GIVEN A FREE PASS
Bosox errors leave door open for Houston’s Game 1 victory
B OSTON — Somewhere in the Tri-State area on Saturday night, a Yankees fan accidentally flipped to TBS and exclaimed out loud to no one in particular: “This is the team that wiped us out?!” A different Red Sox team showed up at Fenway Park on Saturday night. This group, imprecise on the mound, inconsistent in the field inadequate at the plate and intolerant with the officiating, finds itself in a quick American League Championship Series hole with the hopes that Octoberphobe David Price, of all people, can bail them out.
The final score of 7-2, Astros, on one hand didn’t tell the story of Game 1, as Houston held a slight, 3-2 lead after eight innings. On the other hand, the visitors’ four-run explosion in the ninth allowed a truer portrait to arise. For the ’Stros thoroughly outplayed the Sawx in their home.
“Sometimes we have bad games,” old pal Eduardo Nunez said afterward. “I think we have bad games in the wrong spot, the wrong game, the wrong situation. But we turn the page. Tomorrow’s a new day. We can come back. We did all year long.”
Nunez, once upon a time projected to be Derek Jeter’s successor as the Yankees’ shortstop, endured a particularly rough night at third base, failing to glove George Springer’s two-run single in the second inning and committing a fifth-inning error that led to Houston’s tiebreaking run. Nuney (copyright Joe Girardi, 2010) didn’t deserve all the blame, though. The Red Sox’s pitchers walked 10 Astros, a franchise record for a nine-inning postseason game, and hit three more. The Red Sox’s lineup managed three hits on the night as Astros ace Justin Verlander picked up his 13th career postseason victory. And manager Alex Cora got ejected by home-plate umpire James Hoye after Hoye called out Andrew Benintendi on strikes to leave the bases loaded in the fifth. “It wasn’t the best night,” Cora said. “But if you want to take a positive from the game, it was 3-2 going into the ninth.”
That and about $240 million will get you the Red Sox roster that won 108 games in the regular season and dispatched of the Yankees in four ALDivision Series contests, only to come up short in this semifinals opener. Sale, his velocity down a couple of miles per hour from his ALDSGame1 victory over the Yankees, retired the first two Astros batters in the second before walking Carlos Correa, hitting Martin Maldonado and walking Josh Reddick. Springer scorched a grounder into left field that Nunez failed to glove with a dive, scoring Correa and Maldonado for a 2-0 lead.
“Yeah, I think I had the chance to get the ball,” Nunez said. “He hit it hard.”
After the Red Sox tied the score with two runs in the fifth off Verlander, Boston reliever Joe Kelly started the sixth by hitting Alex Bregman with a pitch. Then Nunez failed to transfer Yuli Gurriel’s grounder from his glove to his right hand, allowing Gurriel to reach first safely and advancing Bregman, to second.
“Very frustrating,” said Nunez, who said he rushed the transfer. “No one wants to make an error in that situation. I have to make that play.”
Kelly, best known in New York as Tyler Austin’s sparring partner in that April brawl here between the Bosox and the Yankees, threatened to escape the jam and ac- quit Nunez of all charges, retiring Tyler White on a popout to second baseman Brock Holt and striking out Marwin Gonzalez. Nevertheless, Carlos Correa looped a two-out single to center field that scored Bregman for the Astros advantage, and the Houston offense — and Red Sox ninth-inning reliever Brandon Workman — took care of the rest. The Astros are now 4-0 in this postseason, and they can take a commanding lead if their second ace Gerrit Cole prevails over Price in what will be a battle of top overall draft picks (Price in 2007, Cole in 2011). Price will be looking to win his first postseason start in his 11th try.
“It’s different baseball, it is,” Price said Saturday, in a news conference, of this time of year. “It’s fun. I enjoy it. Haven’t been successful the way that I know I can be and will be, but I look forward to getting out there tomorrow.”
If he can’t break his very negative trend, or if the Red Sox can’t shake off whatever affliction hit them on Saturday, they all might find themselves looking forward to winter vacation far more quickly than they desired. And not much later than their chief rivals from The Bronx.