What we learned: Chad Tracy, bullpen and historically bad offense sink Red Sox originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston
Heading into the Wild Card Series, one could make a case that the Red Sox had a chance to beat the Yankees. It would take two or three great starts from Payton Tolle, Sonny Gray and/or Ranger Suarez, it would take some timely hitting to put two or three runs on the board per game, and it would take some lockdown relief innings from the back end of the bullpen.
Yet the Red Sox only got decent starts from Tolle and Gray, they set a new franchise record for offensive utility, and their bullpen was a catastrophe.
And the cherry on top was that their manager, who inked a contract extension last week, showed he certainly does not know how to manage in the postseason.
Other than that, did you enjoy the series?
Here’s everything we learned from the ever-so-brief two-game sweep in the Wild Card Series, as the 2026 team technically failed to get as far as the 2025 Red Sox.
Red Sox set ugly new franchise record
Red Sox history spans 126 seasons, so it was a bit surprising to see the broadcast note early in Game 2 that Boston was in the midst of rewriting franchise history with the longest scoring drought to start a postseason ever.
Obviously, the Red Sox’ offense has been stagnant (or worse) for weeks, but 26 previous trips to the playoffs, you’d figure that they had started off with a scoreless game and a half before.
Alas, nope. This drought was historic. It ended at 14.2 innings, broken by Willson Contreras’ solo shot with two outs in the sixth inning.
And while some of it may be explained by the absences of Roman Anthony and Mickey Gasper, there’s no excuse for a playoff team to be this helpless at the plate.
Chad Tracy is not a big-game manager right now
There may have been a case for Chad Tracy to pull Payton Tolle for Erik Miller in Game 1. Not really, but there could have been a case made for Miller’s sinker being more effective against Ben Rice than Tolle’s fastball.
Yet there’s simply no way to understand why one night later, Tracy made the exact same move.
With Sonny Gray at just 70 pitches and the Yankees leading 1-0 with two outs in the fifth inning, Tracy went back to Miller, this time with two runners on base and Cody Bellinger at the plate. The left-left matchup was presumably the reason for the call, but Bellinger crushes sliders from lefties. And when Miller threw a slider to Bellinger … he delivered.
Bellinger singled home a run, and Miller then gave up another hit to Luis Garcia Jr. The Red Sox only got out of the inning because Rice was caught at home after an aggressive send on that second single.
Gray’s pitch count of 70 was tied for his second-lowest of the season, and though he had allowed two singles in the fifth, his body of work over the season and over the past 13 years gave him a much better chance of escaping the mini jam than Miller, who had a 2.045 WHIP and 7.36 ERA in the month of September and who gave up a home run and a single while getting just one out the night before.
If Tracy was insistent that Gray had to come out of the game, he had, quite literally, every high-leverage arm available to him. Instead, he went with Erik Miller.
And with that same complement of arms available in the bottom of the sixth inning, Tracy went with Garrett Crochet, who hasn’t pitched in a game since April 25. It didn’t go well.
Tracy also showed a lack of feel for the moment when he let leadoff hitter Jahmai Jones, who batted .129 with a .432 OPS over the final 13 games of the regular season and who struck out looking twice, to take his third at-bat in the sixth inning, with the Red Sox trailing 2-0.
Given Boston’s offensive ineptitude, the bullpen decisions are perhaps all moot. But had this been a close series, or if the Red Sox find themselves in one in the future, Tracy will carry some major doubt regarding his ability to manage those games.
Simply put, Chad Tracy did not do a single thing right in these two high-stakes games.
Luis Garcia Jr.’s home run was great hitting, not bad pitching
It took until the fourth inning for the Yankees to get to Sonny Gray, but the solo homer he allowed to Luis Garcia Jr. didn’t come on a bad pitch at all.
Leading off the fourth, Garcia was behind in the count 1-2 when Gray tried to bury a sweeper down and in to the lefty. Gray hit his spot with a pitch that was set to hit the bottom of the strike zone. But Garcia simply stayed on the pitch and went down and got it.
