Through the first three innings of the decisive Game 3 of the AL Wild Card series clash between the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees, with rookie starter Connelly Early holding his own against a very deep Yankees lineup. He was almost mirroring what Cam Schlittler was doing opposite him on the mound, but in the fourth inning, the floodgates opened, with the Yankees scoring four runs in quick succession to chase him out of the game in what was eventually a 4-0 win for New York.
Early exited the game having allowed four total runs (three earned) in just 3.2 innings of work for a rough single-start ERA of 7.36. But advanced metrics suggest that the rookie southpaw did not get any help from his defense whatsoever. As baseball content creator Dillard Barnhart pointed out on X (formerly Twitter), the Red Sox rookie had a fielding-independent pitching stat of 0.68, which means that he definitely took care of what he could have.
The fielding-independent pitching (FIP) stat focuses on strikeouts, walks, hit-by-pitches and home runs. Early struck out six, walked just one, did not hit any batter nor did he allow any home runs. Through the first three innings, he allowed just six balls in play. (The Yankees had two hits off of those.)
But in the fourth inning, the Red Sox starter allowed six balls in play, with the Yankees either reaching base or scoring a run in five of those. However, some balls were certainly playable and the Red Sox should have been better in fielding them. Instead, they hung Early out to dry.
Red Sox defense needs work
To start the fourth inning, Early induced a shallow fly ball from Cody Bellinger. Alas, the Red Sox outfielders weren't very sure of the ball's trajectory, with Ceddanne Rafaela failing to catch the ball on the dive. This gave the Yankees a leadoff double.
Amed Rosario, two batters later, hit a sharp groundball to shortstop that would have been difficult to field for even the best defender. The Red Sox get a pass for that. Jazz Chisholm Jr.'s single next time out was also on a sharp line drive to right field, which would be difficult for any outfielder to snag.
Anthony Volpe's RBI single, however, could have been dealt with better at second base. There might have been some positioning or reflex issues, but that wasn't hit very sharply and could have been a double play in another universe.
This opened up disaster for the Red Sox on the very next at-bat. After dodging a catcher's interference call, first baseman Nathaniel Lowe fluffed a ground ball straight towards him and took the ball out of reach from second baseman Romy Gonzalez and all the way to the outfield — allowing the Yankees to score two more runs.
The Red Sox have to make defensive improvements a priority this offseason, that's for sure.
