs. Having good defensive metrics is all well and good, but playing smart baseball is just as important IMO. 

 

Well said, and agree 100%. I said before the Yankees series that hitting, and the flaws you mentioned were the biggest concern, and despite all that they still could have won.

44 minutes ago, Bellhorn04 said:

7 hours ago, TedYazPapiMookie said:

The entire season turned out so well because career minor leaguers delivered key hits like in 2021.  It's called luck and you can't bank on it when you play good teams in the post season.  If players like Toro, Narvaez, Wong, Hamilton, Gonzalez, Abreu, Sogard and Eaton are delivering the key hits to win games, you have an issue.

Breslow, while making mistakes with Priester and Sale, has done an incredible job providing talent to the hapless Cora.     

LOL

Incredible broken down into the prefix and base means not credible. 

The talent that actually led the Sox in hits in the postseason was Story, Yoshida and Bregman in that order -- not coincidentally Boston's three biggest position player free agent signings. 

No one else in the Game One starting line-up in the Bronx has been a full-time big league regular for more than two seasons.

9 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

I said all year that due to the high number of errors and bad baseball IQ that this team showed, that they didn't exhibit "playoff baseball." Once they got to the playoffs, those mistakes became magnified and they are now the reason the Sox are out of the playoffs. Having good defensive metrics is all well and good, but playing smart baseball is just as important IMO. 

 

The worst part is the chart shows six other teams in the top nine with the Red Sox -- who are there three times!

At least they're consistent at something (besides striking out with runners in scoring position).