Early Exit Sinks Red Sox in Wild Card Heartbreaker
The do-or-die showdown between the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees in Game 3 of the American League Wild Card Series carried all the weight you’d expect from one of baseball’s fiercest rivalries. It was the Bronx stage, the season on the line, and two rookie pitchers staring down pressure that veterans sometimes crumble under. For the first three innings, Boston’s Connelly Early looked composed, almost unfazed, as he traded zeros with Yankees right-hander Cam Schlittler. But then came the fourth inning—a nightmare frame that changed everything.
It all started with what should have been a manageable fly ball to right-center. Ceddanne Rafaela tracked it awkwardly, took a wide route, and ultimately couldn’t secure the diving attempt. Instead of an out, it became a double for Cody Bellinger, and the door cracked open for New York. That misplay was followed by a walk, then an RBI single by Amed Rosario that broke the scoreless tie. What could have been just one run quickly spiraled into much more. Jazz Chisholm Jr. added a single to load the bases, and when Nathaniel Lowe misplayed what might’ve been a double-play ball, two more runs crossed the plate.
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By the time the inning ended, four Yankees had scored. Early had given up three hits, one walk, and had been let down by shaky defense behind him. Red Sox manager Alex Cora had a tough choice: pull the young lefty quickly, as he did with Brayan Bello in Game 2 after only 28 pitches, or let him push through the jam. This time, patience was shown, perhaps too much. Early stayed on just long enough to let the damage spread before Cora went to the bullpen.
The Yankees, meanwhile, backed Schlittler with solid defense and electric pitching. He racked up strikeouts—11 in total—and looked every bit the poised rookie that the crowd in the Bronx had been hoping for. His fastball consistently hovered in the upper 90s, and Boston’s lineup simply couldn’t solve him. Each inning that passed without a Red Sox answer made the four-run blow feel heavier, almost insurmountable.
Cora summed it up bluntly during his in-game interview: “We didn’t play defense behind him. They didn’t hit the ball hard. We just didn’t make outs.” And that’s what it came down to. This wasn’t an overpowering offensive surge by New York, but rather a string of small mistakes by Boston that piled into something much larger.
The Yankees rode that fourth-inning surge all the way through, closing out the Red Sox 4-0 and punching their ticket to face the Toronto Blue Jays in the Division Series. For Boston, the loss was a bitter end—especially after stealing Game 1 and having momentum on their side early in the series. The Red Sox had entrusted the ball to a top prospect making just his fifth big league start, and while flashes of promise were there, October proved unforgiving.
In the end, it wasn’t just Connelly Early’s struggles that told the story. It was the combination of youthful nerves, defensive miscues, and the inability to seize key moments. In October baseball, those cracks widen quickly. And under the bright lights of Yankee Stadium, Boston’s season came undone in one decisive inning.
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