In the wake of an iconic performance from Garrett Crochet (18-5, 2.59 ERA) in game one of Boston’s Wild Card series with the Yankees (94-68), the Red Sox (89-73) - for at least a night - had the feel of a scrappy October-magic team that was peaking at the right time.

You know the type of team I’m talking about:

The pitching staff is missing huge pieces, the lineup doesn’t have the power bats you see from a traditional contender, yet everything is just clicking in the postseason.

We’ve seen it time and time again over the last quarter century - teams that just squeak their way into the dance, and then go on a deep run.

For a night, Boston felt like that team.

Then Wednesday night’s game two arrived, and things almost immediately felt different.

The Red Sox missed their opportunity to complete a two-game sweep of their arch rivals in the Wild Card round, losing to the Yankees 4-3 and forcing a decisive game three on Thursday night.

New York drew first blood in the bottom of the 1st, as Ben Rice hit a two-run homer on the first postseason pitch he saw of his major league career. After Yankees manager Aaron Boone opted to keep the Cohasset, MA native on the bench against two lefties in game one, the 26-year-old made Brayan Bello (11-9, 3.35 ERA) pay for leaving an 87 mile per hour cutter in the middle of the plate.

Speaking of Bello - this will be a game he’ll want to soon forget.

After manager Alex Cora spoke glowingly pregame of his 26-year-old starting pitcher’s growth in 2025, he lasted just 2.1 innings, allowing 4 hits, 2 earned runs, a walk and no strikeouts. He only threw 28 pitches.

For a team that is almost certainly going to need to rely heavily on its bullpen in game three given Lucas Giolito’s (10-4, 3.41 ERA) untimely elbow injury, Bello picked a bad time to look like the 2024 version of himself - something we’ve seen more and more of over the last month of the season.

Another Red Sox that gave us some unwanted vintage was left fielder Jarren Duran, who dropped an Aaron Judge pop fly (somehow not ruled an error) in the bottom of the 5th allowing Trent Grisham to score from second, giving the Yankees a 3-2 lead. Duran is far from a perfect glove in the outfield, but boneheaded plays like this were a lot more common for the 29-year-old when he was first coming up in the majors. Nowadays, plays like this are inexcusable.

Boston had their fair share of moments that kept them in the ballgame, all of which revolved around the bat of shortstop Trevor Story. His two-run, bases-loaded single in the third tied the game at 2-2, and his solo shot in the sixth tied the game again at 3-3.

Story came to play on Wednesday night. The rest of his teammates did not.

To the top of the seventh:

After drawing a walk and advancing to second on a wild pitch to lead off the top of the 7th, Masataka Yoshida was pinch hitting for Rob Refsnyder with two outs to go in the inning. On the sixth pitch of Yoshida’s at bat, he reached base on an infield single that possibly could have scored two runs had Jazz Chisholm not made a miraculous diving play to his right to keep the ball from reaching the outfield grass. With the speedy Eaton and Duran both on base, it’s fair to say both men could have, in theory, reached home.

Despite Chisholm’s effort, a bird’s-eye view showed Eaton on his horse as he reached third on the play. And with Ben Rice dropping the throw from Chisholm at first base to allow Yoshida to reach on the infield single, it looked to all with eyeballs that Eaton would have and should have scored on this play, which would have given Boston a late 4-3 lead.

Instead, third base coach Kyle Hudson threw up the stop sign. And one batter later, Trevor Story flew out with the bases loaded, and the Red Sox stranded three to end the inning. Fast forward to the end of the game, and Boston saw themselves losing 4-3 instead of being tied 4-4 heading into extras.

Fast forward to bottom of the eighth, and Garrett Whitlock (2.25 ERA) had the Yankees down to two outs with no one on base. But after Jazz Chisholm drew a seven-pitch walk, the wheels came off for Boston's reliable setup man.

The next three consecutive batters he faced:

- Austin Wells RBI single to right drives in Chisholm all the way from first, and the Yankees take a 4-3 lead

- Anthony Volpe single to left, Wells advances to second

- Ryan McMahon draws a five pitch walk, loads the bases

Whitlock being asked to throw 47 high-leverage pitches is not what you want to see, regardless of how good he's been this season. But given the state of the bullpen after Bello's short outing, this is the position Boston found themselves in.

And, alas, 4-3 was your final.

With Wednesday night’s loss, the Red Sox will head into a loser-goes-home game three at Yankee Stadium on Thursday, with a starting pitcher currently listed as TBD on the schedule.

That duty will likely go to rookie Connelly Early (1-2, 2.33 ERA), who has less than 20 MLB innings under his belt after only being called up to the big league club in August. The general consensus was that Early would serve as the opener, and that Cora would play the matchups in a bullpen game. But with how many pitchers Boston had to use in game two, you have to think that calculus changes for Cora.

The Yankees will throw 24-year-old Cam Schlittler (4-3, 2.96 ERA), a rookie in his own right with just 14 career starts under his belt. Like Rice, Schlittler is a Massachusetts native, growing up in Walpole just 38 miles from Boston.

Time for first pitch for game three is to be determined as of publishing.

Tom Carroll is a contributor for Roundtable, with boots-on-the-ground coverage of all things Boston sports. He's a senior digital content producer for WEEI.com, and a native of Lincoln, RI.