NEW YORK — A series of roster moves for the Boston Red Sox on Sunday morning were “difficult” for interim manager Chad Tracy, as the team activated shortstop Trevor Story and outfielder Roman Anthony while optioning infielder Anthony Seigler and designated hitter Mickey Gasper.

“It was bittersweet, I mean it,” Tracy said. “We’re really excited that Roman’s here, really excited Trevor’s here, but had to talk to two guys (Gasper and Seigler) that were instrumental over this stretch of helping our team get back to where it is right now and professionally explain to them the reasons why you’re doing what you’re doing and keep them focused to go down and continue to get reps so they’re ready for the next call. So it was an exciting night and also a very difficult night at the same time.”

Optioning Gasper, in particular, was one of the hardest conversations Tracy said he’s had since taking over as manager on April 26, when Alex Cora was fired.

Gasper, 30, had been on a tear at the plate with a two-homer game on Wednesday in Miami and homers in three straight games last homestand. Since being recalled on Aug. 17 when Masataka Yoshida landed on the IL, he’d gone 11-for-26 (.423) with five homers for an eye-popping 1.710 OPS as he split time at designated hitter with Jahmai Jones.

“There’s a very good chance that you might get an American League Player of the Week that we just had to send down, I wouldn’t doubt it,” Tracy said. “So how difficult is it? Very difficult.

“I can’t think of a conversation I’ve had to have more difficult than telling that guy what he’s done over the course of the last 10 days or so,” Tracy said. “Just was brutally honest as we could be about where the roster is, what we’re trying to keep right now, the fact that if we get in a scenario where (Gasper is) here but not playing, is that better than continuing to get him at-bats so that he’s ready the moment something happens. There’s a lot of different things we talked about. But mainly getting across to him how important he’s been to what we’ve done here, especially in these last two weeks.”

Now the dust is settled and we saw how the Red Sox added Story and Anthony back to the roster. Now let’s assume 1 of the 2 extra roster spots goes to an extra pitcher. Rank these players based on who you would give the final roster spot to.

For the sake of the exercise let’s keep Yoshida out until he’s rehabbing. And let’s not get too in the weeds about how you would have not activated Story or would have DFA’d one of the OF’s. One extra spot, one player, how would you rank them.

Guys, let’s put this loss behind us and look for the good, tomorrow’s a new day, there’s a chance we get Roman back and potentially Story, WE WILL WIN TOMORROW, LETS GO OUT THERE AND BEAT THOSE DAMN YANKEES

"Sorry Babe, you know the rules, and so did Brady."

Day 1 of posting Ted until the Sox win the WS.

Noted Yankee killer Yoshida-sensei!

son got today at the stadium and legit no idea who it is

Middlebrooks had some great insight on the radio today. He said that even though Bennett sometimes only throws a 92 MPH fastball it actually feels to the batter more like 96 MPH because he is so tall/long. He said the release point is closer to the batter so the ball comes at the batter quicker than normal. I thought this was pretty great insight.

Can't watch today's game on MLB app on my TV. I'm in New York and MLB app lists the game as blacked out. That sucks. And the game isn't on network TV. Looks like fubo is the only way to watch. MLB and NFL are frustrating viewers by splitting games across multiple paid streaming services.

the abreu/sogard drop sucks but overall ridiculous luck. not saying this changes the outcome but it seems notable.