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NEW YORK: Going into the playoffs without a couple of their best young players and two starters, the depth-depleted Boston Red Sox turned to a rookie with four games of major league experience to pitch on the road in a winner-take-all situation.
Connelly Early handled the stage plenty well until his defense let him down and the New York Yankees’ bats wore him down, eliminating Boston by winning Game 3 of the AL Wild Card Series 4-0 on Thursday night. The Red Sox became the first team to lose in the best-of-three round after winning Game 1 since the expanded format came into existence in 2022.
Not having right-handers Lucas Giolito and Tanner Houck available and losing Marcelo Mayer and Roman Anthony to season-ending injuries put them at a disadvantage going on the road at Yankee Stadium. Still, the Red Sox got a gem from Garrett Crochet and a clutch hit by Masataka Yoshida to win the opener and had chances to sweep, even after manager Alex Cora pulled Game 2 starter Brayan Bello after 2 1/2 innings for bullpen roulette, which eventually backfired.
Early went further, getting through three without allowing a run before one of the culprits from the regular season came back to haunt Boston in the fourth.
Center fielder Ceddanne Rafaela, right fielder Wilyer Abreu and second baseman Romy Gonzalez converged on a fly ball by leadoff hitter Cody Bellinger and let it fall between them for a double. Down 2-0 after a walk and three singles, Nathaniel Lowe couldn’t field a grounder to first and two more runs scored to make it a 4-0 deficit.
The Red Sox led the majors with 116 errors, 17 more than any team other than big league-worst Colorado. The Yankees were charged with one for dropping a pop fly in foul territory, but third baseman Ryan McMahon’s falling-into-the-visiting-dugout catch and other sound defensive plays behind rolling rookie Cam Schlittler ensured Boston never had a quality chance to get back into the game.
Just getting to the playoffs, the Red Sox exceeded expectations, especially following the mid-June trade of Rafael Devers to San Francisco. They were 37-36 at the time and won 52 of 89 games down the stretch to qualify.
That included season-long domination of their biggest rival, winning 10 of 14 gamest against the Yankees, who they had also turned the historical tables on in October since just after the turn of the century. Boston had beaten New York in eight of 10 playoff games dating to overcoming a 3-0 AL Championship Series deficit in 2004 on the way to winning the franchise’s first World Series since 1918.
 

Michael Busch homered to cap a three-hit performance, helping the host Chicago Cubs advance to the National League Division Series with a 3-1 win over the San Diego Padres on Thursday.
Chicago secured a 2-1 victory in the best-of-three NL wild-card series, paving the way for a matchup against the top-seeded Milwaukee Brewers in the NLDS. Game 1 of the best-of-five series is set for Saturday in Milwaukee.
Pete Crow-Armstrong delivered an RBI single in the second inning to highlight his own three-hit outing.
Dansby Swanson worked a bases-loaded walk later in the second and turned in several stellar defensive plays for the Cubs, who rebounded from a 3-0 setback on Wednesday.
“Takes me back to my childhood,” Swanson said on ESPN. “I love this game, I love to compete. I love my teammates. It’s an incredible group of men and I couldn’t be more proud to be here.”
Chicago had 13 hits Thursday after totaling just 10 in the previous two games.
Daniel Palencia  allowed two hits in 1 1/3 scoreless innings to pick up his second win of the series. He struck out two batters without surrendering a hit in 1 2/3 scoreless innings in the Cubs’ 3-1 victory in Game 1 on Tuesday.
Drew Pomeranz retired all three batters he faced in the seventh inning and Brad Keller worked the eighth before allowing a lead-off homer to Jackson Merrill in the ninth. Keller rebounded to strike out Xander Bogaerts on a controversial 3-2 pitch before hitting both Ryan O’Hearn and Bryce Johnson with a pitch.
Andrew Kittredge, working on his third straight day, induced Jake Cronenworth to ground out and Freddy Fermin to fly out to secure the save.
“I’m just so proud of everybody,” Chicago manager Craig Counsell said to Marquee Sports Network while getting doused in the locker room. “We played really good defense. Jameson Taillon was brilliant. He put the game together with four innings and 14 hitters, that was brilliant. It takes the whole group  down there, it took the whole group all year and it took the whole group tonight.”
Padres manager Mike Shildt said of the called third strike on Bogaerts, “Looked down to me, but I don’t see great and I’m kinda far away. Most importantly, Bogey felt like it was down, and he’s not a guy that’s overly dramatic about close pitches. It’s a big pitch, it’s a big swing pitch. And what unfolded after that could’ve been very impactful, but we had other opportunities, too.”
Busch deposited a 2-2 fastball from Robert Suarez over the wall in right- center field to lead off the seventh inning and stake Chicago to a 3-0 lead.
The Cubs seized a 2-0 lead after their first five batters reached base in the second inning.
Kyle Tucker singled and advanced to third on Seiya Suzuki’s double to left field. Carson Kelly was hit by a pitch from Yu Darvish  to load the bases before Crow-Armstrong’s RBI single plated Tucker with the game’s first run. Darvish departed in favor of fellow former Cubs pitcher Jeremiah Estrada, who promptly walked Swanson on seven pitches with the bases loaded.
Darvish permitted two runs on four hits in one-plus inning.
“Basically didn’t get it done as a wrap-up point,” Shildt said. “There’s a lot of hurt guys in that clubhouse. But we left it all out on the field and there’s no regrets on anybody’s part. It’s just disappointing.”