The Red Sox will be without Lucas Giolito against the Yankees in the Wild Card series. He wasn’t expected to pitch until a potential game three, but he’s dealing with an elbow injury that’s keeping him
off the roster. Truth be told, I wouldn’t have been overly confident in Giolito starting a winner-take-all game anyway, but it leaves the team an arm short.
So, who should start a must-win game in the Bronx?
Connelly Early
Sending Connelly Early in front of a rabid Yankee Stadium crowd is probably against hazing laws, but if I got hazed by my college frisbee team, it’s only fair that he goes through it for professional baseball, right?
If I actually had to choose, Early would be my pick. In his four starts since being called up, he hasn’t looked like a rookie at all. Sometimes, simply throwing enough pitches is enough to get you through an outing, and Early has several. Here are his pitch movements from his last outing:
There are six distinct shapes here, and he’s been able to throw strikes with most of them. He doesn’t need to give you seven shutout innings, either, and the Yankees haven’t seen him before. All of that together is enough to get through a lineup once, maybe twice, and that should be considered a win in October. He also has a great pickoff move, and controlling the running game is big in the postseason.
If you had told me in August that Connelly Early is starting a must-win game, I’d be wondering how I wound up at an Early family reunion, but now, I’d give him the ball and feel okay about it. Pressure makes diamonds, baby!
Kyle Harrison
Harrison is pretty much the only other guy who is stretched out to start a game. I broke down his first Red Sox start last week. The big takeaway was that his cutter is the key to his success. In his last outing, he barely featured the cutter at all, and couldn’t land his fastball for strikes. If Harrison winds up on the mound in a big spot, I’ll be watching with one of the only parts of your body that can be clenched, clenched. Hint: It’s not fists.
Bullpen Game
In all likelihood, this is what we’ll see. If Early or Harrison starts, they’ll be hooked at the first sign of trouble. Before the Red Sox had clinched, Harrison was yanked in the fourth inning with 65 pitches. Alex Cora is incredibly aggressive with his bullpen in the postseason, and that’s what will happen again if it gets to Thursday.
Jose Dé León
He pitched game 162 and did a fabulous job. He also seems like he would really appreciate the opportunity. Sure, he’d be on short rest and hadn’t won a major league game since 2019 and was 0-9 in Worcester, but imagine if it worked. They’d make movies about that. That’s right, plural. ESPN is doing another documentary about the 2004 ALCS, so why not the Jose Dé León surprise Wild Card start documentary? I’d be a talking head for it if they asked. They could probably get at least Casey Affleck, and Mark Wahlberg would pretend like he cares about sports. Chills, man, chills.
Nobody
What if Garrett Crochet shoved the ball down the Yankees’ throats for eight innings, and then Brayan Bello did the same the next day? What if I could have a free Thursday night instead of another three-hour stressfest? What if the Red Sox guaranteed a home playoff game to which I already purchased tickets? What if we got to laugh at Yankees fans yet again?
Let’s just not get to game three.
