FORT MYERS, Fla. — Red Sox reliever Garrett Whitlock never wants what happened to him at Yankee Stadium during the 2025 postseason to happen to him again.
The righty was tired physically on the mound when he allowed the go-ahead run to score in the eighth inning in Game 2 of the 2025 AL Wild Card series.
“I spent all offseason really doing a different conditioning program than I normally do because I don’t want to be embarrassed like that again where I just ran out of steam,” Whitlock said Friday at JetBlue Park. “I don’t want to ever have that happen again. And so I’m doing conditioning different this year and making sure that I don’t put myself in that position.”
Whitlock entered Game 2, in the seventh inning, with the score tied 3-3. He pitched a scoreless seventh and manager Alex Cora sent him back out for the eighth inning.
He retired the first two hitters he faced in the eighth, but then walked one, allowed two singles and walked another. The Yankees took a 4-3 lead and won by that score. Whitlock said after the game that he “got tired towards the end.”
“I would do conditioning before I throw my bullpens this offseason to make sure I’m tired when I’m getting on the mound,” Whitlock said. “So then that way it’s like I knew I’m pitching tired and just building extra conditioning. Like I said, I was pissed off that I was tired at the end of that outing. And I did everything I can this offseason. And I continue to do everything to make sure that that doesn’t happen again.”
In his final 38 regular-season appearances of 2025, Whitlock recorded more than five outs in an outing just one time. He pitched two innings in an outing Aug. 11 at Houston. He recorded three or fewer outs in 32 of the other 37 outings.
He said he worked with a strength coach during the offseason.
“I was doing sprint work, I was doing shuttles and everything like that before I would get on the mound to throw a bullpen,” he said.
He said he wasn’t only building endurance but learning to find a way to pitch through the fatigue.
“I only took one week off and I was right back in the gym, right back throwing and everything like that,” he said.