Astros bounce White Sox to reach ALCS
It was Jose Altuve, Carlos Correa and Alex Bregman once again.
Led by their October-tested stars, the Houston Astros are going back to the AL Championship Series for the fifth straight year.
Altuve hit a three-run homer, scored four times and stole a base, and Houston eliminated the Chicago White Sox with a 10-1 victory in Game 4 of their AL Division Series on Tuesday in Chicago.
Correa and Bregman each hit a tworun double as the Astros bounced back from Sunday night's 12-6 loss with their usual relentless brand of baseball. Michael Brantley had three hits and two RBI.
Next up for Altuve and company is Game 1 of the ALCS against former Astros bench coach Alex Cora and the Boston Red Sox on Friday in Houston. The Red Sox eliminated Tampa Bay with a 6-5 victory in Game 4 on Monday night.
“They know how to play the game,” Altuve said of Boston. “They've been in the playoffs before, so it's going to be fun.”
It'll be Houston's second ALCS under 72-year-old manager Dusty Baker, whose club got the best of 77-year-old Chicago skipper Tony La Russa. Baker replaced A.J. Hinch, who was fired in fallout from the Astros' 2017 sign-stealing scandal that also resulted in a oneyear ban for Cora.
Gavin Sheets connected for Chicago, becoming the third rookie in franchise history to homer in a postseason game. But Carlos Rodón was knocked out in the third inning of his first start since Sept. 29, and the AL Central champions left eight runners on base.
The White Sox also lost in the first round of the 2020 playoffs, dropping two of three in Oakland. Before this year, the franchise had never made consecutive postseason appearances.
The Astros are looking for the franchise's second championship after winning it all in 2017, a title that still evokes a strong reaction around the game after the team was punished for using electronics to steal signs.
The crowd at Guaranteed Rate Field chanted “Cheater! Cheater!” at times during the two games in Chicago, and White Sox reliever Ryan Tepera implied late Sunday night that Houston may have been stealing signs in Games 1 and 2.
But the Astros, used to dealing with boos ever since the scandal came to light, brushed it all off. Asked about Tepera's comments after Game 4 was postponed Monday because of rain, Bregman responded: “It's all good. We're focused on winning games. That's it.”
No kidding.
Late Monday
Giants 1, Dodgers 0: Evan Longoria powered a home run off Max Scherzer through fierce wind. Chris Taylor and pinch-hitter Gavin Lux fell short, putting the defending World Series champions on the brink of elimination.
Longoria's shot in the fifth inning held up on a cold, blustery night with conditions more akin to San Francisco. The Giants took a 2-1 lead in the NL Division Series.
Los Angeles nearly tied it with two outs in the ninth, when Lux launched a long drive to left-center with an exit velocity of 107 mph and an estimated batting average of .890, according to Statcast. But the wind knocked it down and the ball was caught on the warning track, leaving Lux in disbelief.
“My stomach pretty much sank when he hit it. I couldn't believe that it didn't go,” Longoria said. “I guess it was our night.”
Taylor flied out to deep right-center with a runner on in the sixth.
Red Sox 6, Rays 5: Back in raucous Fenway Park for postseason baseball a year after a last-place finish, Boston is getting the bounces, knocking big hits in bunches and even benfiting from a little small ball.
Kiké Hernández delivered Boston's second straight walk-off win, scoring pinch-runner Danny Santana with a sacrifice fly in the ninth inning to send the wild-card Red Sox to the AL Championship Series
After winning Game 3 of their bestof-five AL Division Series on Sunday with Christian Vázquez's two-run homer in the 13th, Boston took Game 4 for its first set of back-to-back walk-off postseason wins since 2004 ALCS Games 4 and 5, both from David Ortiz against the Yankees.
Rafael Devers had a three-run home run off rookie Shane McClanahan to ignite a five-run third inning that put Boston in front 5-0. Tampa Bay battled back and tied it in the eighth.