Luis Gar-SEE-YA 🦁 pic.twitter.com/GqxScAqskG
— New York Yankees (@Yankees) October 1, 2026
With the Red Sox starved for runs, Garcia’s solo shot was a jarring reminder that all it takes is one good swing to put a run on the board.
Boston eventually got that swing from Contreras in the sixth, but that jolt of hope for the visiting team didn’t last long.
What could have been with Garrett Crochet …
If you just looked at the box score, you’d be shocked to see Garrett Crochet’s line. He faced four batters, allowing all of them to score. He didn’t record an out, despite getting Spencer Jones to chase strike three to start the sixth inning.
Of course, some of that outcome was fair, as Crochet allowed back-to-back singles. But Caleb Durbin couldn’t get the out at first on what was intended to be a sacrifice bunt, Crochet left with the bases loaded, and Garrett Whitlock — who had a dreadful night — couldn’t limit the damage at all.
Such an outcome was perhaps expected, considering Crochet has not pitched in a game since April 25 due to shoulder problems. But you also can’t help but wonder what would have happened if Adley Rutschman and Willson Contreras hadn’t combined to bungle Crochet’s inning-opening strikeout of Jones.
Rutschman took an extra beat to pounce on the ball that had bounced off his chest, and then he took an extra step before firing to first base. There, Contreras was planted on the back side of the base instead of the front. As a result, Jones was able to beat the throw.
Caleb Bowlin/Getty ImagesCredit to Aaron Boone for challenging that call, which was initially an out on the field, but really, it wasn’t even close.
Rutschman then compounded the matter by sailing a throw into center field when Jones stole second, allowing the runner to take third before scoring on a single. Had Rutschman made either of those two throws, it’s fair to wonder how differently Crochet’s inning could have gone.
Summing up the season
There will be plenty of time in the coming months to eulogize this season, but really, despite the 32-5 stretch in the summer, it wasn’t one to celebrate.
Last year’s team won a game in the Wild Card Series, a disappointing ending. This year’s team couldn’t even do that.
Injuries to Crochet and Anthony were certainly impactful, but this roster — and particularly the offense — was not built to contend for a World Series. The Red Sox scored two or fewer runs in 13 of their final 23 games, averaging 2.5 runs per game over that stretch.
With the season on the line, the Red Sox had Jahmai Jones, Nate Eaton and Nick Sogard in their starting lineup.
After trading three of their top-five prospects to acquire Adley Rutschman, the catcher batted .222 with a .688 OPS in the regular season before going 1-for-8 in the playoffs.
Willson Contreras, a 34-year-old former catcher with a lot of MLB miles on him, was worn down by the end of the season. Caleb Durbin, whose lows outnumbered his highs this year, went 0-for-7 in the playoffs. Ceddanne Rafaela posted the same numbers, too.
The return for Marcelo Mayer was Erik Miller, who made a strong first impression but played a pivotal role in sinking the team’s chances in both postseason losses after an extremely unreliable final month of the season.
The starting pitching staff was excellent, and the bullpen was elite. But the overall roster construction will lead to plenty of questions about Craig Breslow’s ability to build a real winner. Likewise, the two playoff games cast some serious doubt on whether Chad Tracy is a manager capable of winning games in October.
The 15-game winning streak and 32-5 stretch might have led to some internal victory laps and the decisions to stick with Breslow and Tracy for the foreseeable future. But the 2026 Red Sox, on the whole, were what they were: mediocre. And having been stuck in mediocrity (or worse) for half a decade, there won’t be much more patience in and around Boston for it to continue.
Technically, the historic season turnaround may have been a positive, as making the playoffs beats bottoming out more often than not. But considering that the Red Sox likely could have loaded up on promising players by selling off veteran pieces like Contreras, Gray, Aroldis Chapman and anyone else at the deadline, that run in July may have hurt the Red Sox in the long term — especially with the prospect haul that went out to acquire Rutschman.
In any event, the Red Sox finished as the third-best team in the AL East, and they failed to win a single playoff game, getting outscored 18-2 in their lone playoff series. That’s the final word on the season as the long offseason — potentially longer than most — awaits.
