Hi all. Here’s how I see baseball on this Sunday, October 14. With two runs in the 7th and 2 in the 8th the Dodgers evened the series with the Brewers. Meantime the Astros took game 1 from the Red Sox at Fenway Park.
In Milwaukee, game 2 looked like more of the same from game 1. The Brewers had a 3–0 lead through 6 and the Dodgers’ starter Hyun-Jin Ryu was gone before the fifth inning was done. Even the Brewers’ starter Wade Miley had two hits, a double and single. Travis Shaw homered off Alex Wood in the 6th to make it 3-0. Then the Dodgers’ bats appeared as they had done the night before. This time they put enough runs on the board to win rather than falling a run shy as they did Friday night. In the 7th Cody Bellinger singled a run home and Austin Barnes walked with the bases full. An inning later, after an infield hit by Chris Taylor, Justin Turner took one out of the lot to give the Dodgers the lead, and ultimately the win.
Under frigid conditions in Boston, the Astros chased Chris Sale and won the first game of the ALCS. George Springer singled home two runs in the second following two walks and a hit batsman. Sale was finished after 4 innings following an unnecessary one-inning stint from the bull pen in game 4 against the Yankees, a rare mistake from the Red Sox’ rookie manager Alex Cora. He’ll be 43 this Thursday and the way he used Sale (and his ejection in the fifth last night) shows he’s still got a lot to learn. After the Red Sox tied it with 2 in the fifth on 3 walks and a wild pitch, Carlos Correa singled a run home off Joe Kelly in their half of the 6th. The visitors then blew the game open in the 9th on a solo home run by Josh Reddick and a 3-run bomb from Yuli Gurriel. The Astros showed almost inhuman patience under poor weather conditions, drawing 10 walks and being hit by 3 pitches.
While the National League championship series moves to Los Angeles for a game tomorrow night, the Red Sox and Astros meet again tonight at 7 PM, an hour earlier than last night’s start. The Astros pin their hopes on Gerrit Cole following his masterful performance against the Indians in the Division Series. The Red Sox on the other hand hope David Price will remember he isn’t facing the Yankees who could ruin a perfectly good career if he had to face them any more often than he does. He hasn’t won a playoff game in 10 starts, most of which were against the Yankees. He has a playoff win from the bull pen against the Red Sox when he pitched for the Rays, and one in relief for Toronto against Texas in 2015. He pitched 6.2 scoreless innings last year in the ALDS against Houston without claiming a decision.