Bono resigns at USA Gymnastics
sixth, a drive that sailed just inside the foul pole in left field for a 3-2 lead.
Bradley’s slam capped a five-run burst in the eighth against Roberto Osuna. The Astros closer got two outs but allowed two singles and plunked consecutive batters to force in a run. Bradley then crushed a 1-1 fastball into the right field seats to send Houston fans streaming toward the exits.
“That’s the pitch I always get him out with,” Osuna said. “He hit it today, but I would go there 100 more times.”
Osuna was acquired from Toronto this season while serving a 75-game ban under Major League Baseball’s domestic violence policy. He had a 1.99 ERA over 23 games for Houston in the regular season after he returned.
With his childhood hero and fellow Alvin, Texas, native Nolan Ryan sitting behind the plate, Eovaldi turned in another solid start. He allowed six hits and two runs with four strikeouts in six innings for the win in the second playoff start of his career.
“For him, I know it’s a special one,” Boston manager Alex Cora said.
Bregman had shared a video Monday on Instagram of Houston hitting back-to-back-to-back home runs off Eovaldi in his previous outing against the Astros in June. Eovaldi downplayed the post when
asked about it Monday.
Bregman did much of the damage against Eovaldi, getting two hits, an RBI and a walk in three plate appearances. Bregman has reached base safely in 20 of 28 plate appearances this postseason.
“Eovaldi did a great job,” Bregman said. “He had really five pitches working for him. He’s tough. We knew that coming into the game.”
Bradley hit a three-run double during Boston’s Game 2 victory, giving him three RBIs in consecutive games for the first time in his career. Moments after his slam, fans at TD Garden in Boston began chanting “JBJ!” during the Celtics season opener against the Philadelphia 76ers.
Bradley had caught the ire of many Red Sox fans while batting .210 during the first half of the season.
“It’s a credit to him, because at this level, when you’re hitting .180 after two months or I think it was three months, it is hard,” Cora said. “And he kept showing up. He kept working. He kept working his craft. Now you see the results.”
Boston jumped on Dallas Keuchel for two runs in the first, but the Astros cut the lead to 2-1 in the bottom of the inning and tied it on an RBI double by Bregman in the fifth.
The Astros went 1 for 8 with runners in scoring position in the first home game of the series, which was played in front of a sellout
crowd of 43,102 and included Astros Hall of Famer Jeff Bagwell and Houston Rockets stars James Harden, Chris Paul and Carmelo Anthony. Bregman’s double was the only extrabase hit for a team which entered the game having hit at least one homer in a record 14 straight playoff games.
Jose Altuve, at designated hitter on Tuesday because of a bruised knee, walked with two outs in the fifth and scored from first on the double by Bregman, which bounced past third baseman Rafael Devers and into the corner of left field to tie it at 2-2. Altuve also bunted for a single in the seventh.
Eduardo Nunez started at third base for Boston after Cora benched him in favor of Devers in Game 2. Devers took over at third in the bottom of the fourth after pinch-hitting for Nunez in the top of the inning.
When former California Congresswoman Mary Bono took over as the interim president for USA Gymnastics last week, she pointed to the opportunity to “reconnect” with a sport she loved growing up.
The connection lasted all of four days.
Bono stepped down on Tuesday, saying she felt her affiliation with the embattled organization would be a “liability” after a social media post by Bono criticizing Nike and former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick drew widespread scrutiny within the gymnastics community.
She posted a picture on Twitter in September of herself drawing over a Nike logo on a golf shoe. Bono, who was at a golf tournament for families who have lost members of the armed services at the time, called the tweet “an emotional reaction” to Nike’s use of the phrase “believing in something even if it means sacrificing everything.”
“I regret that at the time I didn’t better clarify my feelings,” Bono said in a statement.
Bono defended her right to express her beliefs, though she later deleted the tweet and the USA Gymnastics board of directors expressed its disappointment while pledging its support.
Not everyone, however, was won over by the surprise decision to hire Bono to help USA Gymnastics navigate its way through the fallout of the Larry Nassar scandal. More than 200 women have come forward over the last two years claiming they were sexually abused by Nassar under the guise of treatment during the former doctor’s time at USA Gymnastics and Michigan State University, including current or former members of the organization’s elite program.