Eovaldi rested and ready for Game 6
HOUSTON — The more looks a hitter can get at a pitcher, the better the odds become for that hitter to find success.
When it comes to Nate Eovaldi’s third exposure — one start, one relief appearance — to the Astros in Friday night’s Game 6 of the ALCS, that maxim does not necessarily apply.
Thanks to Eovaldi’s five-pitch arsenal — four-seam fastball, cut fastball, slider, curveball, and changeup — and also a fondness for introducing subtle changes to his windup and delivery, Eovaldi poses a stiffer challenge than the standard three-pitch starter.
For those looking for hope with the Red Sox on the brink of elimination, the element of surprise about which pitch Eovaldi will throw is one of the brightest this team has going.
“That’s kind of the nice thing about having five pitches that I throw a lot, I have different ways of trying to get them out,” Eovaldi said on a Zoom call from Boston on Thursday afternoon before the team flew here. “The last time I faced them [as a starter], I basically went through the lineup twice before I was taken out. So the other night when I came in to relieve, it’s a different atmosphere when you come out of the bullpen. You’re in kind of like that attack mode right away as opposed to starting. I kind of try to set them up in different
ways.”
Perhaps lost in the sense of relief that greets an Eovaldi postseason appearance is that Astros hitters have hardly been fooled.
In Eovaldi’s six innings in this series, the Astros have seven runs (all earned) on seven hits. And while Eovaldi is not alone on the Red Sox in getting hit hard by the Astros, his results are a reminder of how thin the margin of error is for a pitcher against an elite lineup, no matter how good his postseason pedigree.
In order to blunt the Astros’ attack, Eovaldi said it’s about “staying aggressive, not falling behind in counts.”
Kevin Plawecki will catch Eovaldi, as he has throughout his playoff starts, but that is the only lineup change anticipated.
Ground to a halt: Xander Bogaerts, 2 for 9 in the last two games, has seen too many ground balls from Red Sox hitters lately.
“Maybe start by getting the ball in the air, let’s try that out,” said Bogaerts. “Just some nights it’s not your night,
and it really sucks that it goes that way. We’re down, 7-0 [in Game 5]. I don’t feel like anyone is trying to hit a seven-run homer. That doesn’t exist no matter how far you hit it. It just counts for one point. I just think guys were getting good pitches to hit and for some reason it was rolling over, it was going into the ground.
“We didn’t stay to the middle of the field as much as possible. We were getting in actually some good counts, you know, 1-0, 2-0. Hopefully we stick more to the middle of the field and turn this around. We have plenty of time still.”
Astros’garcia good to go: In Game 6 the Astros will go with Luis Garcia, who also started Game 2, allowing a grand slam in the first inning and being lifted after walking the leadoff batter in the second.
At the time, the Astros said Garcia was taken out of the game because of a knee issue. In declining to get specific, Astros manager Dusty Baker said he has been assured by the training staff and pitching coach that Garcia is OK.