The Boston Red Sox will be a little light on established pitching in the Wild Card round against the New York Yankees. But Boston will have plenty of speed on the basepaths in the best-of-three series.
Alex Cora’s 25-man roster for the Wild Card round consists of 12 pitchers and 14 position plays, the Red Sox announced Tuesday ahead of Game 1 in New York. Cora announced Monday that starting pitcher Lucas Giolito would be left off the roster this round as the righty deals with an elbow issue, which opened the door for left-handed rookie Payton Tolle to make the squad for the series.
Tolle, who went 0-1 with a 6.06 ERA across seven games (three starts), made it over fellow southpaw Chris Murphy, who had a 3.12 ERA in his 23 appearances for Boston during the regular season. But Murphy was optioned to Triple A on Sunday and isn’t eligible to rejoin Boston yet.
Tolle’s ERA ballooned to 11.57 in his four road games, but he can make a lot of hitters miss with his 19 strikeouts in his 16.1 innings of work overall. He joins rookies Connelly Early and Kyle Harrison on Boston’s pitching staff for the series.
But Tolle will be a reliever, while either Early or Harrison could start a deciding Game 3 on Thursday night if the series gets that far.
Early, 23, was impressive over four September starts for Boston, when he surrendered just five runs over 19.1 innings and struck out 29 batters. Harrison, who was acquired in June’s Rafael Devers trade, didn’t make his Boston debut until late in the season, and allowed four runs in his 12 innings for the Red Sox.
Cora said he would name a Game 3 starter based on how the first two games go — if needed. Boston ace Garrett Crochet will start Game 1 on Tuesday, while Brayan Bello will be on the bump for Wednesday’s Game 2.
With just 12 pitchers on the Wild Card roster, the Red Sox opted to bring speedsters Nate Eaton and David Hamilton and bench player Nick Sogard into the series. Chances are all three wouldn’t have made it if this were a best-of-seven series, but they’ll give the Red Sox more flexibility in the lineup — and on the base paths — in this short series.
Red Sox Wild Card roster
PITCHERS (12): Brayan Bello, Aroldis Chapman, Garrett Crochet, Connelly Early, Kyle Harrison, Zack Kelly, Steven Matz, Justin Slaten, Payton Tolle, Greg Weissert, Garrett Whitlock, Justin Wilson
CATCHERS (2): Carlos Narváez, Connor Wong
INFIELDERS (4): Alex Bregman, David Hamilton, Nathaniel Lowe, Trevor Story
OUTFIELDERS (4): Wilyer Abreu, Jarren Duran, Rob Refsnyder, Masataka Yoshida
INFIELDER/OUTFIELDERS (4): Nate Eaton, Romy Gonzalez, Ceddanne Rafaela, Nick Sogard