The Boston Red Sox failed to close out the New York Yankees in Game 2 of the wild card round, with some fans questioning a controversial call made by Red Sox manager Alex Cora.

Though the team had some chances to tie the game late Wednesday night, the Red Sox ultimately fell to the Yankees, forcing a winner-take-all Game 3. In a surprising move, Cora benched starting pitcher Brayan Bello after only 2 1/3 innings pitched in Game 2.

During his postgame press conference, Cora explained his decision to bench Bello, in a clip shared to X by WEEI’s Tom Carroll.

“It’s a tough lineup,” Cora told reporters Wednesday. “Bunch of lefties. I thought the at-bats were getting better with the lefties, and we’ve got a bunch of them in the bullpen, you know? And I felt like at that point, kinda like, we have to do this. It doesn’t feel good, because you want the kid to go out there and get his experience and pitch deep into the game, but I felt like at that moment, we needed to pivot.”

Cora’s logic isn’t wrong. The Yankees starting lineup did feature six lefty batters in Game 2, but taking Bello out that early was still surprising. The 26-year-old pitcher has had his best season to date, with a 3.35 ERA and 124 strikeouts across 29 games pitched, and excelled in his three matchups against New York earlier this season, allowing only four earned runs in 19 innings pitched.

With their fate hanging in the balance, now the Red Sox will need to rely on rookie pitcher Connelly Early to help them close out the series with the Yankees.