For the Red Sox, it was not quite the same as Payton Tolle arriving at Fenway to face Paul Skenes two weeks ago. This one was out West, after bed time for many Bostonians, against an itinerant A’s team currently playing at Sutter Health Park in Sacramento, a minor-league field that can hold 14,000 fans, max. And this time, the rookie making his debut on the mound was not a 98-mph fireballer but was, rather, Connelly Early, a lefty who does his work in the low 90s.
But the results were scintillating nonetheless, a 6-0 win. The Red Sox kept Early (rated the No. 6 Boston prospect by MLB Pipeline) at five innings on the night, and they were five magical innings: Early, staked to a 4-0 lead, retired the first eight hitters he faced, including striking out the side in the second inning. In the third, he allowed two two-out singles and faced Brent Rooker, he of the 27 home runs this season.
Early struck him out.
In the fourth, the A’s managed three singles to load the bases and Early then struck out Darrell Hernaiz and Lawrence Butler. Early walked one in the fifth, but struck out two–his 11th K of the night, tying a Red Sox record in a debut–before his night was over.
Connelly Early: MLB Experience Was ‘Amazing’
Early was, no doubt, excited when the win–Boston’s third straight–wrapped up.
“It was amazing just to go out there and have that first opportunity and, long day of travel yesterday and just seeing all the guys,” Early said. “Seeing guys you don’t even imagine being next to, it was just amazing and a bunch of joy. Having those two homers from the offense in the first inning was great.”
As for working with catcher Carlos Narvaez, Early said:
“We did a good job of keeping a constant mix. Honestly, working everything off my fastball, was able to get some swing-and-misses at the bottom of the zone off some secondary pitches and I think we did a really good job making some big-time pitches when runners were on.”
Red Sox Have a Decision on Connelly Early
The win keeps the Red Sox 3.0 games behind the Blue Jays in the AL East and tied with the Yankees in the race for the top wild-card spot in the AL. Boston has 16 more games to play.
It will be interesting to see how the team responds to Early’s performance. The plan appeared to be to bring Early up for the spot start in Sacramento and send him back to Triple-A Worcester, with Kyle Harrison slated to come up. But does 11 strikeouts over 5.0 innings change that?
Also, has Early found something special recently? He is not considered a double-digit strikeout pitcher and had not struck out 10 in two years in the minors–until his last start in Worcester, on September 2, when he struck out 10 in 6.0 innings. A guy who had 122 strikeouts in 94.1 innings all season now has 21 strikeouts in his last 11.0 innings, more than half coming at the big-league level.
Red Sox Rotation Still in Flux
The Red Sox will start Tolle on Wednesday, his third start of his career, after a rough go of it in outing No. 2 (five runs, two homers allowed, in 3.0 innings in Arizona). The Red Sox have been giving him five days of rest before starts and this will be on four days, so the expectation is that Tolle may go only a few innings.
They’ll have their top three of Garrett Crochet, Lucas Giolito and Brayan Bello lined up for the series against the Yankees this weekend.
The team will get a look at Harrison, but perhaps in a bullpen role. He has been a starter at Triple A since coming over in the Rafael Devers trade.
With Dustin May now on the injured list with elbow trouble, Boston may stick with those three to top the rotation, along with Tolle and Early behind them.
Connelly Early Stuns in Electric 11-K Red Sox Debut