The Boston Red Sox did themselves zero favors when they were eliminated by the New York Yankees.

While the Yankees’ pitching staff was excellent, the Red Sox defense was abysmal. Alex Bregman was very blunt in his assessment of the defensive miscues.

“This is brutal,” Bregman told ESPN via The Associated Press. “We just didn’t get the job done.”

Boston made two critical errors in Game 3 that helped seal its fate. One was courtesy of shortstop Trevor Story, and the other was via first baseman Nathaniel Lowe.

Committing errors in any playoff game will kill a team’s chances of winning and ultimately moving on to the next round. Doing so against a team as good as the Yankees is asking for trouble.

“We didn’t play defense,” Cora told ESPN via the AP. “The pop-up drops, it’s a double, and then there’s a walk. They didn’t hit the ball hard, but they found holes and it just happened fast.”

Defensive miscues have been the story of the season for Boston. The Red Sox led the league with 116 errors during the regular season, which averages out to 0.72 errors per game. For Cora and the entire coaching staff, that has to be a fundamental change between this season and next season if the organization wants to go deeper into the playoffs.

Addressing the defense will certainly be a key part of the offseason plan as the organization hopes to keep Bregman for years to come, but it will also need to address other shortcomings in the field as well.