The winner will advance to face the Blue Jays in the American League Division Series, which begins Saturday in Toronto. The loser will go home for the offseason.
“It’s going to be wild,” said Trevor Story, who in Game 2 had two tying hits, including a home run in the sixth. “The last two nights have been wild, so I wouldn’t expect anything less.”
In a sullen Sox clubhouse, Story’s facial expression matched that of Whitlock, who ended at a season-high 47 pitches; of Carlos Narváez, whose attempted tag of Chisholm was a tick late; of Jarren Duran, who hammered himself for dropping Aaron Judge’s RBI single in the fifth; and of Ceddanne Rafaela, whose deep drive to right field in the ninth stopped short of the wall.
They were narrowly beaten on the field, yes. They also were just beat — emotionally and physically.
“I got tired toward the end,” Whitlock said, “but thought I made some good pitches and did a good job.”
Duran said: “This one is going to sting a little bit. I know that game is 100 percent on me. If I make that play, Trevor hits the homer, we take the lead. But I messed it up. I gave them momentum … That one’s on me. I’m going to have to wear that one.”
And Narváez: “We had a chance to win that one.”
Setting up the late dramatics were, well, early dramatics in the form of a bold play by manager Alex Cora.
He pulled righthander Brayan Bello after just 2⅓ innings (two runs on a homer by Cohasset’s Ben Rice), aggressively leaning on the well-rested bullpen in an effort to finish off the Yankees — a risk-reward calculation that he decided was worth it.
By going to his relievers so early, Cora got the handedness-based matchups that he wanted, which he felt best paved the road to success on this particular night. If it worked, the Sox would not only advance but have an extra day off (two total) before the ALDS. That would allow them to reset their relievers.
It didn’t work, though, so Cora wound up asking his bullpen to carry a heavy load going into a decisive Game 3, which likely also will feature significant bullpen usage.
“It doesn’t feel good, you know, because you want the kid [Bello] to go out there and get his experience and pitch deep into the game,” Cora said. “I felt that moment, we needed to.”
Bello, through an interpreter, admitted to being “a little” surprised.
“I don’t feel disappointed about myself,” he said. “I felt like I tried to do my job and he made the decision to take me out.”
First up was lefthander Justin Wilson, who entered for a stretch of the New York lineup that included four lefthanders in a span of five batters. He retired all five.
Then came righthander Justin Slaten (two outs), lefthander Steven Matz (three), and righthander Zack Kelly (one).
The only run during those middle innings came in the fifth, when Judge singled off Slaten. Duran, in left, dove for and reached the ball, but it deflected off his glove, allowing a run to score.
“I didn’t have to go into a full dive there,” Duran said. “It’s on me.”
Cora pushed the bullpen buttons he wanted to get the game to Whitlock, whom he asked for six outs. He got five.
For months, the Red Sox have stressed using Whitlock for only one inning, believing that keeps him in top form. Under the pressure of the postseason, they extended him to the extreme. They were, as Cora said, “all in.”
In Whitlock’s second inning, the eighth, Chisholm worked a two-out walk. Wells yanked the seventh pitch of his at-bat, a changeup down, to right.
It was the first earned run Whitlock had yielded since Aug. 17. Before that, it was July 4.
“At that point, we were trying to win that game,” Cora said of sticking with Whitlock. “And it didn’t happen.”
Whitlock said: “I definitely lost command, and unfortunately that happened.”
The Red Sox managed three runs in lefthander Carlos Rodón’s six-plus innings, on Story’s two-run single in the third and homer in the sixth.
Masataka Yoshida came through with a pinch-hit single in the seventh, but Chisholm made a diving stop to keep it in the infield, saving at least one run.
Third base coach Kyle Hudson threw up a stop sign on Nate Eaton, who was running on the full-count pitch and could have scored had he kept running. Chisholm’s throw bounced away from Rice at first, but not far enough for Eaton to start up again.
“As I’m getting to third, I’m told to stop,” Eaton said, “and then I couldn’t see how far the ball was away when it got by Rice.”
That brought up Story, again, with the bases loaded. He flied out to deep center field.
The Sox’ last hope came against closer David Bednar, who retired the side in the ninth. Rafaela, author of three walkoff hits this year, blasted a fastball to the warning track in right, right into Judge’s glove.
“I knew it was going to be close, we know the ball flies here to right, you could tell he hit it well,” Story said. “So close.”
Tim Healey can be reached at timothy.healey@globe.com. Follow him @timbhealey.
