NEW YORK – They’ve put the “wild” in Wild Card Series.
With New York’s 4-3 victory in Game 2 of the best-of-three series, the two teams will embrace the chaos of a winner-take-all Game 3 under fascinating circumstances. Both teams are almost certain to roll with rookies as starting pitchers, with Walpole native Cam Schlittler – who forged a 2.96 ERA in 14 starts for the Yankees this year – expected to oppose Sox lefty Connelly Early, whose big league experience consists of four starts.
This isn’t the first time two rookies have opposed each other in a winner-take-all playoff game. In Game 7 of the 2020 NLCS, Atlanta had Ian Anderson oppose Dodgers rookie Dustin May. Anderson allowed two runs in three innings, while May gave up one run in one inning of a bullpen game. The Dodgers eventually won on the way to a title.
Those short outings highlight the kitchen sink mentality that comes with a winner-take-all contest – particularly with unproven starters. We have arrived at the stage of thrillingly weird, unpredictable, anything-goes baseball.
Are you not entertained?
Red Sox manager Alex Cora hooked starter Brayan Bello after just 11 batters and 2 1/3 innings on Wednesday in a 2-2 game. With New York’s lefties taking great swings against the righthanded Bello, Cora opted to bring in lefty Justin Wilson to face Cody Bellinger (first-inning single off Bello) and Ben Rice (first-inning homer).
It was a bold roll of the dice for Cora to play what Terry Francona calls a “Johnny Wholestaff” game and seek at least 17 outs from his bullpen. But in the playoffs, Cora has learned to manage for today – not for the next game – and at considerable risk, he did just that in a 2-2 game in Game 2.
It worked brilliantly – until it didn’t. After the Sox bullpen delivered 12 outs while holding the Yankees to one run into the eighth, Garrett Whitlock stumbled in a 3-3 contest, giving up a two-out walk to Jazz Chisholm Jr. followed by an RBI single by Austin Wells on Whitlock’s 39th pitch. Whitlock ended up throwing a season-high 47 pitches over 1 2/3 innings.
Now, the Sox must ask: Can Whitlock come back and pitch in the elimination game tomorrow? Will Justin Wilson (1 2/3 innings) or Steven Matz (1 1/3 innings) be in play? Cora managed for Wednesday. But now, he may be hamstrung on Thursday.
Bello’s short start combined with the absence of Lucas Giolito raises questions about whether the Sox rotation is simply Garrett Crochet and Come What May (and we’re not talking about Dustin). Early has won the trust of the team, but it’s somewhere between difficult and impossible to forecast how deep he can work into playoff games. If Crochet is the only starter capable of giving the Sox more than two times through a lineup, it’s fair to wonder if or when the Sox bullpen might run out of gas.
Before Wednesday’s game, Trevor Story described his team as “scrappy” for the opportunistic way it produces runs. A game-tying, two-run rally in the third inning lived up to that billing, with a Jarren Duran single, Ceddanne Rafaela walk (his second in as many days), and Nick Sogard sacrifice bunt loading the bases in advance of a two-run single by Story against Carlos Rodón.
But Story showed that the Sox can do a bit more than flip pitches around the field, blasting a solo homer to left in the sixth inning against Rodón to once again tie the game, 3-3 – an important sign for the Sox if they’re to stay in the postseason mix. In their last 20 playoff games without a homer dating to 2008, the Sox are 6-14.
Their homerless Game 1 win was an exception rather than a template. They’ll need more lightning from Story and others if they hope to play deeper into October.
Alex Speier can be reached at alex.speier@globe.com. Follow him @alexspeier.
