Astros top Red Sox in sloppy contest
BOSTON — This year’s American League Championship Series features a matchup of pedigree and panache, a meeting of the two best teams in baseball. The level of play Saturday night did not come close to that standard, but it was still a thing of beauty to the Houston Astros.
In a game characterized by walks, wild pitches, hit batters, errors, Alex Cora’s ejection and an errant throw that was so far off target it hit an umpire in the shoulder, the Astros beat the Boston Red Sox, 7-2, to grab Game 1 of the bestof-seven series.
Game 2 will be Sunday night, when the Red Sox will try to put on a better performance in front of their dispirited fans at Fenway Park.
The overall shoddy play could have merely been first-game nerves, although both teams seemed impervious to jitters when they won their first-round playoff series.
Perhaps it was the chilly conditions, with temperatures in the high 40s, or maybe it was just a fluky bad night of baseball. But this did not look like a match of two teams that topped 100 wins, including the defending World Series champions — the Astros, who have won five consecutive postseason games.
In all, there were 14 walks (10 by Red Sox pitchers), two errors, two wild pitches and three hit batters. There was also a mental mistake by J.D. Martinez, the Red Sox slugger, who argued a third-strike call that got away from the catcher instead of running to first base.
The first indicator that things were off was the performance of Chris Sale, Boston’s ace starting pitcher. Sale, who battled through shoulder tenderness in the second half of the regular season, was uncharacteristically wild and did not get past the fourth inning. He gave up only one hit, but he walked four batters, matching his season high, and hit another.
Justin Verlander, the Astros’ No. 1 starter, pitched very well except in the fifth inning, when he suddenly lost his command, walking three batters and throwing the second of his two wild pitches. It came with the bases loaded and allowed Boston to even the score, 2-2.
Eduardo Nunez, the Red Sox third baseman, failed to field a ground ball in the second inning, allowing two runs to score, and then made another error in the sixth that led to Houston’s go-ahead run on a single by shortstop Carlos Correa, who also committed an error.
There were no extra base hits until the top of the ninth, when Houston’s Josh Reddick hit a home run off Brandon Workman, who then walked two batters before surrendering another home run, to Yuli Gurriel.
Boston’s defense was shaky throughout much of the game, but the most comical play did not result in a run. After Tyler White was hit by a pitch in the eighth, pinch runner Jake Marisnick set out to steal second base. Boston catcher Christian Vazquez sailed a throw so far wide that it hit the secondbase umpire, a stoic Joe West, on the right shoulder. West barely reacted.
Cora, the Red Sox’s first-year manager, was spared watching the final four innings from the dugout. He was tossed out of the game by the home plate umpire, James Hoye, in the bottom of the fifth.
Cora grew incensed after Andrew Benintendi was called out on strikes with the bases loaded and two outs. Benintendi was upset, too, and demonstrated his ire by methodically throwing down three pieces of equipment — his bat, his arm pad and his helmet — and barking at Hoye before he was led away by third-base coach Carlos Febles.
Benintendi’s at-bat came at the conclusion of an inning in which Boston notched two runs to even the score but could have done more damage against a suddenly wobbly Verlander.
Verlander had faced one batter over the minimum through four innings and was dominating the Red Sox batters. But then he developed command problems after giving up a leadoff single to Steve Pearce; Verlander walked the bottom three hitters for the Red Sox. One run came in on Mitch Moreland’s pinch-hit walk, and the second, which came after Mookie Betts hit into a fielder’s choice with the bases loaded, scored on a wild pitch to Benintendi.
Verlander had faltered, but he did not cave in, and the Astros took the lead in the top of the sixth against Joe Kelly and the Red Sox’s inconsistent defense.
First, Kelly hit Alex Bregman with a pitch, and then Nunez dropped a ball after he had fielded it cleanly. Instead of a double play to clean up the bases, the Astros had runners at first and second with nobody out. Kelly got the next two batters, but Correa singled to left, allowing Bregman to score and make it 3-2, Houston.
Besides enduring the loss, Red Sox fans now have questions about Sale. He competed fiercely without his best stuff, but Cora had Kelly warming up in the second inning, an alarming sight for fans who believe their chances of winning a World Series depend on Sale’s throwing like an ace throughout October. But they also depend on everyone else on the Red Sox roster playing better than they did in Game 1.