Rested bullpen no relief
Smith, Osuna give up HRs in rare appearances to turn tight game into rout
Roberto Osuna shuffled silently from the field on which he imploded. His head hung. He toted a tan mitt in the right hand which gave away the game and control of the American League Championship Series.
A sellout crowd thinned. Those who remained — the few who harbored hope of an offensive uprising that never came — heckled Houston’s controversial closer who concluded a meltdown.
Refurbished during the trade deadline and refreshed by Monday’s off day, the Astros’ bullpen combusted. Given a tie game after the fifth inning, two relievers yielded six runs, handing Boston an 8-2 Boston win. Houston faces its first postseason series deficit of its World Series defense.
“It’s a 3-2 ballgame,” manager A.J. Hinch said, “until all hell broke loose in the eighth inning.”
Osuna had not pitched in 10 days. The vilified former Blue Jay surrendered five runs, hit two men and allowed a grand slam during a farcical, 27-pitch eighth inning. Sixteen days had elapsed since sidearmer Joe Smith appeared. He gave away a shortlived tie with a sixth-inning solo home run.
“I can’t manage it differently based on trying to find a soft landing for them because they haven’t pitched,” Hinch said. “I don’t know if rust is an issue … it didn’t look like it.”
Even though he was left off the American League Division Series roster, Smith threw multiple live batting practice sessions. Bullpens and other side sessions were scheduled to ensure his readiness. “I was good,” Smith said. Smith was summoned to start the sixth inning of the tie game Dallas Keuchel departed.
Smith faces almost exclusively righthanded hitters, holding them to a .644 OPS in 127 plate appearances. Two of Boston’s first three hitters were righthanded. Xander Bogaerts flew out before Steve Pearce stepped in.
“We loved the matchups,”
Hinch said.
Smith throws just two pitches, a sinker and four-seam fastball. After missing away with a firstpitch sinker, Smith repeated the pitch.
He intended to throw it away from Pearce, the Red Sox first baseman who engaged Astros’ social media maven Alex Bregman’s bravado on Monday.
The baseball instead tailed in. Pearce pulverized it to left field with a 107 mph exit velocity.
“Threw a really, really good pitch,” Hinch said. “If you look where the pitch is, it’s really hard to get that ball airborne and hit it as far as Pearce did.”
Pearce tracked its flight as it neared a chicken sandwich-sponsored foul pole. It hooked but stayed fair. Statcast estimated the go-ahead home run traveled 456 feet. Pearce pointed toward the Astros dugout as he neared first base.
“It was a ball, he just put a great swing on it,” Smith said. “I don’t know how he kept it fair. It was a good piece of hitting.”
Gifted his first lead since the first inning, Sox starter Nate Eovaldi made Pearce’s home run stand. He spun a shutdown sixth inning, his final frame of a marvelous afternoon.
Before each of the 92 pitches he threw, Eovaldi eyed the most famous pitcher from his Texas hometown of Alvin. Nolan Ryan nestled into a seat behind home plate. Before him, Eovaldi eviscerated the Astros.
In the six innings Eovaldi engineered, Houston struck six hits. Two were curiously called as such by the game’s official scorekeeper.
Once a Ranger who started the season as a Ray, Eovaldi was a somewhat overlooked deadline acquisition who augmented Boston’s rotation. He is armed with a terrifying repertoire. His fourseam fastballs reach 101 mph, backed with a darting cutter which hovers around 93-94.
Strong from the start
To the first hitter he faced, Eovaldi uncorked a 96-mph, twostrike cutter. George Springer waved wildly at the baseball as it dove away. He followed with a 100.8 mph four-seamer in toward Jose Altuve’s hands.
The hobbled Houston second baseman shot it to left field for a single. Marwin Gonzalez chased him home with a two-strike single three batters later, punching a 94 mph cutter into short right field.
In the following five innings, Eovaldi yielded three hits. Two clanked off the gloves of Boston defenders. Bregman bounced a fifth-inning “double” that third baseman Rafael Devers did not backhand, scoring Altuve from first base.
Creating such clutchness was abnormal. The Astros left four men in scoring position against Eovaldi. Eight men were stranded in total. Houston hit 1-for-8 with runners in scoring position.
“You’re not going to be perfect at this stage of the year with facing really good pitching when they execute their pitches,” Hinch said. “But if we do feel like we give ourselves enough opportunities, then we’re going to find that hit. Tonight not as much at some times where we felt like we had them on the ropes.”
Boston survived. In the eighth, it pounced.
Osuna arrived in Houston still under a 75-game suspension for a violation of Major League Baseball’s domestic abuse policy. Charges were withdrawn in Toronto last month and Osuna entered into a peace bond.
On the field, the 23-year-old righthander has met the organization’s demands. In 22⅔ innings, he had a 1.99 ERA. In save situations, it was 1.88.
This, of course, was not. Hinch explained before the game his postseason bullpen directive. A one-run game was akin to a tie game. A two-run game resembled one-run game. Ensuring the team got to the ninth inning within striking distance was paramount.
“We’re trying to win the game, trying to keep it at the one-run game with the really effective closer against the middle part of their order,” Hinch said. “We get out of that 3-2, we’ve got plenty of outs left, and you never know what can happen.”
Control betrays Osuna
Not one of Osuna’s 27 pitches was swung upon and missed. After a first-pitch flyout from J.D. Martinez, Xander Bogaerts dribbled an infield single up the thirdbase line. Pearce’s fielder’s choice extinguished him.
“I got after Bogaerts with two strikes, early in the count, then I don’t know what happened,” Osuna said.
After fouling two four-seamers and a slider, Devers deposited a single. Brock Holt, too, faced a two-strike count. Osuna lost a slider. It grazed the former Rice standout on his back foot, a ruling rendered by a Red Sox dugout review.
“It didn’t sound like it (hit him),” catcher Brian McCann said. “Obviously it did.”
Now with the bases full, Boston summoned pinch hitter Mitch Moreland for its most crucial plate appearance. Hampered by a hamstring injury suffered against the Yankees in the ALDS, Moreland fell behind in the count 1-2.
Osuna returned with a 96 mph four-seamer. It struck Moreland in the elbow, forcing home a run before Jackie Bradley, Jr. arrived.
In the regular season, Bradley had one extra-base hit with the bases loaded in 17 at-bats.
Osuna evened the count at 1 to the nine-hole hitter. His fastball velocity began to fade. The righthander elevated a 94.6 mph offering on the outer half, the slowest of the 15 four-seam fastballs he tossed.
“That’s a pitch I always get him out with,” Osuna said. “He hit it today but, I mean, I will go there 100 more times.”
Bradley bludgeoned it into the right field seats. The grand slam shifted the series. Preceding this one, Bradley had 14 career plate appearances against Osuna. He had three hits. One was a home run.
“We lost and you don’t want to do this to your team, especially in a situation like that,” Osuna said. “But I’m ready to bounce back tomorrow.”