On paper this was a Davis and Goliath type mismatch. An 86 win Red Sox team taking on the juggernaut 110 win Astros. ------
The Red Sox took on the 91 win Reds in Round 1 in a thriller of a series. It took a full seven games to determine who would move on. Game 7 wasn't decided until the final batter. Trailing 4-3 with 2 outs and a runner on second base, the Red Sox closer Jeff Hoffman faced Reds 1st Baseman Brandon Drury. Drury promptly landed on a BP Homer opportunity. A homer and the Reds go ahead or a fly out ends the series. Drury rolled an 11 which on an average day would have been over the wall but on this October day the ball landed in Andrew Benintendi's glove for the final out.-----In the Division Championship it was the Red Sox versus the Orioles. This time the Red Sox had an easier time as the young Orioles fell in 5 games. Game five was a statement game from the Red Sox as they trounced the O's behind Ktter Crawford winning 12-0.
The Astros took on a dangerous Marlins squad in their first round. The Fish were fighters but a heart breaking loss in game two turned the tide in this series. The Marlins led 5-2 entering the 9th, Andrew Nardi was on to close the game. The inning began with an ominous error on the Shortstop Franco. Alex Bregman followed with a single. Yordan Alvarez then shocked the Marlins by unloading a game-tying 3-run blast over the wall in right. The stunned Fish then called on Tarik Skubal and he was greeted by a Yanier Diaz homer to complete the comeback and cap a 6-5 Astros comeback win. Framber Valdez and Gerrit Cole closed out the next two games and it was on to the series.
The stage was set for game 1 with Brayan Bello taking on Gerrit Cole. What seemed like a mismatch, well it was. The Astros cruised to an easy 11-3 win with Cole supported by three homers and the home team goes up 1 game to 0.
| Game 1 |
|---|
| Red Sox......... 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 - 3 6 0 |
| Astros.......... 1 0 2 0 4 0 4 0 - 11 10 1 |
Game 2 was Eduardo Rodriguez facing the venerable Justin Verlander then something strange happened. The Red Sox suddenly lost their fear of the Astros and demonstrated that they had a dangerous lineup too. A J.D. Martinez homer in the second was followed by the Red Sox adding 4 more runs in the 3rd. The Astros were never in this game as the visitors cruised to an easy 9-2 win tying the series at one game apiece. A disturbing trend started in this contest as two Astros errors resulted in 6 unearned runs. Hmmm...oh well just a blip right?
| Game 2 |
|---|
| Red Sox......... 0 0 4 0 0 0 0 3 1 - 9 11 0 |
| Astros.......... 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 - 2 5 2 |
Game 3 and the Red Sox are back in Fenway Park. Framber Valdez goes against Nathan Eovaldi. Ho-hum 3 runs in the first for the Astros let's put this one in the win columan and move on. No, the Red Sox get 1 in the 1st then 3 unearned runs in the second inning. What is this? The game was tied going into the bottom of the sixth where the home team promptly hung a 6 spot on the scoreboard. The highlight of the inning a grand slam fron Andrew Benintendi. The upstart Red Sox are now leading the series 2 games to 1.
