Kyle Hudson is not exactly the most popular man in Boston right now.
The Red Sox third base coach Hudson drew the ire of Boston fans during Wednesday’s Game 2 loss to the New York Yankees due to his poor decision on a crucial late play. In the top of the seventh inning at Yankee Stadium in New York, N.Y. with the score tied 3-3, the Red Sox had runners on first and second and two away with Masataka Yoshida at the plate.
Yoshida hit a grounder to the right side that Yankees second baseman Jazz Chisholm made an incredible diving play on. While Chisholm was not able to get the out at first base, Hudson threw up the stop sign and held lead runner Nate Eaton at third base. The next batter, Trevor Story, then flew out to end the inning without a run scored.
Jazz made the biggest play of the season for the Yankees pic.twitter.com/vzeHsyDNrn
— Talkin’ Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) October 2, 2025
Take a look at the overhead angle of Hudson’s stop on the lead runner.
Here's a different angle of Nate Eaton staying put at third base on this ground ball https://t.co/m9teNjWKKH pic.twitter.com/iYJrZTEwMO
— Talkin’ Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) October 2, 2025
With two outs, Eaton was off on first contact and would have had momentum heading towards the plate. He is also a speedy runner (nine stolen bases for Boston in just 41 regular season games) and could only have been thrown out on an impossible play by Chisholm (whose body was faced the other way, such that he couldn’t even get the shorter throw to first base on time).
The Red Sox went on to lose the game to the Yankees 4-3 after Austin Wells hit a go-ahead RBI single during the bottom of the eighth inning. As such, plenty of Boston fans pointed the finger at Hudson for seemingly costing the team a run during the previous inning.
Hudson, 38, is a former MLB outfielder who is in his second season as the third base coach for the Red Sox (after spending one season as Boston’s first base coach). But after the Yankees got criticized for a polarizing move in Game 1 of the AL Wild Card series, it was Hudson who returned the favor with the Red Sox in Game 2.
