The Boston Red Sox were swept out of the Wild Card Series by the New York Yankees in two games. Outscored 18-2. Seven hits in 18 innings. A season that featured one of the great turnarounds in franchise history, ended with the most lopsided first-round exit in the brief era of the best-of-three format.
Most of the postgame locker room on Wednesday night was quiet. Willson Contreras was not.
The first baseman was one of the only Red Sox hitters who produced in the series. He went 2-for-2 with a home run and two walks in Game 2. He reached base four times. The rest of the lineup combined for two.
After the game, he spoke about what went wrong.
Red Sox Star Does Not Hold Back
Contreras started with the basics. The Red Sox did not hit and did not pitch. That much was obvious.
When pressed on how an offense that led the American League in runs per game over a 60-game stretch regressed to the worst-hitting team in baseball by September, Contreras chose his words carefully.
“That’s a good question. I’m not going to answer it because I don’t want to give my honest answer,” Contreras said. “We got eliminated. That’s the bottom line.”
He then gave his honest answer, when asked about the decision to remove Sonny Gray from the game.
“It’s not enough when you have talent or you have data or you have computers telling you what to do,” Contreras said. “This is baseball and the data is here to help us. But at the end of the day, you’re going to need experience and veteran guys to win games. There’s a lot of stuff that I would love to say but I’ll stay with that.”
“If You Watch the Game”
The sharpest moment came when a reporter asked directly whether Contreras believed the Red Sox were too reliant on analytics.
“If you watch the game,” Contreras said. “If you watch the game.”
Contreras believes the Red Sox leaned too heavily on data-driven decision-making at the expense of in-game feel and veteran instinct.
He was asked whether players could do anything to encourage the organization to evolve its approach.
“I cannot make decisions,” Contreras said. “The only thing that I can control is my part of the game. Making decisions about data, about all that stuff, we cannot do anything about it.”
He paused.
“We are employees,” Contreras said. “We get paid to play baseball, and we play to be out there on the field to perform. That’s the bottom line.”
Final Word for the Red Sox
Willson Contreras watched the Red Sox score two runs in two playoff games. He was responsible for half of them. He watched his teammates go hitless with runners in scoring position across the series. And he watched the bullpen give away leads both nights.
Then he stood at his locker and said what most people in the building were thinking. The data is here to help. It is not here to replace what experience and instinct bring to the game.
“If you watch the game,” Contreras said. He did not need to finish the sentence.
Red Sox Star Calls Out Team’s Approach After Brutal Playoff Exit