Red Sox Video
By virtue of an otherworldly start from Garrett Crochet and a subsequently disappointing one from Brayan Bello, the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees find themselves in a sudden death situation heading into Game 3 of the Wild Card Round.
The biggest rivals in baseball will counter each other with rookie starting pitchers, a rather foreboding premise given the stakes at hand. Cam Schlittler will trot out to the mound for New York, while Connelly Early will take the ball for Boston. You can be sure Aaron Boone and Alex Cora will tighten their leashes to the maximum setting; don't be surprised if the bullpens start showing signs of activity the moment the first pitch is thrown.
This is normally the point I'd start throwing reams of numbers at you. There's plenty to discuss, from Schlittler's hot streak (2.23 ERA in his final nine starts) to Early's impressive debut (2.33 ERA in September), but the truth is, once the game gets going, you have to throw all of that out. This is a winner-take-all situation; the abstract "intangibles" and leadership that people spend so much time overanalyzing are now set to have their time in the sun.
The Sox had the Yanks' number this year, winning the season series 9-4 and taking five of the seven regular season contests in Yankee Stadium. Does that matter now? It's hard to say, especially since a lot of this Yankees team went on a World Series run just last year, and a lot of this Red Sox team hadn't played in the postseason before Tuesday.
Does the "championship DNA" inside Alex Bregman, Nathaniel Lowe, Aroldis Chapman, and Alex Cora trump the longstanding October failures of Aaron Boone and Aaron Judge? Does Giancarlo Stanton's penchant for producing in prime moments rear its head in Game 3? Can the rookie starters possibly answer the call and deliver the performance of their lives?
It all feels so odd to ask, given that this is just the Wild Card Round. After all, the winner of this game needs to take on the top-seeded Toronto Blue Jays in a best-of-five series, and then they'd need to topple the Seattle Mariners (or the winner of the Cleveland Guardians and Detroit Tigers' own Game 3) in the ALCS just for the right to play in the World Series. The 2025 postseason is still so young, and "Game 3" doesn't have quite the same cachet or roll-off-the-tongue bravado of "Game 7". Even if the Red Sox come out on top, there's nothing -- other than good old Uncle Mo' -- that can possibly guarantee a deeper run into October.
Of course, that isn't to say this is for pride. The whole point of the postseason is just to make it to the dance; you never know what can happen once you get there. This iteration of the Red Sox is far from the best on-paper team in the playoffs, and it's almost certainly going to be the weakest version of the roster for years to come. Failure can be learned from, and there's no shame in losing to the reigning AL pennant winners, especially when your nominal Game 3 starter is out indefinitely with an elbow strain.
But this is the playoffs, damnit. The Red Sox earned their right to be here, and they've got one more crack at making a lot of New Yorkers really, really angry for the next six months. Connelly Early might not have been anyone's first choice to start a sudden death game in October, but neither was Cam Schlittler. This is all hands on deck. Rookie starting pitchers, taxed bullpens, injured lineups—all of it is in search of the only thing that truly matters in sports: winning.
For three glorious hours tonight, the oldest rivalry in America's Pastime will participate in a de facto Game 7 for the right to go to Canada. That might not be how anyone drew it up, but things rarely go to plan in baseball. All the Red Sox can do now is win this game.
Recommended Comments
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now