Friday, October 19, 2018

Price Redemption: Red Sox Win American League Pennant, Beat Astros, 4-1

(Getty Images)
With his first starting postseason win, David Price traveled the 'road to redemption' on Thursday night in Boston's 4-1 pennant-clinching win. The lefty went six dominant innings—keeping Houston batters off-balance with a mix of four-seam fastballs, cutters inside and devastating change-ups away. Price went six full innings, giving up no runs on just three hits, while striking out nine and walking none. Boston jumped out early on Justin Verlander—with J.D. Martinez taking a hanging breaking ball off the back wall of the Crawford Boxes in left-field for a 1-0 lead. That held up until 21-year-old Rafael Devers went into those same Crawford Boxes with a three-run, opposite-field home run—pushing the lead to 4-0 in the sixth inning. Also, both Mitch Moreland (2-4) and Ian Kinsler (2-4) had multiple-hit games. While Matt Barnes gave up a run on a solo home run, the bullpen otherwise continued its solid work—with starter Nathan Eovaldi chipping in with four huge outs. Craig Kimbrel (who apparently had been tipping his pitches earlier in the series) came on in the ninth and closed out the win for his third save of the American League Championship Series. Jackie Bradley, Jr. was named the ALCS MVP. And so, the 2018 Carmine Hose move on to the Fall Classic—against either the Milwaukee Brewers or the Los Angeles Dodgers.