BOSTON TOPS
Benintendi catch, HR that wasn’t give Sox 3-1 lead
HOUSTON — From this point forward, will Red Sox Nation hold a special place in its heart for Country Joe?
It will if Alex Cora’s guys keep stomping their way through October.
The Red Sox stand one win away from their fourth World Series appearance in 15 seasons, and their taut, 8-6 victory over the defending champion Astros Wednesday night in American League Championship Series Game 4 — putting them in position to clinch the AL pennant in Thursday night’s Game 5 at Minute Maid Park — will be remembered most of all for the controversial assistance they received from veteran umpire “Country Joe” West on a first-inning home run-turned-flyout by the Astros’ Jose Altuve.
“You’re talking about the whole course of the game,” said Astros right fielder Josh Reddick, who described himself and his teammates as “pissed off ” by the decision. “We lost by two runs. Those are two runs we could’ve used and we’d still be playing a ballgame right now. They have to get the call right. That’s the bottom line.”
Boston didn’t cruise solely on West’s gift. Red Sox center fielder Jackie Bradley Jr. enhanced the finest professional week of his life with a game-winning, two-run homer off the Astros’ Josh James in the sixth inning, and Xander Bogaerts and Rafael Devers each tallied two RBI as well. They earned their 3-1 lead in this series and now own a 4-0 road record this postseason, having gone 2-for-2 both here and at Yankee Stadium.
Nevertheless, the Red Sox’s individual heroics paled in comparison to the shadow cast by West, a major-league umpire since 1976, when his on-the-spot call in the first inning resulted in arguably the most questionable ruling since replay on home runs started in 2008.
With the Red Sox already up 2-0 in the bottom of the first, the Astros had one out and a runner on first when Altuve, the reigning AL MVP, stepped to the plate. When Boston starter Rick Porcello offered a 2-and-1 heater, Altuve lofted a flyball the other way that sailed over the wall, hitting the side of the glove of a leaping Mookie Betts after it struck a fan’s hands …
Or so it seemed. West, the right field umpire, put his right arm up, signaling an out. He apparently felt that the fan in question reached over the wall into the field of play and interfered with Betts’ efforts to catch the ball. Upon Houston manager A.J. Hinch’s urging, the umpires convened to get the final verdict from Major League Baseball officials stationed in the their Manhattan replay center. There, the officials couldn’t find a definitive angle on the location of Betts’ glove and the fan’s hands when they intersected. Consequently, as per the replay protocol, West’s call stood.
“It’s tough,” Altuve said. “When I hit the ball, I was expecting to tie the game. I thought I did. They called an out.”
Minute Maid exploded in boos upon the crew chief West taking off his headphones and signaling out a second time. And even as action resumed at a brisk pace, with the Astros taking two leads that, if protected, would’ve relegated the Altuve “out” into a side conversation, the specter of West’s action loomed.
“He just said that there was fan interference on the field, and my argument was more about the fact that the ball was leaving the yard. The trajectory was there,” Hinch told TBS’ Lauren Shehadi during the game. “I’m not sure if Mookie makes that catch ... but how it’s an assumed out is unbelievable.” Hinch’s words were more conciliatory after the game.
Since Porcello lasted just four innings, and with the Red Sox planning to bullpen their way through Game 5 as ace Chris Sale needs more time to recover from a stomach ailment that hospitalized him this past week, Cora to his All-Star closer Craig Kimbrel in the eighth inning. While Kimbrel allowed a run for the fourth time in four appearances this postseason and created quite the scare by loading the bases with two outs in the ninth before left fielder Andrew Benintendi made a diving, game-ending snare of an Alex Bregman liner. So concluded a memorable contest in which an umpire stood out most of all.