What a mess in New York. The Red Sox rolled the dice bringing back Garrett Crochet, the 2025 AL Cy Young runner-up, after he hadn’t pitched in a game since April 25. That gamble blew up in their faces, and it likely sealed their season in Game 2 of the AL wild-card series.
Tracy’s Risky Pitcher Swap Blows Up
Red Sox manager Chad Tracy threw Crochet into a two-run game in the sixth inning, a move that felt like their season was hanging by a thread. It looked like it might work for a second, with Crochet striking out the first batter he faced. But then the wheels fell off, hard and fast. A wild pitch let Spencer Jones reach first, then came a stolen base, followed by a throwing error. George Lombard Jr. dropped a solid single, Jazz Chisholm Jr. snuck a seeing-eye hit through, and Trent Grisham bunted for a single, loading the bases. Tracy had seen enough by then, pulling Crochet with the Yankees still only trailing 3-1.
From Bad to Absolute Catastrophe
The chaos continued after Crochet left the mound. Setup man Garrett Whitlock entered the game, and two more runs scored almost immediately. Whitlock gave up a sacrifice fly to Austin Wells and an RBI groundout to Ryan McMahon. Then, for some reason, Tracy ordered an intentional walk of Ben Rice. What happened next? Cody Bellinger absolutely crushed a two-run homer off Whitlock. What started as a 2-1 game exploded into an 8-1 blowout. Crochet was charged with four earned runs, without recording a single out. This whole “creative use of resources” turned out to be a total debacle, leading to a four-run hole with just nine outs to go, and effectively ending Boston’s season.
So yeah, for the Red Sox, that’s probably it for the season. What a brutal way to see your playoff hopes likely crash and burn in the wild-card series.
This article was created with AI assistance and published under Seattle On Tap’s editorial standards. See our Editorial Policy.
Originally reported by Yahoo Sports.
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