'I Would Have Liked to Have Been Trusted': Sonny Gray Wasn't Ready to Leave

Sonny Gray had thrown 70 pitches. Boston trailed 1-0 in the fifth inning, Ben Rice had just singled with two outs to put runners on the corners, and Chad Tracy walked out to take the ball.

Gray didn't hide how he felt about it after the Yankees finished a 9-2 win on Wednesday night and a Wild Card sweep.

I think I'm the best pitcher in the American League going through the order a third time. I think that's a fact. I would have liked to have been trusted in that moment.

"I felt good. I felt crisp. I felt sharp," said Gray, an 18-game winner this season.

Two quick hooks

Tracy wanted to get to the bullpen that had been the best in baseball during the regular season. It didn't work either night. In Game 1 he pulled Payton Tolle after 4⅔ innings and 83 pitches with the game at 1-0, and the Yankees won 9-0.

Boston's starters kept the games close. The problem was everything after them, and the offense. New York had 26 hits in the series. Boston had seven, and didn't score until Willson Contreras homered in the sixth inning Wednesday, ending a postseason scoreless streak of 26 innings that dated to last October.

"To have it end here two times in a row is tough," shortstop Trevor Story said. A year ago the Red Sox also lost to the Yankees, in three games.

A strange year ends

Tracy is a rookie manager who took over when Alex Cora was fired in April, and he led a midseason turnaround to get Boston here. His decisions in this series will be part of how the front office judges that.

"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."