Pillar apologizes for controversial comments after Red Sox chose not to play

Boston Red Sox outfielder Kevin Pillar apologized for his controversial comments made earlier this week regarding the team's decision to not play Thursday.

Pillar drew criticism for his apparent remarks about the Black Lives Matter movement after the Red Sox announced they weren't playing Thursday's game against the Toronto Blue Jays. The club's decision came after Red Sox outfielder Jackie Bradley Jr. - the team's lone Black player - chose not to play to protest police brutality, with his teammates eventually following in support.

"It's a touchy subject, but I don't think right now, as a country, we should be necessarily identifying individual groups of people that need to be uplifted," Pillar said Thursday, according to Jason Mastrodonato of the Boston Herald. "I think the vast majority of us would like to encourage to uplift everyone and support everyone."

In a video posted to his Twitter account Saturday, Pillar said he wanted to "better explain what I did a terrible job of expressing."

"I don't view the world how the world views it, and that's ignorant of me," he explained. "My point I was trying to make is we have a responsibility as human beings to uplift each other (and) make each other better every single day. We as individuals need to take responsibility for what is going on across the country and make it stop by continuing to educate each other (and) love each other.

"Black lives do matter to me. Always have, and always will."

Pillar also apologized "for not using my opportunity, my platform, to have spoken up about the injustices that we are seeing day in and day out across this country."

The 31-year-old Pillar is in his first season with the Red Sox. He was suspended in 2017 for uttering a homophobic slur at an opposing player while with the Blue Jays.