Red Sox’ Connelly Early loses strike zone in final inning of work, pays the price

BOSTON — Just as he did in the playoffs against the same team last October, Connelly Early managed to keep his team in the game Monday night.

It wasn’t his fault that, again, his team couldn’t provide much in the way of offensive backing.

The rookie lefty, who took the loss in the Red Sox’ elimination game at Yankee Stadium in the wild card round last fall, limited the Yankees to a single run over five innings. But he lost command in the sixth, allowing two more runs, as the Yankees cruised to a 4-0 win Tuesday night.

“He did good until he lost it there (in the sixth),” said Alex Cora of Early. “Command was an issue in that (last) inning. But the outing, besides that, was a good one. Really good. (He had) a good changeup, moved the ball around again. Got the ground ball when he needed it. We’ll just keep working with him.”

It marked the first time in nine regular season major league starts, dating back to the final month of last year, in which Early allowed more than two earned runs in a game. In each of the first eight, he had allowed two runs or fewer, including his first four outings this season.

Early was tagged for a mammoth solo homer in the second by Giancarlo Stanton, but otherwise limited damage until the sixth. He wiggled out of a two-on, one-out jam following Stanton’s shot, and retired nine of the next 11 hitters he faced.

But in the sixth, with the Yankees clinging to a 1-0 lead, the lefty walked Ahmed Rosasio on four pitches and after ahead of Aaron Judge 0-and-2, walked him, too. He then fanned Ben Rice before yielding a wall-scraping two-run double to Stanton. Following a free pass for , his third walk of the inning, Early was lifted.