The Boston Red Sox have officially been eliminated from playoff contention. The Red Sox will miss out on the postseason for the fifth time in the last six years. Manager Alex Cora and company last reached the playoffs as a Wild Card in 2021. Boston made it to the ALCS that season, where they lost in six games to Cora’s old crew, the Houston Astros.
This year the Red Sox were knocked out of contention by their American League East rivals the Toronto Blue Jays, who laid a 6-1 beating on Boston Wednesday night. Now 80-79 with three games remaining in the regular season, the Red Sox are in danger of finishing with a third straight losing season.
After the playoff elimination loss, Cora addressed the media. “Our goal was to make it to [the] playoffs. It didn’t happen, but it’s a good learning experience for those kids over there. Obviously, it's going to be a different group next year, but for them to think that they were almost there. I mean, at one point it felt like we were a playoff-caliber team, and then we missed the opportunity. Let’s put it that way. You look around, you look at the teams that are fighting, we had it right there and we blew it,” Cora said of the Red Sox 2024 season, via MLB.com’s Ian Browne on X.
Alex Cora and the Red Sox fell short of the playoffs again
Boston certainly appeared to be a playoff-caliber team earlier this season. However, the Red Sox fell apart over the second half, going just 27-36 since returning from the All-Star break, the sixth-worst record in baseball during that span.
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The Red Sox needed to win the final four games of the regular season and get some help to snag the final AL Wild Card berth. Additionally, they needed to keep on winning without the services of third baseman Rafael Devers, who suffered a season-ending shoulder injury Saturday. The team was on the outside looking in at the playoffs but the Blue Jays made it official, ending Boston’s hopes of postseason baseball.
Despite the disappointing result, the 2024 season was encouraging for the Red Sox, who enter an important offseason for the future of the club. Boston does have some promising pieces to build around. In addition to Devers, Jarren Duran has impressed. His breakout 2024 campaign included a bit of history as Duran became the first player since Stan Musial in 1946 to hit 47 doubles and 14 triples in a single season.
