The Red Sox and Astros played in the first match of the ALCS 2018

At the very beginning of the first game of the 2018 series of the American League, a baseball hit Joe West on the collarbone, and Twitter baseball was alive, really alive. As West was not really hurt, there were about 74,398 simultaneous jokes about Christian Vazquez living a shared dream of hitting him with a baseball. Current and former shared players in the party. You should have been there. Oh, we all laughed well, as well as Country Joe, to his credit.

It was the best part of the game.

This long, torpid, stupid game.

If the best part of a baseball game is something that the referee has done, either it was a very bad baseball game, or the referee went on the land at the back of a capybara. In this case, it was a very bad baseball game. Let us count the means.

First, some household chores: I'm usually here to celebrate baseball and all its quirks. I am all for a languid rhythm with my entertainment. Baseball is Terrence Malick's sports program, and that's exactly what I need to escape the buzz and constant beeps of my everyday life. The methodical rhythm of baseball is a feature, not a bug.

But the first match of the ALCS was a game that had nine points and eight hits. It's almost impossible to create an exciting baseball game on nine points and eight hits in two different teams. There must be steps for this kind of appalling ratio to make sense. There must be errors. There must be at least one team that is horribly wrong. He must be extremely ugly.

The first match of the ALCS was a match that had nine points and eight hits in four hours and three minutes.

Once again, I'm not usually here to make up the rhythm of the game! Although I have spent a good part of my life researching why modern baseball games are so long, it's not because you can not enjoy a game of three or even four hours. Some of my best friends are four-hour games.

It's just that it was a failure all the time, precisely because of expectations. It was not just a game; it was a clash of titans, a sandwich of 211 victories. It was the best game in LCS history just for the regular season wins, and it was not just that, it was a duel between Chris Sale and Justin Verlander. The simple act of reading that makes me want to cross a sliding glass door like a less thoughtful Kool-Aid Man. What a matchup. What a freaking match.

JOE BUCK: Ball One, on the outside.

D & # 39; agreement. Let's go. Yeah, dirty against Verlander, let's go.

MALE: Ball two, on the outside.

MALE: …

JOHN SMOLTZ: Looks like they're going to have a new ball in it. This one was scuffed.

Smoltz: …

MALE: Springer goes out.

MALE: …

Uh Maybe we'll hit a dinger or something like that …

MALE: And now, Pedro Baez is warming up. John, I'll be honest, I thought he was on the Dodgers.

Smoltz: A hook is a ball that goes to the left. A slice goes to the right. But I have not had problems with that for years. Right as an arrow. It's the shot that kills me.

Let me reiterate the most important point: it's not a problem with baseball. This can to be a problem with specific games, however. Game 1 was one of those games and I have two takeaways.

You never guarantee an excellent baseball just because both teams are great

It sounds like an easy observation, but as a model, I entered this game as a kid with a bowl of Golden Graham in front of Saturday morning cartoons. That's it, my existence, what I live for. Except that nothing goes faster than Golden Grahams, and sometimes the drawings are Laverne & Shirley in the army. It's like my former gym teacher said, "Nothing in this world is guaranteed except death, get angry."

How will Verlander attack Mookie Betts? How dirty should he attack Jose Altuve? Oh, man, the baseball game with the cat and the mouse is the absolute best. Quick balls to set up brittle balls and speed changes. Everything is so beautiful, with forces that combine with strengths and everyone is determined to find the weaknesses of each.

JOE BUCK: Ball One, on the outside.

That was not the case in the first match between the Red Sox and Astros. And, in fact, it's a reminder that you're never sure of a great match between big teams. Sometimes it's soggy and muddy war. I understood.

But that brings us to the larger point.

The Red Sox and Astros have to repay that with interest

I want an excellent baseball. No agreement baseball. Not good baseball. Super baseball. These two teams should give us that.

In the first game, Mookie Betts let a baseball snap from his glove. It was an understandable game – he was afraid of colliding with Brock Holt – but I can think of a million things that I want to see playing baseball, and none of them have any slaps.

That is to say that Betts should touch a circuit inside the park during the next two matches. Preferably to the ninth inning of a tight match. C & # 39; why do I plug in.

Continue down the line for both lists. I want J. D. Martinez to strike a big old dong. He can cross the monster or take the train to Houston, I m not know. I want Jose Altuve to go 5-in-5 with five line readers in the middle. I want Andrew Benintendi force to thwart a delayed flight, and Alex Bregman to do something that makes the Red Sox fans even more hate him.

I want Chris Sale and Justin Verlander to compete for a classic duel.

All this is still possible. I only want what is due to us and I think we will get it. For the last time, it's not a referendum on baseball, sport. It's a non-controversial view that the four hours and more than eight baseball games were boring, and I'm completely upset by the applause: give me a better baseball, Red Sox and Astros. I know you have it in you. I know it was cold. I know you were all nervous.

Nevertheless, give us a better baseball. We had been promised the best baseball. Give us something … close to that. The 2018 Astros and Red Sox are among the best teams of their generation and are now in a match to the death to see who's the best.

Let's have fun, huh? Let's have fun, guys. Do not make us mention the name of Joe West again and have fun.