Before the start of the game in Fenway Park, which was played almost entirely in the rain, the ceremonial first pitch was thrown by 64-year old former Red Sox-player Jim Rice.
The outfielder played his entire 16-year big league-career for Boston and was the American League MVP in 1978.
He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2009.
Houston opened the score in the top of the first inning off of starter Rick Porcello.
The righthander gave up a lead-off double to George Springer, who then moved on a wild pitch.
Next batter Josh Reddick walked and when José Altuve grounded into a double play, Springer scored the first run.
Boston immediately came alongside in the bottom of the first inning, off of starter Charlie Morton.
With one out, Xander Bogaerts homered and with that, he recorded his first hit of the Series.
Bogaerts, who played for the Netherlands Baseball Kingdom Team in the World Baseball Classic, was 0-for-14 before this game.
With that, he dropped from first place to second place in the batting order.
Houston re-took the lead in the top of the second inning.
Yulieski Gurriel led off with a line drive into rightfield that went by Mookie Betts, enabling the Cuban to reach third base with a triple.
Hereafter, Rick Porcello struckout the next two hitters, but then gave up a runscoring single to George Springer to make it a 2-1 score.
In the bottom of the second inning, Boston got the bases loaded with no outs, but was unable to score!
Hanley Ramirez and Rafael Devers opened with singles, then Christian Vazquez walked.
Hereafter, Charlie Morton struckout Jackie Bradley, Jr. and Dustin Pedroia (both called).
Pedroia angrily argued the called strikeout on an inside pitch.
Boston-Manager John Farrell came out to protect his player, continued the argument and was ejected by Home Plate Umpire Mark Wegner.
Now with two outs, the inning ended when Xander Bogaerts flied out.
Yulieski Gurriel doubled for Houston in the top of the third inning with two outs, but was left behind.
In the bottom of the third inning, with two outs (double play), Mitch Moreland doubled for Boston.
In an attempt to come alongside, Moreland was waved home to score on a single by Hanley Ramirez, but was eliminated at the plate.
...Alex Bregman homered for Houston...
...On the photo, Bregman plays for Team USA...
...in the Haarlem Baseball Week 2014 in...
...Haarlem (Netherlands) where he was the MVP...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
In the top of the fourth, Boston brought in Chris Sale to take over from Rick Porcello and he retired the side.
Sale was the starting pitcher in Game 1 last Thursday.
In the bottom of the fourth, Charlie Morton struckout three hitters!
With one out in the bottom of the fifth, Xander Bogaerts walked which also led to a pitching change for Houston.
Morton was relieved by Justin Verlander, who also was the starter last Thursday.
With that, both starters (and both pitching aces) of the opening game were now pitching.
Verlander wasn't as successful as Sale in the inning before.
Verlander's fifth delivery to Andrew Benintendi ended in the stands in rightfield for a 2-run homerun that gave Boston a 3-2 lead!
Hereafter, Verlander encountered no more problems and went on to become the winning pitcher.
Houston struck again in the top of the eighth inning.
Alex Bregman led off with a homerun to make it a 3-3 tie.
With one out, Evan Gattis singled.
He hit the ball down the leftfield-line was barely fair, as it crossed a corner of third base to end up in foul territory, while Gattis turned for second base.
There, it was picked up by a ball-girl (who must have thought the ball was foul), while the ball was still in play, making this a fan-interference situation.
Gattis was sent back to first base, as he would never had reached second base anyway.
Third baseman Xander Bogaerts would have had the ball in time to keep him on first base when the fan-interference didn't had occured.
Cameron Maybin was inserted as pinch-runner for Gattis and with two outs, Craig Kimbrel took over the pitching for Chris Sale.
He began with a wild pitch, then walked George Springer and gave up a runscoring single to Josh Reddick that put Houston ahead, 4-3.
Houston added an insurance run in the ninth.
With one out, Marwin Gonzalez was hit by a pitch and moved to second base on a 2-out single by Yulieski Gurriel.
Gonzalez went on to score on a pinch-hit double by Carlos Beltran to make it a 5-3 score.
Boston got one run back in the bottom of the ninth off of Ken Giles, who had taken over from Justin Verlander the inning before.
20-year old Rafael Devers led off and drove the ball into left-centerfield where it ricocheted from the 'Green Monster' away from the leftfielder and centerfielder.
Devers kept on running and hit an inside-the-park-homerun to narrow the deficit to 5-4!
That was to be all, as a groundout, strikeout and groundout ended the at bat and the game.
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Houston eliminates Boston and advances to Championship Series
BOSTON, Massachusetts (USA) -
Houston Astros hold onto a small lead in the ninth inning against Boston Red Sox on a rainy Monday-afternoon (October 9) and won 5-4 to win the best-of-five American League Division Series, 3-1.
With the win, Houston advances to the best-of-seven American League Championship Series, which opens next Friday.
For Boston, the season ended.
Houston won both the opener on Thursday, as well as the second game on Friday with a 8-2 score.
On Sunday, Boston avoided a 3-game sweep by recording a convincing 10-3 win.