The harsh realities of the postseason
NEW YORK - Thursday night did not present the best version of the 2025 Red Sox by a long shot, and because of it, they are going home.
The offense was punchless. The defense offered up too many miscues. And, this time, there were no late-inning answers to surface the kind of resiliency that got them to this point in the postseason.
All of it landed the Red Sox with a season-ending, 4-0 loss to the Yankees in Game 3 of the teams' best-of-three Wild Card round at Yankee Stadium.
There was simply not a lot of room for error with this team, as was amplified by the one-run Game 2 loss. And, ultimately, the pile of problems was too much for this version of the Red Sox to overcome.
And an absolutely dominant Cam Schlittler didn't help matters.
This time, the door the Red Sox allowed the Yankees to walk through appeared in the fourth inning. It would be all New York would need.
With both rookie starters, Connelly Early of the Red Sox and the Yankees' Schlittler, cruising through the first three frames, Cody Bellinger started the home half of the fourth with a seemingly harmless fly ball. But a bad jump by centerfielder Ceddanne Rafaela allowed the ball to land safely, resulting in a leadoff double.
"Right there I just gave my all to catch it," Rafaela explained. "I saw Willy maybe didn’t have a chance, so I gave my all to catch that ball. … I just saw he wasn’t going to be able to get to it and I dove to catch it."
And that's when the wheels started falling off.
After a Giancarlo Stanton walk and Ben Rice strikeout, the Yankees took advantage of Jarren Duran's arm in left field when Amed Rosario drove in Bellinger with a single. Two more singles by Jazz Chisholm and Anthony Volpe boosted the hosts' lead to 2-0, still with just one out.
Then, on what could have been an inning-ending double play ball off the bat of Austin Wells, first baseman Nathaniel Lowe saw his attempt at backhanding the grounder ricochet into right field, leading to two more runs.
Early would last one more batter before ending his night, having given up four runs (3 earned) on six hits, striking out six and walking one while throwing 78 pitches.
"I thought Connolly was awesome tonight," said Red Sox third baseman Alex Bregman. "I thought he attacked the zone. He’s going to have an extremely bright future. He’s going to be a really, really great pitcher in this game. There was a blooper that started the inning and some kind of seeing-eye ground balls after that. Other than that, he threw really, really well. I was super proud of him. The moment was definitely not too big for him."
While the Red Sox lefty wasn't all that bad, he certainly couldn't match the performance turned in by his counterpart, Schlittler.
The rookie from Walpole and Northeastern University used pinpoint 100 mph heat to befuddle Red Sox hitters for most of the night. Schlittler became the first Yankees rookie to strike out as many as 12 hitters in a postseason game, tossing eight shutout innings while giving up five hits and not a single walk over 107 pitches.
The Red Sox managed to get just one hitter to second base throughout Schlittler's entire outing.
It would be the fifth time the Red Sox were shut out this season, the last occasion coming back on July 19.
All the questions surrounding the Red Sox heading into the postseason seemed to pop up far too many times. And in these final two games, there were no answers to be had.
"I had a blast this year," Cora said after the loss. "Like I said before, pulling for them, grinding with them. Me and my family really enjoyed this season. The last few years have been tough with the up and downs, and where we were as an organization, but I think the front office has done an amazing job pushing forward in certain areas, and it was a fun season. It was.
"Obviously, we should feel the way we feel right now, because we had bigger goals, but when we have time to reflect how we did things this year, this is what the Boston Red Sox are, you know. It is a good group. It is a good group.
They are fun. They are intense when they play. They really like each other. Probably the other 29 teams can say the same thing, right? But I had fun managing this team. It was great.