*Photo from The Athletic*
Boston leads series 2-1
The offense of the Boston Red Sox is putting the league on notice. They will not go down. They simply will not. Kyle Schwarber hit a grand slam, Christian Arroyo homered, and the Red Sox routed the Houston Astros by a 12-3 score on Monday night.
The Red Sox take a 2-1 series lead in the best of 7 ALCS with the win, with the chance to clinch a spot in the world series as early as Wednesday at home. The Red Sox have now hit 3 grand slams this series, all in the last two games. They are the only team in baseball to hit 3 grand slams in a single playoff series. Yeah, this offense is blasting off.
Boston manager Alex Cora was very pleased after the game, saying that "Today was as close as we've been to a perfect game, to be honest with you. We pitched well, played great defense, we ran the bases. We were very aggressive in a lot of aspects, so tonight is one of those that you feel good about."
Vazquez started the second inning off right for the Red Sox, slapping an RBI single to right field with the bases loaded, making it 1-0 early. JD Martinez then scored on a ground ball that ate up Jose Altuve at second base, making it a 2-0 lead for the men from Boston. Then, Schwarber cleaned off all the bases, blasting a grand slam to right field to open the game up, making it a 6-0 lead for the Red Sox. In the 3rd inning, an RBI single from Vazquez and a two run home run from Arroyo made it a 9-0 game a third of the way through.
In the 4th inning, Kyle Tucker got the Astros offense going with a 3 run home run to right field, cutting the deficit to 9-3, very similar to game two. In the 6th, Martinez was all over the pitch he got, crushing a two run home run to left field and putting the Red Sox ahead 11-3. In the 8th inning, Rafael Devers hit a solo home run to the green monster, making it 12-3 and sealing the win.
When asked about the approach of the Red Sox this series, Vazquez said "I think we play one game every day. We don't get ahead of ourselves, but we go out there and give everything we got to try to win every game we play. The first game we almost had them, but it's part of the game. Turn the page and get the second game and third game. And we're now in a good place."
Eduardo Rodriguez turned in a brilliant outing for the Red Sox, allowing 3 runs on 5 hits, not issuing a walk while fanning 7 hitters across 6 strong innings, improving to 1-0 this series. After Rodriguez was pulled, Hansel Robles delivered a shutout 7th inning, followed by scoreless innings from both Martin Perez and Hirokazu Sawamura.
For the Astros, it was once again another short outing from the starting pitching, which has not been up to par this series. Jose Urquidy couldn't make it out of the second inning, allowing 6 runs on 5 hits and two walks while pitching just 1 2/3 innings. Yimi Garcia came on after and gave up 3 runs in 1 1/3 innings. Brooks Raley, Phil Maton, and Ryne Stanek also gave up a run each. In fact, Blake Taylor was the only Astros pitcher with a scoreless appearance.
Astros manager Dusty Baker wanted to move on, saying that "I mean, they count as one. We come back and win tomorrow, the series is even. You don't like it. I'm not very happy about it, but you got to flush this one, because you can't bring this one or the last one back until tomorrow. And so, like I said, you don't like it tonight, but the sun is going to come up in the morning."
Game 4 is on Tuesday night at Fenway Park, with the Astros turning to Zack Greinke to make a spot start as they look to avoid falling into a deeper hole. The Red Sox send Nick Pivetta to the mound as they look to keep on rolling.
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