By Kaley Brown
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Boston Red Sox starting pitcher Sonny Gray made it clear over the winter he strongly disliked the New York Yankees when he played for them.
Pitching against his former team for the first time as a member of the Red Sox, he earned the victory in a 5-3 win for Boston Friday night.
Gray, 36, tossed 6.1 innings on 79 pitches (56 strikes) and picked up his seventh win of the season despite allowing eight hits (two home runs), three earned runs, and two walks at Yankee Stadium.
After being traded to the Red Sox this past offseason, the right-hander expressed his dislike for the Yankees. Gray pitched for New York in 2017 and 2018 after being traded there from the Athletics.
“I’ll tell you what did factor into my decision to come to Boston,” Gray said in December 2025. “It feels good to me to go to a place now where, you know what, it’s easy to hate the Yankees.”
Gray revealed he never wanted to play for New York. Across his 13-year MLB career prior to landing in Boston, his second-highest season ERA came in 2018 in New York (4.90).
“New York just wasn’t a good situation for me,” Gray said. “It wasn’t a great setup for me and my family. I never wanted to go there in the first place.”
In the aftermath of Gray’s comments, Yankees general manager Brian Cashman said Gray told people in New York he did want to play there and win a championship.
“That’s when he told me he never wanted to be here,” Cashman said Gray expressed to him in 2018. “He hates New York. ‘This is the worst place.’ He just sits in his hotel room.”
Fast forward to Gray’s latest start, he was neutral in his assessment of being back in the Bronx. However, he hinted his anticipation of returning to Yankee Stadium could have factored into why New York got on base so much against him.
“There was definitely some juice. Maybe that’s why my stuff was staying up a little bit, so I’ll learn from it and be able to control my emotions and my energy and be able to just make pitches,” Gray told reporters postgame. “Felt really good, but I feel like my stuff just stayed up, and maybe that was just because I felt really good. It was fun.
“I’ve been back here and pitched, but first time with the Red Sox, but I’m just glad we came away with the win.”
Gray had competed against the Yankees three times since 2018 (once at Yankee Stadium in 2022).
Through 11 starts (56.1 innings) this season, Gray is 7-1 with a 3.20 ERA and a 1.24 WHIP. The veteran has been a big part of a largely successful Red Sox rotation despite Garrett Crochet’s throwing shoulder inflammation.
Kaley Brown is a sports producer for Boston.com, where she covers the Bruins, Celtics, Patriots, and Red Sox.
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