Story perspectives

Red Sox Pull Sonny Gray in Wild Card Loss

By Drooid · Oct 2, 2026, 10:44 PM UTC · How we work

Summary

Chad Tracy Pulls Gray

Red Sox manager Chad Tracy pulled starter Sonny Gray in Game 2 of the AL Wild Card.
Tracy said the team’s trailing and scoring woes forced the aggressive move.
Analytics showed Gray’s third-time-through OPS .515 and xwOBA .231, suggesting he should have stayed.
Yankees completed a 9-2 sweep on Sept. 30, eliminating Boston.
Catcher Willson Contreras criticized the Red Sox for over-relying on data.

Summary

Yankees Sweep Series

The Red Sox’s 32-5 mid-season surge collapsed in the Wild Card, ending a two-year postseason streak.
Starter Sonny Gray finished 18-5 with a 2.72 ERA, ranking fifth in the American League.
The Yankees swept the series, winning Game 1 9-0 and Game 2 9-2.
Reliever Erik Miller entered both games, inherited runners and allowed key hits that widened the lead.

History

Historical Context

Sabermetrics began with Earnshaw Cook’s 1964 *Percentage Baseball* and gained credibility when Bill James released his *Baseball Abstract* in 1977. After Billy Beane became Oakland’s GM in October 1997, he used those metrics to guide the low-payroll A’s to a 103-win, 20-game streak in 2002—a story popularized by Michael Lewis’s 2003 *Moneyball*. Boston’s 2024 decision to pull Sonny Gray shows the same analytics-first mindset.

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Chad Tracy Pulls Gray

Red Sox manager Chad Tracy pulled starter Sonny Gray in Game 2 of the AL Wild Card.
Tracy said the team’s trailing and scoring woes forced the aggressive move.
Analytics showed Gray’s third-time-through OPS .515 and xwOBA .231, suggesting he should have stayed.
Yankees completed a 9-2 sweep on Sept. 30, eliminating Boston.
Catcher Willson Contreras criticized the Red Sox for over-relying on data.

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