McAdam: Red Sox went for it all in Game 3 and came up short ... will it cost them?

LOS ANGELES -- What do you do when you push all the chips you have into the middle of the table ... and get beat by a better hand?

What do you do when you empty your tank ... and find that you still have many more miles to go?

What, exactly, do you do when you "go all in'' -- to use one of Alex Cora's favorite expressions -- and discover that you've somehow been left out?

The Red Sox are about to find out.

With his team already leading the World Series 2-0, Cora spied an opening, late in the game, and made his biggest, boldest gambit of the postseason. Sensing that a win in Game 3 would effectively put the Los Angeles Dodgers away for good, Cora decided to make Friday night a must win.

It's the same aggressive nature he's displayed since taking over the Red Sox. It's the same philosophy that he utilized in directing the Sox to a franchise-record 108 wins and two convincing playoff series wins against opponents who won in triple figures during the season.

Call it the killer instinct. Call it going for the jugular.

But in Game 3, it failed him.

In losing 3-2 in 18 innings to the Dodgers, the Red Sox used 23 of their 25 players. They ended the night with Christian Vazquez as their first baseman and their expected Game 4 starter Nathan Eovaldi throwing nearly 100 pitches. They switched their outfield alignment three times over the course of the night and they had a reliever (Eovaldi) twice bat in extra innings of a tied World Series game.

Get the picture?

Understand that Cora didn't fail. You can't blame him for chasing the win that would have made the Red Sox winners of the World Series a matter of "when,'' not "if.''

Win and you know that you've got four chances to put a defeated and demoralized team away. And now that it didn't work, the Red Sox have a potential mess on their hands.

For one thing, they don't have a logical starter for Game 4 on Saturday night. That was to be Eovaldi, but his 97 pitches over the final six innings take him out of that assignment. And it's a safe bet that the Red Sox aren't about to mess with Chris Sale's questionable shoulder and pitch him on short rest.

That leaves Drew Pomeranz, a surprise, 11th-hour addition to the Red Sox World Series roster, who hasn't faced major league hitters in more than a month.

"How do you spell that -- TBA? TBA,'' said Cora with a rueful smile, when asked early Saturday morning about his options for a starter on late Saturday afternoon.

For another, the Dodgers have been given an entryway back into the World Series. On the verge of falling behind 3-0 and having to become only the second team in history to rebound from such a postseason deficit, they're now a win away from evening the Series and turning it into a best-of-three, with all the momentum suddenly shifted to their side.

For a time, it seemed as though Cora's full-throttle approach was about to pay off. Jackie Bradley Jr.'s solo homer off Los Angeles closer Kenley Jansen erased the 1-0 lead the Dodgers had nurtured since the bottom of the third.

And after the Red Sox bullpen matched the Dodgers zero for zero, the Sox took their first lead of the night in the top of the 13th. It happened on the craziest of plays, as Eduardo Nunez beat out a comebacker as lefty reliever Scott Alexander made an errant throw, enabling Brock Holt to score all the way from second.

It was the first extra-inning run in the World Series to score on an error since Bill Buckner's infamous gaffe in Game 6 of the 1986 World Series. (In hindsight, perhaps that mere association should have set off  alarms.)

But things got crazier in the bottom of the inning when a leadoff walk to Max Muncy, followed one out later by a running catch in foul territory by Nunez, who carried his momentum -- and the ball -- into the seats beyond the home dugout, allowing Muncy to take second.

The Sox were still an out away from victory when a sharp grounder by Yasiel Puig was fielded behind the second base bag by Ian Kinsler, who then lost his footing on the edge of the outfield grass, and woefully off-balance, threw wildly to first. The ball skidded far past Vazquez, an emergency first baseman thanks to a double switch earlier in the game, and Muncy scored to tie things.

"I had the last out in my hands,'' said a contrite Kinsler. "I feel like I let the team down right there.''

From there, there was the unwavering sense that the Red Sox' best chance had come and gone. For all that had gone right for them in the Series to date, you couldn't help but feel that this one was headed for the ditch.

In the 18th, it arrived there. Eovaldi, heroic and indomitable, somehow still pumping 97 mph fastballs deep into his outing, made a mistake with Muncy on a 3-2 pitch to lead off the inning, and Muncy drove it out to left-center.

When you go the edge and slip, what's next? Along with the bumps and bruises and the massive disappointment, that is what the Red Sox are left with.

What now?

"We'll find out tomorrow,'' said Cora.