[SPORTS] TIMELY HITTING AND SHUTDOWN PITCHING SEND RED SOX TO ALCS

by sloppyvinyl | Oct 10, 2018 | SPORTS

Red Sox End The Yankees Season In The Bronx

Just as was the case 14 years ago in their last playoff matchup, the visual of the Boston Red Sox celebrating in Yankee Stadium in the postseason would take shape again on Tuesday night.

The Boston Red Sox defeated the New York Yankees 4-3 on Tuesday night at Yankee Stadium in Game 4 of the ALDS to win the series 3-1 to advance to the ALCS.

Boston expected a much more competitive game than they had the previous night when they crushed the Yankees 16-1, handing them their worst playoff defeat in franchise history.

It was nearly given away by their closer Craig Kimbrel in the ninth, but a great throw from third baseman Eduardo Nunez and a fantastic stretch and catch at first base by Steve Pearce for the final out allowed Boston to escape New York with a series win.

Coming to New York tied 1-1 after dropping Game 2, Boston winning one game to send it back to Boston for a possible Game 5 was a goal, but not the only one.

The Red Sox wanted to end the Yankees season on Tuesday on New York’s home field, sending them packing as well as a stern message about the future between MLB’s super powers.

After a hit by pitch and single by Steve Pearce to begin the third inning, Boston would have the first scoring opportunity between the two teams in Game 4 and they would capitalize.

A J.D. Martinez fly ball to center field would give the Boston Red Sox a 1-0 lead vs their AL East rivals.

The lead would grow with two outs as Ian Kinsler and Eduardo Nunez would drive in RBIs each to extend the lead to 3-0 and have the Yankees bullpen stirring.

In what was arguably his last start in a New York Yankees uniform, CC Sabathia’s inability to limit the damage in the third put the Yankees, facing elimination, in a inevitable position.

New York would fail to answer, and just as was the case in Game 3, Boston continued to build on their lead.

With Zach Britton in for CC Sabathia yo begin the fourth, Red Sox catcher Christian Vasquez would blast a home run to opposite field to make it a 4-0 lead.

A anxious and perplexed Yankee Stadium crowd, much like Game 3, watched on in stunned and silent as they watched their biggest rivals pile on runs in this win or go home game.

Rick Porcello, who pitched in Game 1 of the ALDS out of the bullpen, took the mound for the Boston Red Sox in Game 4.

Porcello would lean on the groundball to stymie the Yankees offense over five innings of one-run ball as he would deliver with a strong showing.

The key to the start for the 29-year-old was efficiency as the former AL Cy Young winner would throw 48 of his 65 pitches on the night for strikes.

After getting a runner in scoring position with one out but failing to score in the fourth, New York would finally get a run off Rick Porcello after a RBI sacrifice fly by Brett Gardner with one out in the fifth.

Porcello would throw 26 pitches in the inning, leading to Alex Cora going to his bullpen a little earlier than usual.

The Yankees bullpen would keep the Red Sox offense at bay but the Yankees, trying to fight through unproductive at-bats, failed to provide the boom that they had all season during their record-breaking HR season.

Boston’s bullpen, seen as a liability earlier in the series, cruised through innings vs New York’s lifeless offense as Yankee Stadium had turned into something resembling a morgue not and not a Major League Baseball stadium.

Six outs away from a ALCS birth, Alex Cora would make quite the move for the eighth inning as ace left-hander Chris Sale — who started Game 1 — would take the mound in the eighth as Boston looked to sink the Yankees.

Sale would put together a 1-2-3 inning for the Boston Red Sox has he capped the inning with a knee buckling slider to center fielder Aaron Hicks for a strikeout.

After Yankees’ closer Aroldis Chapman breezed through the ninth inning, the stage was set for a dramatic bottom of the ninth.

Craig Kimbrel, on to get the save for the Red Sox, would find a way to wake up a Yankee Stadium crowd that sat on their hands for most of the game.

Kimbrel would walk Aaron Judge on four pitches to begin the inning. He would follow that by allowing a single by Didi Gregorious.

The Red Sox hard throwing closer would recover to strikeout Giancarlo Stanton to get the first out of the ninth but would walk Luke Voit in four pitches to load the bases before hitting Neil Walker with a pitch to make it a 4-2 game.

Gary Sanchez, who would bat after Walker, would work the count to 3-2 before hitting a fly ball to left fieldfor a RBI sacrifice fly to make it a 4-3 game.

With hearts pounding on both sides, Kimbrel would escape the inning with a groundball by Gleyber Torres to third base as Eduardo Nunez would throw out Torres and secure Boston’s ALCS birth.

It wasn’t easy, and nor would anyone in the Red Sox clubhouse expect it to be, but Boston is on its way to the next round vs the defending champion Houston Astros.

You can hear the ‘Fire Boone’ angry mob in New York City picking up steam after a bitter end to what the Yankees had hoped would be a championship season.

While this painful defeat to end what at times was a dominant season for the Yankees that resulted in 100 wins, New York’s counterparts were just the better team at the end of the day.

New York’s worrisome starting pitching woes would always be their undoing. Last year’s prized in-season trade acquisition Sonny Gray resembled nothing like the pitcher Oakland had for his first few seasons.

That was a gamble, but Aaron Boone and the Yankees had hoped for at the very least a solid middle of the rotation starter in Gray, who would fall well short of expectations.

Think about, New York started a 38-year-old CC Sabathia in a do-or-die Game 4 vs the MLB’s highest scoring offense from this past season.

If that doesn’t tell you about New York’s shortcomings in the rotation this season, nothing will.

The offense, which blew a number of their opportunities while watching Boston make the most of there’s, particularly in Games 1, 3 and 4, is just as responsible for the ALDS result as the starting pitching.

The New York Yankees would hit 4-for-26 with RISP while leaving a whooping 28 men on base vs the Boston Red Sox in the series.

The journey ends for the Yankees on a sour note as their road to avenge the stinging season-ending loss to Boston will have to wait until next season.

For the Red Sox, it’s a satisfying ALDS series victory that highlighted Boston’s strengths and weaknesses.

They will face the most formidable postseason foe they could draw in the Houston Astros, who don’t mind starting a series on the road after finishing with the MLB’s best road record for a second straight regular-season.

Houston’s dominance in their starting rotation and their bullpen goes hand and hand with one of the MLB’s most dangerous offensive teams that can catch fire late in games as we saw in the ALDS vs Cleveland.

How will Boston counteract the many problems Houston poses for them, particularly their pitching?

We may be in for an amazing ALCS as it’s a rematch of last season’s ALDS that Houston won 3-1.

What are your thoughts on the Boston Red Sox advancing to the ALCS? Leave your comments below!