Re-Examining Connelly Early's Explosive Red Sox Debut

The Boston Red Sox are beginning an important three-game series against the Athletics on Tuesday night and will do so with rookie starter Connelly Early on the mound.

Boston enters the tilt with an 82-68 record, good for third place in the American League East. The Red Sox are currently six games behind the Toronto Blue Jays for first place. Boston is just one game behind the New York Yankees for second place. The Yankees have the top AL Wild Card spot with the Red Sox right on their heels.

At this point, every game is extremely important with the playoff race tight. Even in the AL East, although the Red Sox are six games behind the Blue Jays, they do have another series against Toronto which could significantly alter the division landscape.

Each game is important and the club will be relying on Early on Tuesday night. With all of the injuries piling up throughout the season for Boston, it has had to rely on more young hurlers than expected. Early is the team's No. 6 prospect. If you had said at the beginning of the season that he would make his way to Boston and play a significant role in a playoff push, you would shock a lot of people. But, that is the case.

Tuesday will be Early's second big league start. His first big league start came on Sept. 9th against the Athletics. He went five shutout innings and struck out 11 Athletics while allowing just five base hits. Early tossed 90 pitches in his big league debut and it was one of the best pitching debuts you're going to see.

The Red Sox got a historic MLB debut from Connelly Early