Saturday, May 18, 2019

Porcello Turns Ugly In Eighth Inning, Yields Lead, Astros Beat Red Sox, 3-1

(Getty Images)
Rick Porcello was cruising. His team had given him a slim 1-0 lead, but he had shut down the vaunted Astros offense for seven dominant innings—on a relatively low pitch-count. So, manager Alex Cora understandably let the righty back out for the eighth inning—wrong. A double and homerun later, Boston had squandered the lead and the game to Houston. The yin-yang bullpen coughed up a third run and that was all she wrote for your Red Sox in the eventual 3-1 loss. Frustratingly, Boston left ten runners on base—which, if even half had been cashed in—would have spelled victory. The nine-hit attacked was led by Xander Bogaerts (3-4, R) and Christian Vazquez (3-4, RBI). The loss left the Red Sox 4.5 games behind the new leaders of the division—The Evil Ones.