Calling on Liriano questionable; now team must answer bell
BOSTON — If Josh Reddick’s second-inning blast to Fenway Park’s short right-field wall was just a little higher or flew a few feet farther.
If A.J. Hinch had stuck with Brad Peacock a little longer or handed the ball to anyone but Francisco Liriano with Game 3 and this American League Division Series suddenly about to change. If, if, if. We’ll have every minute up until the first pitch of Game 4 back at Fenway to second-guess the manager who won 101 regular-season games in 2017. The questions started piling up as soon as Liriano’s second pitch — a hanging slider from an unpredictable veteran lefthanded reliever to lefthanded-hitting rookie Rafael Devers — instantly made it 4-3 Boston in a game the Astros never got back.
But this can’t be questioned: The revived Red Sox are back in a series once absolutely dominated by the
Astros. And Hinch’s club will have to prove for the first time this season that it’s really as loose, confident and experienced as it thinks it is.
The 2015 Astros never recovered after blowing Game 4 of the ALDS to the eventual world champion Royals.
The 2017 Astros? They knocked ex-teammate Doug Fister out of Game 3 after just 38 uneven pitches, then started going backward.
We’re about to see if two years of maturation and the offseason additions of vets Carlos Beltran, Brian McCann and Josh Reddick make a difference when they’re supposed to.
“We’re going to be fine. We’ll bounce back out of this and come back and play hard,” Hinch said after his club lost 10-3 and watched its series lead shrink to 2-1. “But this is playoff baseball. If anybody thought the Red Sox were going to lay down, probably rethink it.”
A brutal six-run seventh inning backed up those sentiments. The Astros needed three relievers just to get three outs, and famous Fenway finally came alive, setting up the joyous sway of “Sweet Caroline” with a defiant “I Won’t Back Down.”
But this series is over if Reddick makes it 6-0 scorching road team in the second.
Astros shortstop Carlos Correa described a ball that barely ended up in Mookie Betts’ outstretched glove as a “knockout” blow that was never delivered. Hinch acknowledged that the near miss kept the Red Sox out of a deep hole.
“It was a huge momentum shift that we later felt,” he said.
Life for the Sox
Boston was lifeless for two-plus games until the Astros’ manager picked the wrong reliever out of his pen.
Why Liriano (4.40 ERA, 14 hits and 10 walks in 141⁄3 regular-season relief innings) at such a pivotal early moment in Game 3? He was a July 31 trade-deadline addition who’d struggled to find a consistent slot with his new club.
And why act like the Astros were desperate and down 2-0 in a series they had owned? Even if Liriano had kept Devers’ blast out of the stands, he would have been a temporary fix. Why not stick with Peacock (13-2, 3.00 ERA in the regular season) or go with a more trusted and proven long-relief arm?
Lance McCullers Jr. soon followed and did solid work until he hit a wall in the seventh. Joe Musgrove, who shined late in the season as a starter-turned-reliever (2.23 ERA and 36 strikeouts in 361⁄3 innings after the All-Star break), had already started warming up before Liriano was handed the ball.
Hinch mentioned “these games” with a “small margin,” but Games 1 and 2 were roaring orange-and-blue blowouts, and he isn’t John Farrell trying to hold on to his job. Hinch also didn’t fully explain his decision to turn to a vet who threw only one pitch before the second was hammered and totaled more hits allowed (two) than outs recorded (one).
“Brad did a good job getting through (the first). We had traffic in the second, then traffic in the third,” Hinch said. “That pocket down there at the bottom, we felt pretty good about Liriano. … He hung a slider; it just didn’t work.”
Onus on Astros
What clearly did for the Astros in 162 regular-season contests and Games 1 and 2 was their focus and resilience. They began as the hottest team in baseball, leapt out to the fastest start in franchise history, then fought off major injuries to the rotation and daily lineup to still win 101 and finish as the third-best team in MLB.
Correa was relaxed and cool post-blowout Sunday, backed up against a wall in a cramped clubhouse with TV cameras and mikes hovering near his face.
“I’m confident we’re going to go out there (Monday) like nothing happened (Sunday) and hopefully go back home with a victory,” said the 23-year-old infielder, already one of the Astros’ main spokesmen.
Then Correa was asked about the significance of closing out the Red Sox in 4.
The calmness became complicated.
“It’s very significant. It’s really important. … We don’t want to go back home and have a Game 5,” he said. “But at the same time, there’s no need to put pressure on ourselves. We’ve been working through 162 games and playing solid baseball. Now is the time we’ve got to show it.”
The Astros’ composure cracked in Game 3.
Reddick’s glove pushing Jackie Bradley Jr. to a three-run homer made the game a laugher, with Fenway soon chanting the ex-Red Sox outfielder’s name.
“I think everybody in Foxborough heard,” Reddick said. “It’s good to see they still love me here.”
Hinch must return to Fenway on Monday with his normal calm-and-cool touch. Stick to what’s worked so well. Trust the players who proved themselves from April through Game 2.
His Astros don’t want to mess around with suddenly needing Game 5 back in Houston just to survive.