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BOSTON – It 's never easy in the playoffs.
In the final throw of the game Sunday night, Alex Bregman sent the ball to the left field. In any other major league park, it's a majestic – but routine – flying ball. At Fenway Park, with the green monster looming so close, a brief moment of terror permeated the old baseball stadium. If the ball landed in the Monster seats, the score would be tied, and Boston 's lead on three points in the ninth was broken with a remarkable two – run swap.
Bregman knew it was short. "It missed me," he says. "If I had it, it would be in the street behind Fenway Park."
Left-field player Andrew Benintendi returned to the alert trail. "It was not too close," he says. "Obviously, it was very high, I think [the pitch] had a little on him. I was on a step in front of the wall. I knew right away that it would not be a race at home. "
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With that, the match was over, Craig Kimbrel was elbowed after conceding the point and the Boston Red Sox defeated the Houston Astros 7-5 in the second game of the AHL series. The series goes back to Houston and maybe the supposed disappearance of the Red Sox (108 wins) was a bit premature.
Before the game, manager Alex Cora laughed lightly when asked if it was a match to be won absolutely. The question did not insult him, he was simply reacting to the evidence: this is not a match to win until the other team only wins three wins. The relaxed nature of his response partly explains why this team won 108 games. They are waiting to win. Of course they do it: they won 108 games!
"We will show ourselves today," insisted Cora.
Remaining 0-2 towards Houston would have been a major problem against a team that has not lost two games in a row since the month of August.
"It was a big challenge," Benintendi said. "It's probably as close to a must-win, I thought, as much as it can be, but in the end, it's not necessarily an imperative-win."
Defenseman Matt Barnes, who pulled out the four batters he faced, said even more succinctly: "We had to win the game tonight."
The Red Sox have even won a playoff game started by David Price – a phrase never before written except in an alternate universe where David Price is a hybrid between Sandy Koufax and Mariano Rivera. Price did not win, missing one of the necessary five innings, but he also did not lose.
This was awarded to Gerrit Cole, who allowed two runs in the first run and three more in the third in Jackie Bradley Jr.'s double-header on the Green Monster. Among the ever-reliable records of "You Can not Predict Baseball," Cole had made 33 starts this season, including his match against Cleveland in the division series, and had dropped five points in none of them. His series of 34 consecutive starts since last season, without giving up more than five innings, was the third longest running sequence, behind Aaron Nola (37) and Jacob deGrom (35).
Cole settled after the third inning of 30 shots to go in six, but the 2-1 quick shot against Bradley was the key shot. He wanted it low and far, but it was low and not far enough, and Bradley pushed him from the wall to the left.
Bradley had been 1-in-17 with the bases loaded in the regular season. In the first run, he sank to second base with the bases charged to end a threat.
1:15
Eduardo Perez and Tim Kurkjian discuss the difference that Jackie Bradley Jr. made in the second game and explain why he's better than his stats say.
"First on the bat, I think it starts a bit like that, I've seen a lot of off-speed shots with the bases loaded," Bradley said. "Second at bat, he started with a fastball and saw another field in gear, and I was in the account of a batter.I just did not want to do too much, see a field in the area that I could manage and have it on Account 2-1. "
Cole's explanation about his release was that he found himself too often without "leverage" – too many batting counts while he was lagging behind, perhaps allowing for Red Sox to sit on his fastball. Houston manager A.J. Hinch said that he thought Cole was perhaps a little too stimulated, especially at the first run.
There is also this thought: Maybe the offer to Bradley was not so bad. It was a fastball of 98 mph in the zone. Bradley had 127 shots over 97 mph this season – and that was his only extra-base hit.
Some things to remember now that we have a series:
– The two best baseball teams have not played the most elegant games, but this often comes with the territory of the after-season. Throwers take a little more time between shots, batters come out of the box more often. In a series of seven games, the stakes on each field are potentially monumental. The breaths are, of necessity, a little deeper. More importantly, you have two lines that can earn points and force your opponents to work hard for each exit. The Astros hitters had the second lowest exit rate among the majors and the Red Sox, the third lowest. They also ranked second and third in terms of swing and miss rates. We will continue to see a lot of 3-2 points as these alignments compete.
– The consensus was that Houston had the big advantage. I do not necessarily disagree with that and the Astros certainly have more depth, but I think everyone has forgotten that the stable of Boston's right arm compares well enough to Houston's heavy lineup. The Astros beat 0.275 / .344 / .459 against the left-handed, but a less impressive .246 / .323 / .410 against the right-handed ones. Check out the numbers of the best Boston levers against the right-handed batters (including the playoffs):
Ryan Brasier: .106 / .182 / .167
Kimbrel: .152 / .252 / .304
Barnes: .180 / .271 / .313
Joe Kelly: .248 / .357 / .326
Each of the four can mount it in the upper 90s. These four give the Red Sox a chance. In addition, congratulations to Cora for using Rick Porcello in the eighth round, as in the first game of the series against the Yankees. He had a dominant 1-2-3, eliminating Marwin Gonzalez and Carlos Correa.
Despite all the concerns about the Boston office, Barnes said the guys who were pitching had never lacked confidence. "It was completely outside," he said. "We are confident in what we do, we think we can match anyone, from top to bottom."
After a period in which his teams scored 0-10 in 10 playoff games, David Price shot hard enough to keep the Red Sox in the ALCS 'second game – which they won – and was applauded by the Fenway Park. crowd.
The Red Sox team, Chris Sale, was admitted to a local hospital Sunday afternoon due to a stomach illness, the team said.
From the Wild Cards round to the World Series, we'll be covering the 2018 playoffs.
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– Indeed, while the Red Sox are turning to their first right-handed starter in the series for the third game against Nathan Eovaldi, it will be interesting to see if Hinch will still have some left-handed bats in the formation. Brian McCann started a game behind the plate against Cleveland and Tony Kemp started a match at DH.
– Is the Houston lineup really this scary once you've passed George Springer, Jose Altuve and Bregman? There is a reason why Bregman walked six times and was hit by a throw in the first two games. The Red Sox prefer to attack the cleaning striker Yuli Gurriel. With Correa in training and in his previous problem, Houston's formation felt like they missed the big hitter in the hole (yes, Gurriel conceded victory in the first game and Gonzalez scored a big win at home from Price ).
The Astros remain completely confident. "We are ready to roll," said Bregman. "We like where we are, I like our attackers, we've had a lot of traffic on the bases."
Indeed, the Astros have dominated 14 consecutive series records. They have dominated five times in both home games against Cleveland, and we all remember their home attack at the World Series last year.
So, no, maybe this range should not be underestimated. But, as we also learned in the second game, do not underestimate the team that has 108 wins.
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