The Red Sox qualify for the ALCS after hanging on to Yankees

NEW YORK – The Yankee Stadium, who has been falling asleep for eight innings, has resigned against what appeared to be the inevitability of the Boston Red Sox's entry into the Bronx and the end of the New York Yankees' season. is awake in the ninth inning. Runners were everywhere. The draw was at second base, the shot at the start. The deficit was one.

And then it was over. The closest Red Sox, Craig Kimbrel, avoided a complete collapse, prompting a focus that was to be confirmed by an instant recovery and a 4-3 win that sent the Red Sox to the AL Championship Series and allowed them to celebrate in front of 49,641 against their rivals. & # 39; stage.

What seemed like a safe and easy thing turned into something else. When the door opened at 10:53 pm local time, jogging Chris Sale, the last trick of managerial sorcery bag Alex Cora. Throughout the series between the Red Sox and the Yankees, the first-year manager from Boston pressed the right button, his rookie counterpart, the New Yorker Aaron Boone, seemed a step backwards. And in the fourth game of the American League series, with the Red Sox on the verge of wearing a boot at the Yankees' trachea, Cora deployed Sale.

The score was 4-1, and it would remain as well as Sale launched an eighth perfect run and yielded to Kimbrel, who, they hoped, would do the same. Then he was unleashed: he chained two walks around one shot before allowing him to run on a blow after the fact. Gary Sánchez's almost failed grand slam turned into a sacrificial fly, bringing the Yankees to one point. Cora found herself stuck with Kimbrel and was rewarded by a rookie by rookie Gleyber Torres.

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The whole game – the series, in reality – was a managerial clinic of Cora and its 108 victories. He shook a patchwork to tinker outs, confident enough to accompany Sale, who was to be his starter for the fifth game. He inserted players into the lineup at the right time, including Christian Vázquez, the reserve receiver whose Match 4 circuit was decisive for the last round of the Red Sox. In the third game, Brock Holt started, who hit for the first round in the playoffs, and Nathan Eovaldi, who was scheduled to play the fourth match, was to take a day.

Rick Porcello took five solid runs for the Red Sox and, after battling Kimbrel's pickle in ninth place, they won their second straight streak against the Yankees after losing the first two.

"We have a chance to do something special tonight," said Cora before the game. "If we do not do it tonight, we'll do it in two days."

On Thursday, the Red Sox will rest in anticipation of ALCS 'first game on Saturday against the Houston Astros, who dominated the Cleveland Indians during a Division Division sweep. The two best baseball teams will face each other in a series of seven games with their rotations aligned, their means rested and their pennant in play.

To get there, Boston had to touch CC Sabathia, 38, in the fourth game. Pitching in what could be his last game for the Yankees, Sabathia was scored in the third inning for three points. He hit the first hitter of the inning, Andrew Benintendi, awarded a single to second base, Steve Pearce, awarded a point to a sacrificial fly by JD Martinez and gave two hits to Ian Kinsler and Eduardo. Núñez. It was only after the round that Boone finally shot Sabathia – too little and too late, again, as was the case in the third match, when he was too liberal with a starter, Luis Severino.

To call the first season of Boone anything but a success would be dishonest. The Yankees have won 100 games. They graduated from Gleyber Torres and Miguel Andújar, one of the mainstays of the franchise and this should be featured on most rookie ballots of the year. They are also approaching a decade without an appearance in the World Series, their last coming with a championship in 2009.

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