![]() But with Tanner Houck pitching effectively for his first two innings in Game 6, it does still feel as though he could have gotten the Red Sox into the late innings in Game 5. With baseball, no theoretical can ever be known. It happened quickly, and they never recovered. Sale had to come out of the game, and the Astros led 6-0 shortly thereafter.įrom a one-run game with a fired-up Fenway behind them, to a 6-0 deficit and a stunning lack of energy for the Red Sox. A Kyle Schwarber error didn’t help, but Sale gave up a double to Yordan Alvarez - who had already homered and singled off the lefty, and a 1-0 deficit expanded to a 3-0 deficit. (He twice could barely get through five innings against the Orioles in September, and he lasted just 2.1 innings in the must-win regular-season finale.)īut instead of treating that five-inning outing like a winning lottery ticket, Cora played with fire, pushed his luck, and sent what he believed to be his ace back to the mound for the sixth. This Chris Sale may still have the guts and guile to do what he did in the fourth inning of Game 5, but he just doesn’t have the stuff to get through six innings against a potent lineup. This is not the Cy Young version of Sale - not right now, 12 starts into his return from Tommy John surgery. When manager Alex Cora got five runs of one-run ball out of Chris Sale, he should have known he had been given a gift from the baseball gods. The other mistake was not a physical one but one of misguided faith. The Red Sox obviously caught a tough break in the top of the ninth, when Laz Diaz’s alternate strike zone robbed Nathan Eovaldi of what should have been the inning-ending strikeout, but that one pitch to Altuve in that one moment really changed everything about that game - and, in turn, the series. He trails Manny Ramirez (29) and Bernie Williams (22).Īltuve becomes the fastest player in MLB history to reach 21 postseason home runs. 3 on the all-time postseason home run list. With his 21st last night, Jose Altuve is now No. Garrett Whitlock to Jose Altuve (Screen shot from Baseball Savant) The rookie reliever has been a revelation for Boston all year, but his first pitch to Jose Altuve - a postseason home run monster - was directly in Altuve’s wheelhouse: The first: Game 4, top of the eighth, Red Sox leading 2-1, Garrett Whitlock on for his second inning of relief. Two other critical mistakes in this series make it feel like a lost opportunity for Boston’s baseball team. The offensive woes, though, are quite obvious. But to go to the complete opposite end of the spectrum, to give away outs and innings with non-competitive at-bats, to chase pitches well out of the zone, to fail to hit away from the shift, and to basically lose track of everything that brought them success in Games 2 and 3? Much of that could have been avoided. Obviously, a pace of a run per inning was never going to be sustainable. They scored one run in the 26 innings that followed. While Boston’s pitching held up reasonably well for seven innings in Game 4, for five innings in Game 5, and for eight innings in Game 6, the offense completely disappeared.Īfter Xander Bogaerts launched a two-run homer in the first inning of Game 4, the Red Sox had scored 26 runs in the first 27 innings of the series. It comes from not even competing with them over the final three games. There’d be no shame in losing to them in a hard-fought series.īut the lingering disappointment in Boston after this season doesn’t come from not beating the Astros. Beating them would, obviously, be quite the challenge. They’ve been the class of the American League for five years, they led MLB in runs scored and batting average, and they had the fourth-best team ERA in the American League this season. ![]() The Astros, of course, deserve a healthy share of credit for making that happen. Just four days removed from a complete and total romp at Fenway Park in Game 3, the Red Sox let their 2-1 series lead - and their World Series dreams - evaporate in rapid fashion. ![]() They also kind of blew it in the ALCS.Īfter the Boston bats went silent for the third consecutive game, the Red Sox’ season is now over. ![]() BOSTON (CBS) - The Red Sox were much more successful in 2021 than anybody could have imagined or expected them to be.
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