The Friday night celebration for the Red Sox spilled into the early hours of Saturday morning. When they took the field for their 4:10 pm matchup with the Tigers, they did so still feeling the effects from the night before.
“They’re hungover, that’s the reality of it,” said manager Alex Cora pregame. “But we will show up today, and we will try to kick their ass.”
Boston’s focus is on Tuesday night, when they will travel to face a yet-to-be-determined opponent in their first playoff game in four years. The team’s attention—or lack thereof—on the present was evident, from the lineup (resting Alex Bregman, Trevor Story, Jarren Duran, among others) to Cora standing at the top of the dugout steps with a lollipop in hand as he watched on.
“Their mindset is already on Tuesday, to be honest with you,” Cora said pregame.
The Red Sox earned their celebration and are mostly just playing out the schedule, focused on entering the postseason healthy. But these games aren’t entirely meaningless—evaluations are still taking place, and Connelly Early continued to show he can be a contributor down the stretch.
The 23-year-old, ranked by Baseball America and MLB.com as Boston’s No. 6 prospect and fourth pitching prospect, threw five strong innings, allowing four hits, two runs, and striking out seven. Fifty of his 86 pitches were strikes, generating 10 swings and misses. He used a mix of six pitches: fastball (33%), curveball (26%), changeup (20%), slider (9%), sweeper (7%), and sinker (6%).
After a leadoff single to begin the game, the southpaw retired 13 consecutive batters.
“He was really good. Good fastball, good breaking ball. Threw strikes. He’s a good pitcher,” Alex Cora said after the game. “He’s only had one bad inning, right? The first one in Tampa. He’s so calm, and he understands what he needs to do. He prepares. He’s not afraid. He’s a big part of what we’re trying to accomplish. Let’s see what happens, the decisions we make, but he’s a part.”
It’s not to be ignored that the Tigers needed a win to make the postseason and remain very much in the AL Central race. They weren’t mailing it in, which gave the rookie valuable experience and a glimpse of the competition he could encounter in the playoffs.
“It’s really fun. Competitive game, the whole game, and it’s good to face a really good lineup that’s also going to be in postseason ball,” Early said of the competition. “So I had a lot of fun out there.”
Through four starts (19.1 innings), Early has posted a 2.33 ERA. His 29 strikeouts are tied with Tanner Houck (2020-21) and Buck O’Brien (1911) for the second-most through a player’s first four career starts in Red Sox history, behind only Daisuke Matsuzaka’s 31 in 2007. He is just the seventh Red Sox pitcher all-time to allow two earned runs or fewer over 4.0+ innings in each of their first four career games.
Opponents have recorded just six hits and five earned runs against Early, posting a .230 average. He has yet to allow a home run and has walked only four batters.
“I feel pretty good so far. I’ve stuck to my guns, been able to make good pitches, and feel like I’ve prepared pretty well going into each outing,” said Early. “So just trying to stick with that, and hopefully, carry that over into the postseason.”
Garrett Crochet, Lucas Giolito, and Brayan Bello will be the starters for the Wild Card series. But Early says he’s ready to pitch out of the bullpen if needed—and he’s proving he should be part of the postseason plans in some fashion.
“I’ll be ready to go whenever they call my name,” he said. “So if AC makes the decision to maybe move me to the ‘pen or something – whatever that may be, I’m ready to go.”
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