Early And Often: Connelly Carves, Sox Cruise, A’s Confused
Romy opens with a boom, Refsnyder launches a moon, and a rookie lefty makes West Sac look like a whiff factory.
Game snapshot
Boston 6, Athletics 0. On a Tuesday in West Sacramento, the Red Sox jumped the A’s like a bar tab at last call: four runs before recording an out, then handed the ball to a 23-year-old making his debut who struck out everyone but the Beane statue. Connelly Early tied the franchise record for K’s in a debut with 11, and the A’s outhit Boston while still getting shut out. That’s not a box score; that’s performance art.
How it unraveled (for Oakland) and clicked (for Boston)
Top 1st — Shock and awe: Romy González sets the tone with a first-pitch leadoff homer to center. Alex Bregman and Trevor Story follow with singles, and Rob Refsnyder detonates a 463-foot three-run missile off Jeffrey Springs. Four-nothing, no outs, and the A’s were already shopping for deep-cleaning services for the batter’s box.
Top 2nd — Add-on and exit stage left: González doubles to right to score Nick Sogard, because apparently he’s into multi-hit, multi-RBI two-inning sprints. Then he leaves with left knee soreness, because the Baseball Gods only allow Boston joy in small, heavily taxed doses. 5-0.
Early’s early statement: Inning two? Strikes out the side. Inning four? Bases loaded, two outs, and Early fans Darell Hernaiz with a slider and Lawrence Butler with a sinker, casually wiping out Oakland’s best threat like a smudge on a press box window.
Top 8th — One more for the road: Masataka Yoshida rolls a tidy RBI groundout to push it to 6-0, just in case anyone thought this would require bullpen acrobatics. It didn’t.
Final strokes: Early exits after seven with 11 K, five hits, one walk, and a pile of A’s bats turned into yard art. The A’s manage 10 hits to Boston’s nine and still get blanked for the second straight night because timely hitting packed a suitcase and left no forwarding address.
Player highlights and lowlights
Connelly Early — The kid’s table just got promoted: Eleven strikeouts in your debut ties Don Aase’s club mark from 1977, which is the last time anyone named Don was allowed near a bullpen phone without supervision. Early threw 61 of 90 pitches for strikes, mixed slider and sinker with zero rookie flinch, and stranded a small village on the bases. Immediate folklore material.
Romy González — Two innings, two extra-base hits, two RBI: A leadoff blast and a ringing RBI double before departing with left knee soreness. That’s a full day’s work in 20 minutes. Hitting streak extends to 12 games; the vibes extend to “wrap him in bubble wrap.”
Rob Refsnyder — The lefty whisperer: 463 feet of “you left that there?” off Springs, continuing his habit of turning southpaws into content. He’s north of .300 with pop vs. LHP this season, because boring, efficient excellence is apparently legal now.
Masataka Yoshida — RBI that looked like paperwork: No style points, just the insurance run you sign and file. We endorse adult baseball.
A’s spotlight — Jacob Wilson, professional hitter: Three knocks and nothing to show for it. He’s batting .319, second only to Judge’s .321, which is adorable in a “too bad your team forgot home plate” way.
Quotes and commentary
Cora, translation mode: Alex Cora praised Early’s poise and pitch mix, noting the composure in the bases-loaded jam and the trust in the slider/sinker combo. He also appreciated the “boring” innings after the first, which is manager-speak for “I didn’t have to sprint to the bullpen phone like it was a fire alarm.”
Early, paraphrased like a veteran: The rookie credited Narvaez’s game plan, said the slider had late bite, and admitted the second-inning strikeout spree calmed the heart rate. If he was nervous, he hid it better than our tax returns.
A’s POV, inferred from the carnage: Springs settled in to retire 11 straight after the early avalanche, which is great if you ignore the part where the avalanche already buried the lodge.
Opponent misfires (roast accordingly)
Four before an out: Springs giving up a leadoff bomb, back-to-back singles, and a 463-foot three-run goodbye before sipping his first water break is… a choice. Then he found a groove. Unfortunately, baseball counts the beginning too.
Ten hits, zero runs: That’s a statistical haiku the A’s keep reciting. Two straight shutouts and 15 scoreless innings. You can’t strand everyone, but by all means, dream big.
Bases-loaded whiff parade: Early dialed up wipeout stuff with the bags juiced, and Oakland’s approach looked like “hope the rookie blinks.” He didn’t. Twice.
Red Sox momentum check
Standings swing: Boston moves to 81-65, three wins behind the Blue Jays at 83-61 but within one percentage point for the top Wild Card. That’s “we can see them in the sideview mirror” territory, which around here usually means we’re about to debate if momentum is a thing or a myth invented by marketing interns.
Road warriors-ish: Ten wins in the last 13 road games, 37-37 away overall. If .500 is the new swagger, fine, but we prefer the kind with parades.
Trend line: Three straight wins, back-to-back shutouts of the A’s, and a rookie putting up a debut you print on t-shirts. Momentum? Maybe. Or maybe it’s just Oakland. Both can be true.
Turning points that mattered
Romy’s ignition, Refsnyder’s detonation: A four-run ambush that set the script and turned Springs’ scouting report into a paper airplane.
Early’s fourth-inning escape: Bases loaded, two K’s to end it. Oakland’s window slammed, their fans sighed, and the Sox put the game on cruise. That sequence was the ballgame.
The quiet middle: Springs retiring 11 straight gave the A’s a faint pulse, but Early’s strike machine kept the deficit embalmed.
What’s next
Probables: Mason Barnett (RHP, 1-1, 9.00) vs. Payton Tolle (LHP, 0-1, 7.56) in the series finale. Translation: two ERAs that look like zip codes and a strong chance of loud contact. Pack earplugs and a rosary.
What to watch: If Tolle can land the first-pitch strike and keep the ball out of the launch seats, Boston’s lineup should handle Barnett’s traffic-jam tendencies. Keep an eye on Romy’s knee; if he’s out, Bregman/Story need to keep the line moving while Refsnyder continues his lefty-hunting program.
Prediction you can throw back at us later: Sox win a high-scoring wobble-fest because the bats are awake and the A’s are still sending smoke signals with runners on. Skeptical optimism: it’s what’s for dinner.
The bullpen elephant we didn’t have to ride
No drama today because Early ate seven and the game state never demanded a parade of relievers. That’s not a plan; that’s a vacation day you enjoy without asking HR. Bank it, because the schedule won’t always hand you West Sac batting practice.
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