ALCS Recap: Game 5
After last night’s controversial missed strike 3 call that resulted in a HUGE Astros rally in the 9th inning, today’s game was slated to be the most crucial game in the series to date. With the series tied 2-2 & an early start in Boston, Chris Sale & Framber Valdez were the starters for the ever so important Game 5.
In Game Breakdown
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1st Inning: Both teams got off to an easy start to open this game with a scoreless inning for both Sale & Valdez.
2nd Inning: The very next inning, Yordan Alvarez hit a 390ft solo homerun off Sale and put the Astros ahead 1-0, while the Red Sox were held scoreless in the bottom half.
3rd Inning: Valdez & Sale both made quick work in the 3rd with a 1-2-3 inning to keep the score at 1-0.
4th Inning: The leadoff man in the Top of the 4th Michael Brantley strikes out to begin the inning. Bregman then worked an 8 pitch walk vs Sale, with Yordan Alvarez on deck. Alvarez then hit a missile off the top of the green monster in left and advanced Bregman to 3rd base. At this point, there was now runners on 1st & 3rd with 1 out. Carlos Correa then came up to bat & struckout on 3 pitches, bringing Sale’s total up to 6 K’s on the day. Kyle Tucker was then up next to try and tack on a run but struckout as well with Sale’s K total up to 7 now.
The Red Sox once again went down 1-2-3 in the bottom half. At this point in the game, Boston was held HITLESS.
5th Inning: Devers got Boston’s first hit of the game with a single to right & next batter, J.D. Martinez was hit by a pitch, which now gave Boston runners on 1st & 2nd with 0 outs. A Hunter Renfroe double play ultimately killed the momentum in the bottom half of the 5th and Verdugo would later groundout to end the inning.
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6th Inning: Jose Altuve led off the 6th with a 5 pitch walk against Chris Sale. Michael Brantley swung on the next pitch from Sale & hit a dribbler to the left side of the infield, resulting in an infield hit & Altuve advancing to 3B on the play. Bregman then grounded out for the 1st out of the inning to Sale with Brantley moving to 2B. And the man of the night so far Yordan Alvarez hits a linedrive to leftfield for a double, driving in 2 more run.
The score was now 3-0 Houston. Reliever Ryan Brasier would come in for Chris Sale after failing to get through Houston’s top of the order one more time through. Brasier got the 2nd out of the inning, striking out Carlos Correa. The infield woes for Boston continued with Kyle Tucker hitting a groundball to Xander Bogaerts and was unable to get the final out at 1B in time. The next pitch was ripped off the bat of Yuli Gurriel & driving in another run, making the game 4-0. The 8th man to come up to the plate Jose Siri was finally able to get a hit on the night with a single to rightfield, driving in 2 more runs with 2 outs still on the board & the game was now 6-0 Houston.
FINALLY the Red Sox were able to escape the Top of the 6th with a flyout to left off the bat of Martin Maldonado but the damage had already been done with FIVE runs being scored that half.
Framber Valdez struckout Boston’s leadoff man Christian Arroyo in the bottom half on 4 pitches to get the 1st out of the inning. Christian Vazquez got Boston’s 2nd hit of the game with a double to leftfield. Boston’s postseason hero to this point Kiké Hernández popped up on the next pitch from Valdez to put up the 2nd out of the inning. Schwarber then lined out to 1B & ended the inning, leaving Vazquez on base.
7th Inning: Hansel Robles was now the pitcher for Boston in the top half and gave up a a single to Jose Altuve, which was Altuve’s 1st hit of the night surprisingly enough. A pickoff attempt at 1B backfired for Robles as Schwarber was not able to scoop it up and Altuve advanced to 2B. Some soft contact off the bat of Michael Brantley resulted in a single to center & an RBI scoring, making the game 7-0 now with no outs in the inning to this point. Luckily for Robles, Alex Bregman grounded into a double play to help salvage the inning. Afterwards, Darwinzon Hernandez was brought in to face the SCORCHING HOT Yordan Alvarez & successfully struckout Yordan on an inside corner pitch.
After getting Xander Bogaerts to groundout for the 1st out of the bottom half, Valdez gave up a solo shot to Rafael Devers for his 12th RBI this postseason which ended the shutout on the night. And following the Devers HR, J.D. Martinez walked on 6 pitches. Once again Hunter Renfroe was unable to capitalize on free real estate with J.D. at 1B & grounded into another double play.
8th Inning: After falling behind 3-0 to Carlos Correa in the top half, Darwinzon was able to get Correa to ground out and get the 1st out of the inning. A walk to Kyle Tucker would spell out the end of Hernandez’ night & Hirokazu Sawamura was called on from the bullpen. A single to Gurriel, a Siri strikeout, a Maldonado walk & an Altuve line out all capped off a long top half of the 8th inning.
Framber rolled back out to the mound in the bottom half, after waiting 30+ minutes since he last pitched in the bottom of the 7th & worked another 1-2-3 inning vs Boston in the bottom half.
9th Inning: Martin Perez came in relief for Boston in the top half of the inning, working in and out of trouble, all while loading the bases and giving up another 2 runs to Yuli Gurriel.
Ryne Stanek came in the bottom of the 9th & closed out the game easily, sending the Astros back to Houston with a 3-2 Series Lead.
FINAL SCORE:
HOU 9 - BOS 1
Astros Lead Series 3-2
Full Analysis
Entering tonight, Astros starters gave Houston a combine 6.2 Innings through 4 games & were in dire need of a big time pitching performance and Framber Valdez did just that. Framber gave Houston a masterful performance tonight vs Boston, only allowing 3 hits & 1 earned run. The Astros continue to play deadly baseball & once again had a huge inning to help add to their lead during the game. For Boston, what else can you say? The missed strike call during Game 4 definitely hurt them & potentially aided in them losing but tonight was a whole different story. Boston’s infield woes hurt them big time & Boston’s aggressive approach at the plate did not seem to work against the crafty Valdez. Similar to Game 4’s 9th inning implosion, most of what is at fault for Boston came during the 6th inning in this game & might comeback to haunt them with the series going back to Houston.
Dusty Baker won his 2,024th game as a Manager tonight & coincidentally enough, Baker’s Win total surpasses his hit total as a player (2,023 Hits).
The Astros have hit .500 this postseason when there are 2 outs in an inning.
*Most of Houston’s offensive damage came from tonight when they had 2 outs back in that 6th inning.
Framber Valdez provided Houston with their “longest” outing this postseason with an 8 inning performance while essentially shutting down the Red Sox.
Stars of The Game
(HOU) Yordan Alvarez: 3-5 | 3 RBI | 1 HR
(HOU) Framber Valdez: 8.0 IP | 5 K | 3 H | 1 ER | 1 BB
(HOU) Yuli Gurriel: 3-5 | 3 RBI