The Boston Red Sox saw their hopes for winning the top American League wild-card spot dashed Sunday when they suffered a 16-1 shellacking at the hands of the New York Yankees, the team they are chasing for that coveted seeding that comes with home-field advantage in the wild-card playoff round.
The Red Sox still remain five games clear of the bottom wild-card position. They will try to regroup on Monday when they send rookie left-hander Payton Tolle to the mound at Fenway Park against the Seattle Mariners.
Before the Mariners series opener, the Red Sox announced a decision on their 16-win ace starter, in a move that is sure to send deep concern through Red Sox Nation.
Sonny Gray is skipping his scheduled turn Tuesday against Seattle, with the Red Sox pushing the 36-year-old’s next start back to Saturday in Baltimore.
The move buys Gray extra rest with four weeks left in the season, but it leaves Boston without a confirmed starter for Tuesday’s game against the Mariners.
Gray will next pitch Sept. 5 against the Orioles, 10 days after his most recent outing, according to Boston Globe reporter Tim Healey. Gray downplayed any physical concern.
“Take a few extra days, get your body right,” he said, as quoted by Healey.
Sonny Gray’s Rest Plan Explained
Interim manager Chad Tracy confirmed nothing is physically wrong, framing the skipped start as September rotation planning rather than a medical issue.
“We’re just talking through what we want to do,” Tracy said, as quoted by The Globe. “It’s September and we’re talking through, what do we want to do and how do we want to structure this rotation?”
Boston recently bumped rookie Jake Bennett back for similar workload reasons, and Gray’s turn is the same idea applied to the staff ace. The Red Sox are in the middle of a 13-day, 14-game stretch with no days off, punctuated by last Saturday’s doubleheader in Yankee Stadium, and Gray has mostly pitched on four days’ rest throughout August.
His velocity dipped slightly in his most recent outing, and the Red Sox aren’t ruling out something minor, NBC Sports noted.
MLB.com‘s Ian Browne offered his take on social media.
“The Red Sox either want to build extra rest for Sonny Gray, or he’s dealing with something minor. Strange they scratched him for Tuesday without great internal backup options,” Browne wrote.
Red Sox Pitching Plans for Tuesday
Boston has already lined up the rest of the Seattle series. Lefty Payton Tolle takes his normal turn Monday, and left-hander Patrick Sandoval starts Wednesday, according to the team’s probable pitchers listing. Tuesday remains a blank slate.
Active rosters expand from 26 to 28 players on Tuesday, giving the Sox the chance to add a spot starter. Triple-A Worcester righty Jedixson Paez is the name drawing the most buzz. He was lined up as Worcester’s Sunday starter and didn’t pitch, positioning him for a callup.
Paez has allowed just four runs on seven hits with an 18-2 strikeout-to-walk ratio over his last 12 1/3 innings, according to a Worcester Telegram & Gazette report. Paez struck out eight over five innings in his most recent turn.
Gray remains Boston’s top starting pitcher this season, ranking fourth in the American League with a 2.82 ERA across 25 starts, and he leads the club in innings and starts. His most recent outing, a five-inning, two-run loss Aug. 26 at Miami, was uncharacteristically shaky behind sloppy defense.
The extra rest comes in the middle of his first season in Boston. The Red Sox acquired Gray from the Cardinals in November, sending Richard Fitts, Brandon Clarke and Patrick Galle to St. Louis. He’s a three-time All-Star and finished as American League Cy Young runner-up with Minnesota in 2023, a résumé built over stops with Oakland, the Yankees, Cincinnati, Minnesota and St. Louis before Boston.
