In the grand scheme
Sizzling Bradley’s slam helps Sox to Game 3 win
HOUSTON — Jackie Bradley Jr. was once considered an offensive liability, but the Red Sox centerfielder focused on his swing and approach at the plate and it showed during a strong second half to the regular season.
Now in October, those struggles seem an ancient memory.
For the second consecutive game, Bradley came up huge with the bases loaded. Two nights after hitting a bases-clearing double in Game 2, Bradley produced a moment that will be remembered for a long time, delivering an eighth-inning grand slam that broke the game open and sealed the Red Sox’ 8-2 Game 3 victory over the Astros, giving them a 2-1 lead in the American League Championship Series.
“He stepped up big time,” shortstop Xander Bogaerts said. “Apparently he’s the guy we need with the bases loaded now.”
The blast was the Red Sox’ sixth postseason grand slam in franchise history, and first since Shane Victorino’s go-ahead slam in Game 6 of the 2013 ALCS. Bradley said he was looking for a pitch up in the zone and found it on Roberto Osuna’s 1-1 fastball with two outs in the inning, sending a nodoubter into the right-field seats.
“It’s huge,” Bradley said. “We’re playing a really good team in Houston. Runs are at a premium. We never feel like enough runs is going to be enough. So it was very, very special for us.”
“His teammates loved it,” first baseman Steve Pearce added. “I’ll tell you that.”
Bradley couldn’t find consistent production at the plate for most of the first half of the season, as he struggled and his average dipped as low as .161. For an eight-game stretch in May, he played in just two games as he tried to find the answers.
But sometime during the season’s second half, something clicked, and he had more luck. He hit .282 in August and was more consistent. He started hitting balls in the air and going the other way more.
“We saw that coming in the middle of the season,” Sox manager Alex Cora said. “We unplugged him from the lineup and he worked hard to get his swing. Now he’s very comfortable. He understands why, what he has to do . ... It’s all him. It’s a credit to him, because at this level, when you’re hitting .180 after two months or I think it was three months, it is hard.
“And he kept showing up. He kept working. He kept working his craft. Now you see the results.”
All the while, Bradley never got too low.
“You’re going to go through it,” he said. “I guess the thing is I’m not afraid to fail. I just don’t want to fail a lot. I want to fail less. I want to be more consistent than I have been. So I’m just continuously working as hard as I can to continuously get better and fail less.” Bradley’s blast came during a five-run eighth in which everything unraveled for Osuna and the Astros.
The Sox led 3-2 with two outs and a runner on first when Rafael Devers singled to right. Osuna then hit Brock Holt to load the bases before plunking Mitch Moreland to score a run. That set the stage for Bradley’s dramatics.
And Nathan Eovaldi pitched six strong innings for the Sox, allowing two runs. The second came in the fifth when Devers couldn’t handle a grounder from Alex Bregman that glanced off his glove and down the left-field corner for a game-tying, gift RBI double.
The Red Sox immediately responded though when Pearce turned on a fastball from Joe Smith and launched it to the porch in left field for a go-ahead 456-foot homer. That came after Pearce had hit a high fly ball to left in the third on which Tony Kemp made a leaping catch at the wall to save two runs. Replays showed the ball might have grazed the wall before he caught it, and the Red Sox challenged the play, but it was ultimately upheld.
But there was no doubt about Pearce’s homer, his first career postseason blast.
“It felt great,” Pearce said. “I’m not going to lie. I’m just glad it stayed fair. It was really close and timely. So, yeah, we’ll hopefully keep the ball rolling.”