PRICE GETS SOME HELP
Red Sox bounce back from Game 1 loss despite shaky post-season starter on mound
BOSTON — At the time, It was almost as if David Price was trying to justify the seven-year $217 million US deal he signed when he left the Blue Jays as a free agent and signed with the Red Sox in December, 2015.
Naturally Price was asked to explain what at that point was “just” an 0-for-7 mark as a post-season starter and how it was all going to change now that he was getting ace money for one of the highest-profile franchises in the sport.
“I was just saving all my post-season wins for the Red Sox,” Price said at the time, reportedly punctuated with a grin.
The grim news, he’s still saving them.
The much better news from a New England perspective is that the Red Sox offence picked up a wobbly Price on Sunday night at Fenway Park leading to a crucial 7-5 win over the Houston Astros.
Price was average at best, even though his team desperately could have used a clutch qualify outing. It’s a team game, however and because he never got completely lit up, the Sox were able to square up this best-of-seven ALCS at a win apiece. The action now shifts to Texas for three games at MinuteMaid Park beginning on Tuesday afternoon.
The left-hander didn’t last long enough to claim the elusive ‘W,’ getting pulled by manage Alex Cora after 4.2 innings. By then he had allowed four runs and five hits and with two runners on and his team leading, Cora clearly didn’t want to take a chance of another post-season Price pummelling.
Price certainly wasn’t good enough to get the win with only one clean inning of the 4.2 he was on the mound. The Astros put up deuces in the second and third, the latter highlighted by a two-run Marwin Gonzalez homer.
The Red Sox hung on from there in what was essentially a must-win affair for them. They added an insurance run in the seventh then in the eighth brought in what would have been Game 3 starter Rick Porcello to protect things.
Desperate times, don’t ya know.
Porcello struck out two of the three Astros batters he faced and the offence added another run in the bottom of the eighth to set closer Craig Kimbrel up with a three-run lead.
Kimbrel allowed a single and double for one Astros one but got the job done for his third save of the post season.
The loss was the first of these playoffs or the Astros, who swept Cleveland in three in the ALDS and took Game 1 here on Saturday night.
Ultimately the team victory was the most important thing, but by not getting the ‘W’ Price unwittingly made some dubious post season history. With 11 consecutive post-season starts without a victory, the Nashville native matched the longest-such stretch in MLB history.
With his team alive to see another day Price will take it, however. And who knows, the the series taking a significant shift before the 37,960 Fenway faithful on Sunday night, he may live to get another chance.
MOOKIE ON THE MOVE
Prior to the game, Astros manager A.J. Hinch refeered to Red Sox centre fielder Mookie Betts as “a ticking time bomb to do some damage.”
With some sloppy work from the battery to ignite it, the Astros found out just how explosive in the seventh when Betts added an insurance run.
After drawing a lead off walk, Betts advanced to second on a Lance McCullers Jr. wild pitch. He then moved to third and then home on a pair of passed balls by catcher Martin Maldonado.
So Betts romped around the bases without even needing a teammate’s hit to do so.
“He’ s a threat to do a lot of different things,” Hinch said of Betts, whose leadoff double in the first set up the Sox first run of the night and another two bagger in the eighth gave the Sox the converted touchdown.
START ‘EM UP
As a fringe American League Cy Young candidate, Astros Game 2 starter Gerritt Cole formed a dynamic onetwo punch down the stretch alongside Game 1 ace Justin Verlander.
The Red Sox hit him harder than anyone has in quite a while on Sunday, however, a needed offensive outburst to counter Price’s minor woes. The five runs he allowed through the first three innings were certainly out of the ordinary for the right hander, who had gone 35 consecutive starts without allowing five or more.
Hinch stuck with him through six innings however and the right-hander did settle down to retire the final nine batters he faced and keep the game close.
HOMER HAPPY
When Astros right fielder Marwin Gonzalez destroyed a two-out offering form Price in the third and launched it well over the Green Monster and beyond, the Astros made some history as a team.
It was the 14th consecutive post-season game that the World Series champs hit at least one out of the park, an all-time MLB playoff record. The streak dates back to Game 6 of last year’s ALCS, includes all seven games of the World series and each of the Astros five playoff games so far this October.
The wall exacted a little revenge on Gonzalez in the next inning, however. As the Houston right fielder chased a long, loud fly ball by the Red Sox.
SALE NOT SWELL
Perhaps this explains the sub-par work of Red Sox ace Chris Sale in Saturday’s Game 1 loss. The veteran pitcher wasn’t at Fenway Park for Sunday’s contest and midway through the game the team announced that sale had been admitted to Massachusetts General Hospital with a stomach illness.
Sale, who was off with his command and his velocity, was expected to remain at the hospital overnight for observation. He is scheduled to start Game 5 for the Sox on Thursday in Houston.