| Game 3 |
|---|
| Astros.......... 3 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 - 5 9 1 |
| Red Sox......... 1 3 0 1 0 6 0 1 - 12 16 0 |
Okay the Astros are down two games to one, they've allowed the Red Sox 21 runs in two games, time to stop the insanity! Ace Gerrit Cole takes the hill for the Astros and Kutter Crawford for the Red Sox, let's roll. First inning and the Astros get a one out single. Yordan Alvarez up and boom a 2 run homer. Yanier Diaz up next and smacks one over the Green Monster. Kyle Tucker steps up and angles one towards the Pesky Pole just fair for back-to back-to back homers. One half inning in the books and Cole enjoys a 4-0 lead. In the third inning Diaz drives another shot over the wall and later in the frame Jose Siri joins the party with a 3-run shot of his own. Astros up 9-0. Game over everybody, drive home safely. Is that the Twilight Zone theme playing? 4th inning the Sox down 9 a lead-off walk then a groundout. Then a single, single, single and a walk make it a 9-2 game. Still in the 4th a strikeout for out number two. Bases loaded and Jarren Duran clears the bases with a three run double. After 4 innings it's 9-5 Astros. Next inning the Red Sox push across two more runs against Cole to cut the lead to 9-7. The Astros grab another run in the 6th to make it 10-7. The Astros say that's enough of Cole for this game and in relief they tab Ryan Pressly. A quick strikeout is followed by two singles and Mookie Betts steps up. Of course Mookie delivers a game tying 3-run shot on to Lansdowne Street to make the game 10-10. A nine run lead with Cole on the mound has disappeard. Surprisingly the teams take a break from scoring as the teams move into the ninth tied at 10-10. The Red Sox summon Jeff Hoffman to maintain the deadlock. A single and a walk are followed by two outs. Runners at second and third, two outs and Hoffman issues a walk to load the bases. Josh Naylor then delivers a bases clearing 3 run double and the Astros are back up 13-10. The Astros hope that David Bednar can close out the game and he does so striking out the side. The Astros come back and win and game that would have been an absolute crusher to lose 13-10. 23 runs, 27 hits and 6 homers in a crazy game. Series now stands even at two games each.
| Game 4 |
|---|
| Astros.......... 4 0 5 0 0 1 0 0 3 - 13 14 1 |
| Red Sox......... 0 0 0 5 2 3 0 0 0 - 10 13 1 |
How do you follow that game four? The Astros are frankly stunned as the Red Sox have now totaled 31 runs over the last 27 innings. Despite that extraordianry total it is a tied series and the Astros will try Christian Javier to face Brayan Bello. Bello didn't do well in Game 1 and looked for a bounce back outing. It would not be pretty for Bello in this one either. After three batters the Red Sox trailed 3-0 courtesy of a Yordan Alvarez blast over the fence in Right Center Field. A two out double for Naylor makes it 4-0 before the inning ends. Each team adds a run and as the game moves to the fifth inning the Red Sox trail 5-1. John Schreiber is now pitching in relief for the Sox. What follows would be an incredible 5 consecutive walks for the Astros and the rout is on as the lead eventually grows to 10-1. Hey this sounds a little familiar. Here comes the Sox as they start to come back against Wade Miley in relief. The Red Sox crawl back to within 10-5 but there wasn't enough magic left for the Red Sox as they fall 11-5 and now face elimination trailing 3 games to 2.
| Game 5 |
|---|
| Astros.......... 4 0 0 1 3 2 0 1 0 - 11 14 0 |
| Red Sox......... 0 1 0 0 0 2 2 0 0 - 5 10 1 |
Game 6 and the Astros are back home with Justin Verlander taking the mound against Eduardo Rodriguez in a rematch of Game 2 starters. Rodriguez won that previous matchup so Red Sox hopes were up for a repeat. In the bottom of the first Altuve led off with a double the George Springer lined a shot into the Crawford Boxes for a quick 2-0 Astros lead. The Red Sox pushed a run across against Verlander in the second inning cutting the lead in half 2-1. Rodriguez ran into trouble in the 3rd. A single sandwiched between two walks and Rodriguez' night was over. On came Jeff Hoffman to try and escape the jam. Naylor foiled that strategy with a 2-run single extending the Astros lad to 4-1. J.D. Martinez homered for the Red Sox in the fifth making it a 4-2 game. The score stayed unchanged until the 7th. Trevor May came out of the pen for the Red Sox hoping to keep the game within two runs. It would not happen as Naylor would knock in another run and Jeremy Pena contributed a double with the bases loaded scoring three and putting the Astros up 8-2 after seven innings. Over the last two innings the Red Sox could not summon any more hitting sorcery as the Astros closed out the series with a 9-2 victory.
| Game 6 |
|---|
| Red Sox......... 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 - 2 6 0 |
| Astros.......... 2 0 2 0 0 0 4 1 - 9 11 0 |
It was a tremendous playoff run for the Red Sox kudos to Paul Thibodeau on his managing. Congratulations to all the managers for competing this season and hopefully all will be back next season. A special thank you as always to the man who runs the DFDL Jeff Berens. Jeff always adds above and beyond to make the league interesting and keep things moving forward in an enjoyable way.
