There is very little context in these parts when it comes to playing one win-or-go-home game immediately after the regular season. For the Red Sox, that last one came back in 1978.
"Not too familiar," said Red Sox manager Alex Cora when asked what he knew about that Game 163 against the Yankees. "When I was three, I had a big yellow bat, wearing diapers, running around the little league ballpark with my dad. But not too familiar. I have seen the videos and all of that. Peter, the legend, Gammons, he'll always talk about that game. But no, no, I'm more about '86 and (Aaron) Boone hit a homer and all that."
But that doesn't mean this collection of Red Sox are totally flying blind when it comes to Tuesday night's Wild Card showdown against the Yankees.
Adam Ottavino, for instance, can offer first-hand knowledge for what his teammates and Red Sox fans might expect when it comes to this dynamic, having been part of two Wild Card games while pitching for the Rockies.
"That's the most pressure game there is," the Red Sox reliever told WEEI.com. "You play the whole season and you want to at least give yourself a shot with a series. That game is nerve-wracking. We lost it in '17, so you feel like this, 'That was it? That sucks.' Then we won it in '18 and you felt like, 'Alright, we broke through. We're going to give ourselves a chance. We are going to have a home playoff game.' We ended up getting swept, anyway.
"I think that game is like a Game 7 right out of the shoot. It's a different feeling. ... It just feels like a lot is riding on it because you want to give your team a chance in a series. Get a little momentum and see how far it will take you."
There are two different conversations when it comes to the dynamic, according to Ottavino: The actual strategy that goes along with the game, and then the emotions that come seemingly out of nowhere.
The righty remembered the one time he pitched in the Wild Card game, coming in with two outs in the seventh inning against the Cubs back in 2018. In that game, Colorado starter Kyle Freeland had made Rockies manager Bud Black call somewhat of an audible after cruising through 6 2/3 innings.
"Bud Black told me he would be bringing me in as early as the fourth inning in that game," Ottavino remembered. "That's just different than now. In a regular season, I'm not going to come in until at least the sixth. So I was pacing around down there for the fourth inning, fifth inning, sixth inning and I finally came in during the seventh inning of that game."
Then there are the looming consequences that come with the one game.
For Yankees fans, it is somewhat old hat considering this will be their fifth go-round with the Wild Card since the dynamic was instituted in 2012. Not so for most of those showing up at Fenway Park Tuesday night.
"I think they are some of the most entertaining games for the fans, I think," Ottavino said. "We have had some crazy ones. (Madison) Bumgarner threw a complete game. The Arrieta one against the Pirates (9 shutout innings in 2015), where he pretty much won it by himself. You have the Colorado against Arizona game, where it was like 13-11. A couple of late-inning comebacks. I just feel like that game is very drama-filled, always. It's managed totally different than the games immediately preceding it. All of a sudden it is like a total mindset change.
"It's a scary game as a fan because you're facing your mortality as a team right away, that day. But I think it's entertaining. I don't know if it is the fairest way to judge anything. Of course, three games or five games would be fairer to judge your team as a complete unit, depth-wise. But something about the one game ... I've had a good time in them. Feeling the emotions, and seeing both sides, winning one and losing one.
"Game 7 is the same deal, except there is all that attrition from the previous games."
Another member of the Red Sox who has first-hand knowledge of this made-to-order elimination day is Chief Baseball Officer Chaim Bloom.
While serving in the Tampa Bay front office, Bloom went through the Wild Card scenario twice, winning both in 2013 and 2019. His advice? Don't stray too far from what got you there.
"Obviously, you have the ability to put a little more detail into it than you might normally, but it is still a baseball game," Bloom told WEEI.com. "If you try and get away from some of the things you have done to win a game you probably are doing something wrong. How Alex and the staff are going to run the game is obviously a little different given it is do or die, but it is still a baseball game. You have to still try and go out and hopefully play crisp, clean baseball and take home a win.
"It is basically that you are jumping straight to Game 7. It's win or go home for both sides, and you know nothing is going to be left on the table by either team because if you don't win this game your season ends. It's true for both teams. You know there are going to be no punches pulled, so that might impact how you look at things tactically. But I think the teams that do the best marching through October are the teams that don't get away from the things that make you a great baseball team on a given night. Just go out there and take care of business. Stay in the moment and get the job done."
Welcome to the weird world of the Wild Card.