Sox Split in Houston 3.5 WCGB

    

    Round 1 of this gauntlet stretch for the Boston Red Sox is complete... The Red Sox just concluded their 4 game series with the Houston Astros down in Minute Maid Park located in Houston Texas. The drama coming from this series was incredible, it had highs it had lows it looked like the Boston Red Sox season was over. That they died yet in the 2nd two games the Sox came back in a massive way with a gritty win in game 3 and straight obliteration in game 4. 

    We will get the first half of this series out of the way first. Game 1 the Red Sox left 10 runners on base and at the point were 8 for 23 with runners in scoring position over their last 10 games. They tacked on more egregious errors from Rafael Devers who looked to be in his own head forcing plays on defense and on offense. In the 8th inning the Red Sox had 1 out and were only down 3 runs, they had a real shot late in this game. Devers had ball 4 he swung to force with his power and grounded out in a double play ending the inning. You would also see him crush pitches that looked like bombs but they would go foul, fouled by just swinging at the next pitch and flying out it was a tough stretch for Devers. It looked like the Red Sox needed to win game 1 and they lost in embarrassing fashion. Houston had Cristian Javier on the mound who was one of their worst pitchers if the Sox were going to take 1 against Houston it would be this one. Paxton got  absolutely abused in this game and he did not get any help from his defense either. The Red Sox would lose 9-4.

    When the Red Sox start losing "they do it like nobody else! (Tony Massarotti on 98.5 the Sports Hub) As I said prior if the Sox were going to capitalize it was game 1 because game 2 was Tanner Houck's first game back after his long time out and rehab assignment and it would be against the likes of Jose Altuve Alex Bregman and Now Kyle Tucker who is emerging as one of the best hitters in the game. A brutal welcome back for Tanner Houck. Who did the Sox have to see on the other side? Yep, he's back... Justin Verlander, and oh boy he didn't skip a beat. Verlander vaporized the Red Sox pitching going 6 innings with 9 strike outs, just abusing Red Sox hitters with his finesse with the zone. Their were more errors in this game which actually put the Red Sox in the lead for the most errors in the entire league at 90 errors. At this point it looked over for the Red Sox. They fell to 5 games back of the Wild Card. Seattle was dominating, they had a cakewalk of a schedule between, Chicago White Sox, Kansas City Royals, Oakland Athletics and then New York Mets. 4 terrible teams that Seattle would destroy whereas the Red Sox had a gauntlet of a stretch between the Astros, Dodgers and then Astros again. Cora had gotten thrown out for the 2nd straight game, Verdugo was ejected aswell. Cora had been wearing an underdog shirt at post game press conferences showing the rift between him and Bloom. It looked like it was over, that the Red Sox were finished, that the Red Sox had died. They lost 7-3.

    In typical polarizing Sox fashion, they were anything but dead. After the horrendous defense in the first two games the Red Sox came back in a huge way, racking up massive defensive plays by Garret Whitlock and Trevor Story. Whitlock during his 2nd relief appearance after coming back from his injury made a diving catch for a huge out which was incredible to see from a pitcher. Not only this Trevor Story in a huge spot makes a lockdown double play at Short Stop to get desperate outs for the Sox. The whole problem in the first two games was the Red Sox had been giving 30 to 32 outs to a Houston Astros team that was just too talented so with errors and extra outs they would win every time. Chris Sale wasn't bad in this game. He went 5 innings and picked up 9 strikeouts against a very good Astros club. He had 4 earned runs which wasn't great but like I said the Astros can hit the ball with anybody. The Red Sox won a tough gritty game against the Astros that they came back from behind getting a massive homerun from Adam Duvall in the 10th inning to win it. It showed that despite all of the drama in the 1st to games the Sox had not died yet. The Red Sox would win this game 7-5 in extra innings. 

    The final game of the Series was against the Ace of the Houston Staff, JP France who had an ERA of 3.51 in his last 30 games. The Red Sox scorched him, Putting up 11 runs by the 3rd inning. Off of huge performances from Verdugo, and Wong who both hit bombs. Along with the new kid being called up from triple a Worcester woo sox Willyer Abreu who just looks unfazed going up against major league competition as a rookie. Abreu had a home run in his 2nd game, he had his first hit in his first game and then in this game Abreu had 4 hits. The kid has a beautiful swing and Cora is going to ride the bat as of now because he is just crushing the ball and making the most of every at bat. The Red Sox would stun the Astros in the closing game of this series and win 17-1. They come back to Fenway to host Mookie Betts and the Los Angeles Dodgers, the gauntlet continues...