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BOSTON – C & # 39; s is the post-season baseball. You hope your stars will carry the team and produce many decisive games, but you know that any game – any series – could be one of the most unimaginable contributors to a hit or a critical hit.
Attracting the hopes of being the best baseball team and facing their archival rivals, the Red Sox are about to feel the heat in October.
Two teams, 208 wins in the regular season. It was a record year for rivalry. Now, it's a series of five best. This is how we got here.
From the Wild Cards round to the World Series, we'll be covering the 2018 playoffs.
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The Boston Red Sox defeated the New York Yankees 5-4 in the opening game of this much-anticipated Division Series between two teams winning 100 wins and their stars delivered. Chris Sale took a 5-0 lead in the sixth and finished with eight strikeouts in 5 ⅓. J.D. Martinez scored a three-run circuit over J.A. Happ's green monster at the bottom of the first. Mookie Betts started a two-point third-place rally with a double high on the center-left deep wall and added a nice catch in the race near the right-field post with a runner.
While Sale's performance eased concerns about his health and ability to perform after sparing the last two months, the pen had some trouble. In the end, she survived, even though it gave Red Sox fans a few heart attacks.
Alex Cora, coach of the Sox team, was the coach of the Houston Astro last season after winning the World Series. "One thing I learned last year, winning a World Series will require 25 or 27 players to do it, regardless of their role," he said after the match. "Getting 27 outs at this stage is very difficult and sometimes you have to go to plan B or plan C."
Indeed, before the match, Cora had talked about learning from A.J. Hinch handles the last Astros games and needs to make adjustments on the fly to handle the pitching staff. Cora had to do that in this game – even using starter Rick Porcello to get the first two outings of the eighth inning. "Maybe say (plan) C and a half probably," admitted Cora after the match.
It all started with Sale. It was effective, if it were not the dominant pitcher we saw in the mid-season, as it was accelerating to the heights of the '90s and it was zeros in five out of six starts in one. single run. He threw 24 shots in the first inning and then stopped well, mixing four seams that hit 150 km / h a few times and keeping the Yankees out of balance with a dancing mix of sliders and changes. When Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton scored decisive goals in the sixth, he was out after 93 shots.
"I'm going according to what my receiver says," said Sale, giving props to Sandy Leon's work behind the set, "and that was Sandy's game plan tonight." Even though it seemed that Sale was launching an unusual number of sliders, his pitch percentages were essentially at par with his seasonal averages. "You know, AC (Cora) said something else the other night that was really stuck: win the first throw, then win every shot after that." I threw each throw tonight like he was going to remove the ball from my hand after the launch. "
When Cora finally took Sale's ball, the Red Sox were 5-0. A few minutes later, it was a game at 5-2 with the bases loaded and two outs and Brandon Workman – arguably the 11th pitcher on Boston's 11-person staff – reports to Gleyber Torres, the ninth-seeded rookie of the Yankees.
Workman took the advantage with a swinging shot, then fell back with three balls. Torres took a fastball in the outside corner to make a full count. A single throw could change the complexion of the game, transfer all energy to the Yankees or find Boston suddenly in deficit. Nobody was warming up. No margin for an error. Workman threw a curved ball that fell below the knees, Torres swayed and missed, Workman raised his fist in celebration, Fenway broke, the crisis averted.
At least for this round. The Yankees loaded the bases again to seventh goal, but Matt Barnes eliminated Giancarlo Stanton – one of four night players for Stanton – and the Yankees got a point in the inning. They blocked 10 riders in the match. "We just could not get the decisive success that allowed us to have this big round," said Yankees skipper Aaron Boone.
The takeaway of this game: The Boston office has worked hard to get these last 11 outs. Steven Wright being unavailable for the eighth goal after getting a knee injury before the match, Cora was forced to try to get some extra Workman outs at the seventh (this did not happen). worked), then use Porcello.
This means that David Price, star of the second game, should take a step deeper than Sale did on Friday. And we all know Price's post-season story, which did not really inspire Franklin Pierce Adams of modern times to write a poem in tribute.
Price has started nine playoff games over the course of his career. his team lost all nine. He had good starts, bad, bad luck and some explosive heats. The end result is the same: he did not win, his team did not win. As a starter, he is 0-8 with an average of 5.74 tie points and 11 runs allowed in 58 innings.
Asked Friday to put too much pressure – or how do not to put too much pressure on himself, he gave an unanswered answer about treating him as another game. He was asked a follow-up question and at least he could laugh at himself. Maybe it's a good sign.
"I just do not have an answer for you guys," he says. "I have been asked for a long time now, I can not really put my finger on it, it was my generic answer."
Some post-season Price figures are better than the indicated results. Counting the games he started, he has 52 strikeouts and 10 walks in 58 innings. This is fine. He always hammered the strike zone. He cleared a batting line of .262 / .300 / .450. It is this percentage of slugging that is a little high. I have therefore watched all 11 playoff circuits that he has allowed. Work upside down:
Lonnie Chisenhall: fast ball 2-1
Mike Moustakas: 1-2 changes
Ben Zobrist: 1-1 slider / cutter
Rusty smell: Cutter 0-0
Robinson Chirinos: fast ball 1-0
Nelson Cruz: 1-1 change
David Ortiz: cutter 1-0
David Ortiz: fast ball 1-0
Mike Napoli: 2-2 fast ball
Bengie Molina: 0-1 fast ball
Nelson Cruz: fast ball 3-0
The ground for Chisenhall was a fast ball, but not at the knees as the receiver wanted. Chisenhall pulled him down the line, cleaning the fence a few inches. The outbreaks in Moustakas and Zobrist came in the same match in the first two rounds. Moustakas's tone was terrible – a change from left to left left in the center of the plate. On the Zobrist field, the recuperator went outside and Price left the ground low and inside. The smell started inside the cutter, another one that barely erased the wall.
This first descent of Cruz took place after Adam Jones had reached a small dinky single; Receiver Alex Avila had just left the match after getting injured at the bases. It is a very good pitching of the plate that Cruz dominated on the right field line, only 342 feet. These are the only races in a 2-1 loss.
The two Ortiz circuits came in the same match at Fenway, in the first and eighth innings, a low shot in the pen and a fast ball on Ortiz's hands wrapped around the post. Etc. Cruz's second home race came to a green light and he crashed a mid-medium fast ball one meter off the field.
Still, there are cheap fields at home. It happens. He has arrived more often at Price than it is fair. Cora even referred to a match against the Royals when he was with the Blue Jays when a pop-up was followed by a few singles in sight that hit Price.
Cora said that he had no special messages or appointments with Price. "I treat guys the same way I treat them in the regular season – he's a guy I trust," Cora said. He mentioned Price's performance in the second half, how he reversed the trend after a brutal five-game match against the Yankees on July 1st. Price has an average of 2.25 for his last 11 starts.
After the first match, Sale said that there was no limit to its use. "They want me to throw 150 throws, I throw 150. … We are perfectly prepared for everything we throw."
The prize will not launch 150 slots Saturday. But given the uncertainty of the Boston market, he may have to launch more than the 93 launched Friday by Sale.
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