Sale hospitalized
The Red Sox said Game 1 starter Chris Sale was hospitalized with a stomach illness, but Boston manager Alex Cora said he was still hoping the he would join the team in Houston.
“He was feeling bad, and he’s at the hospital,” Cora said. “From what I know, it’s nothing serious.
But obviously whenever you have to go to the hospital you’ve got to be ‘worried.’”
Cora said it did not affect his performance in the series opener, which Houston won 7-2 . seats above them — with a tworun homer in the third, it looked like Price was headed for another loss (he has won two postseason games in relief.)
But Boston, which won the AL East and a franchise-record 108 games, came back in the bottom half, starting with Xander Bogaerts’ one-out single and then a double by Steve Pearce that sent Gonzalez crashing backfirst into the metal scoreboard on the left-field wall. He fell to the warning track, but after the training staff and manger AJ Hinch went out to check on him he stayed in the game.
“The ball, the wall, he’s back-pedaling. He’s got to make a decision on whether or not to concede the wall and try to play it off the wall or try to make a catch,” Hinch said. “It’s a wellplaced hit.”
Cole walked Devers on four pitches to load the bases and struck out Ian Kinsler on three before Bradley lofted one down the left-field line and off the Monster. As the ball bounced back toward the infield, it hopped on the padding along the side wall, just out of Gonzalez’s reach.