Houston, you have a problem.
Doug Fister, the man who has so much prior playoff success until today, got slammed. Big time. Before today, he saw numbers as good as a 2.60 ERA in postseason contention. But this afternoon, he saw that number rise to 3.02.
He, like his peer Drew Pomeranz, did not get past the three inning mark. In-fact, he did not get out of the second. A pair of singles, a wild pitch, and a two-run home run propelled the Houston Astros to three runs in the very first inning of this contest.
He was yanked out by manager John Farrell in the second inning after walking and yielding a base hit. This meant it was up to the bullpen for the rest of the ride.
Joe Kelly relieved him and got out of the frame without letting a run score. Kelly, despite letting the lead off batter in the next inning reach first, he finished scoreless again. A forced double-play can be thanked for that.
The big story of the day is the next reliever David Price. Price, a starter-turned-reliever tossed a scoreless four innings with four hits, and four strikeouts. He held down the lead until the seventh inning when Addison Reed and Carson Smith each tossed their respective innings. They hurled the combined two innings scoreless. Dominant.
This praise fest could not be complete without praising the offensive unit.
During the first two game of this series, the offense as as a whole only scored four cumulative runs. As for today’s total? They doubled it and added two to it.
The first run came in during the second inning on a walk and a trifecta of one-baggers. Sandy Leon drove in that run with his base hit.
Three more runs scored in the next inning. What made these so special is that they were scored with two outs, and served as the go-ahead/winning runs.
Mitch Moreland started this party with something he has been so accustomed to doing all season long. A double. Hanley Ramirez drove him in on a single that he lined to left.
The young 20-year old rookie, Rafael Devers was next to step up to the plate. He had the weight of the team on his shoulders. He had the entire city of Boston on his shoulders. He crushed a two-run blast to right-center. This signified the go-ahead, and the winning run.
The hitters struck six more times in the seventh inning alone. It was a beautiful sight.
The bases were loaded from a walk, and two base hits for Hanley Ramirez. He sat out during Game 1 of this series, and had only driven in six runs in bases loaded opportunities during the 2017 regular season. In this at-bat, he cleared two of the bases with a double. This left runners at second and third for Devers. He blooped a ball to left and allowed for the runner at third to score. This left base runners at the corners for Jackie Bradley Jr. He had the second homer for the Boston Red Sox on the day. It was a three-run dinger. That was also the tenth run of the day.
Game 4 is scheduled for Monday, Oct 9, at 1:08 p.m. in Boston. Rick Porcello (0-0, 0.00) is set to take on Charlie Morton (0-0, 0.00)
