Red Sox Rookie Stepping Into Unknown Territory

When Connelly Early takes the ball for game three of the Wild Card series, he’ll become the first pitcher to ever start a winner-take-all game within 30 days of his major league debut.

He’ll also have to do so in front of a rabid Yankee Stadium crowd. The New York Yankees haven’t beaten the Boston Red Sox in a playoff series since 2003, and their fans know it. With a rookie pitcher on the mound, they’ll do everything they can to rattle him.

Any time the Red Sox and Yankees meet, the stakes are high. In a do-or-die playoff game, the anxiety and pressure are heightened. Fans live and die with every pitch, and every run feels monumental. When Early steps on the field on Thursday, he’ll have Red Sox fans’ hopes on his shoulders.

He’s not the only Red Sox rookie to step in front of a horde of hostile Yankee fans this season. In June, Hunter Dobbins started for Boston on Sunday Night Baseball. Before the start, he said he would rather retire than play for New York, giving the crowd some extra ammunition. Despite the extra stakes, he treated it just like any other game.

“Rolling into Yankee Stadium, you enjoy the rivalry, but once you get on the mound, it’s the same game, you kinda feel the same, so you prepare the same way [as any other game],” Dobbins told NESN.

Dobbins’ start in New York was the tenth of his career. Early has made just four. Two at Fenway Park with the crowd behind him, and two in makeshift major league stadiums — Sutter Health Park in Sacramento and George M. Steinbrenner Field in Tampa. Sutter Health Park is the bigger of the two and only holds about 30% of the capacity of Yankee Stadium. It’s safe to say the Red Sox rookie hasn’t pitched in an environment as aggressive as the one he’ll enter on Thursday.

Dobbins, who came through the system with Early, isn’t concerned about the moment being too big for the lefty.

“Knowing Early and [Payton Tolle] both, they do a really good job of being where their feet are, focusing on the job … I have full confidence in him going in there, enjoying it, but not letting it get to him,” Dobbins said.

While Alex Cora had hinted that Early might slot in Lucas Giolito’s spot in the rotation, the lefty didn’t find out he was officially starting until after the loss on Wednesday.

“Let’s go. Let’s do it,” Early said.