Red Sox hold off Yankees for 5-4 Game 1 victory
BOSTON Chris Sale struck out eight for his first post-season win, J.D. Martinez hit a three-run homer and the Boston Red Sox sweated out their shaky bullpen to hold off the New York Yankees 5-4 on Friday night in Game 1 of the AL Division Series.
One year after he was pounded by Houston in his playoff debut, Sale took a four-hit shutout into the sixth inning. The Yankees loaded the bases in the sixth and seventh, cutting the deficit to 5-3. Aaron Judge homered off Craig Kimbrel leading off the ninth before the Red Sox closer retired the next three batters, striking out Giancarlo Stanton and Luke Voit for the save.
Game 2 in the best-of-five series is Saturday night, with Boston starting another pitcher trying to overcome a history of post-season struggles: left-hander David Price is 0-8 as a starter in the playoffs. He’ll face Yankees righty Masahiro Tanaka.
In the first playoff matchup between the longtime rivals since 2004, the 108-win Red Sox took a 5-0 lead against Yankees starter J.A. Happ and then white-knuckled it after Sale left with two on and one out in the sixth.
The Yankees loaded the bases with nobody out in the seventh but scored just one run. Boston manager Alex Cora used scheduled Game 3 starter Rick Porcello to get two outs in the eighth before turning to Kimbrel for a four-out save,
It was the first ALDS matchup between the teams and the first in the post-season since the Red Sox staged an unprecedented rally from a 3-0 deficit in the 2004 AL Championship Series to advance and then won the World Series to end their 86-year dynasty of disappointment.
ASTROS 7, INDIANS 2
At Houston, a year after launching a World Series-record 15 homers in winning their first championship, the Astros picked up right where they left off, hitting four home runs to power past Cleveland in Game 1 of the AL Division Series.
Martin Maldonado, Jose Altuve, George Springer and Alex Bregman hit homers for the Astros, who didn’t waste any time displaying the same power that carried them to last year’s title.
Houston’s pop backed up a solid start by Justin Verlander, who bested Corey Kluber in a matchup of Cy Young Award-winning aces in the first post-season meeting between these teams.
Verlander took a no-hitter into the sixth inning and got his 12th playoff win. He allowed two hits and two runs in 51/3 innings. The Indians finished with only three hits, all singles.
Game 2 is Saturday in Houston. Gerrit Cole starts for the Astros against Carlos Carrasco.
BREWERS 4, ROCKIES 0
At Milwaukee, Jhoulys Chacin and the Brewers’ bullpen kept in control and Mike Moustakas contributed two more big hits in beating the Colorado Rockies 4-0 for a commanding 2-0 lead in their NL Division Series.
The Brewers won their 10th straight game going back to their impressive finish to the regular season.
Erik Kratz had two hits and drove in two runs, Hernan Perez hit two ground-rule doubles and Milwaukee’s bullpen closed the door after Chacin delivered in his playoff debut.
Game 3 is Sunday at Coors Field. Another win and Milwaukee is into the NL Championship Series for the first time since its previous post-season appearance in 2011.