Red Sox vs. Astros live updates: Scores, highlights, and results from ALDS Game 3

The Red Sox try to avoid elimination and a sweep, while the Astros look to punch the first LCS ticket of 2017.

Welcome to Game 3 of (one of) the American League Division Series, and the first of two postseason games being played on Sunday. The Red Sox are back in Boston and Fenway Park, hoping to keep their season alive with Doug Fister on the mound. The Astros, on the other hand, are up 2-0, and in position to be the first team to make it to their respective League Championship Series. They’ve tasked Brad Peacock with that mission.

We’ll be giving you live updates and highlights throughout ALDS Game 3, so let’s do this thing, starting at 2:38 p.m.

If you want to read this in the order it happened in, scroll to the bottom and the “1st inning” header and start there.

2nd inning

Will Doug Fister be better in the second inning?

[Astros quickly put two runners on with no outs and now Brian McCann is up] ah.

Hey, Fister got an out! It’s still first and second, and Fister’s day is over already. Here comes right-hander Joe Kelly after a lengthy warmup.

Kelly finally was in the bullpen without any final attempts at making him work as a starter, and he managed a 164 ERA+ over 58 innings. Control is still an issue, but it was easier to put up with that and stretches of iffy command when he was only expected to pitch an inning instead of five or six.

Kelly gets tagged with a wild pitch, but that was probably a passed ball on Sandy Leon, who made things worse by not quickly going after the loose ball. Runners at second and third now, eliminating the easy double play Kelly was called in for. That becomes even more noticeable when a grounder is hit to short, and Boston can only get the one out, bringing up Josh Reddick with two in scoring position.

Mookie Betts just kept it from going to 6-0 by reaching over the short wall in right field and robbing Josh Reddick of a three-run blast. The Red Sox still have a lot of work left, but that’s a start.

The Red Sox kick off the bottom of the second with a pair of singles, and now Rafael Devers, 0-for-5 in the series so far, is up with a chance to make this game closer. Devers can hit secondary pitches despite his youth, but the 20-year-old has had issues with high fastballs, which the Astros keep throwing him as often as possible.

Peacock is aiming fastballs low and inside to Devers, though, so it’s possible he’s afraid of missing high, or the Astros don’t want to mess with that sort of potential issue with runners on. Peacock fell behind 3-0, got it back to 3-2 thanks to a gift call low in the zone, but then walks Devers to load the bases with no outs and bring up catcher Sandy Leon.

Leon dumps a single into left, and the Red Sox are on the board! 3-1 Houston, but the bases are still loaded, and there still aren’t any outs. Now, it’s Jackie Bradley Jr.’s turn. The strike zone seemed a little wide here, and Bradley had to chase a pitch outside to compensate. One down, and now the top of Boston’s lineup is back up.

Bogaerts grounds to first, and the Astros toss it home to keep the run from scoring. Two down, still 3-1, and you can hear the disgruntled murmurs in the crowd once more. Pedroia flies out to left, and that’s all the Sox get.

1st inning

If the Astros win today, they’ll make it to their first-ever ALCS. That’s a bit misleading, though, since the Astros only came over to the American League in 2013. However, it would still be their first League Championship Series since 2005, when they earned their way to the first World Series in franchise history — which they lost to the White Sox — so the Astros are due regardless of which league they’re in or how you want to measure things.

Doug Fister pitched for the Astros in 2016 and it didn’t go so well, but some mechanical adjustments helped him become a key part of Boston’s rotation down the stretch this summer. He is facing a lineup that just made Chris Sale and Drew Pomeranz look awful, though, and the Astros kicked things started the game off with two hits and a run so... this is going to be a long afternoon for one fan base. 1-0 Astros.

Jose Altuve enters Game 3 5-for-7 with three homers in the series so far. They don’t have an ALDS MVP, but if they did, it sure feels like it’d be Altuve’s trophy. Oh never mind he just grounded out with a runner in scoring position it’s anyone’s game once again.

Such as, oh, Carlos Correa, who just went deep to make it 3-0 Astros. You would think there would be more cheering at a public execution, but at least the lack of silence means this isn’t a funeral yet.

Joe Kelly is already warming in Boston’s bullpen. Xander Bogaerts just made a fully extended dive toward second and followed it up with a strong throw to record the second out, which got a genuine positive response from the crowd. We’re not in sarcastic cheering territory yet! Fister closes out the inning, so now the Astros have only scored seven first-inning runs in this series.

Here’s Brad Peacock, who always pitches from the stretch, and quietly had a high-quality season for the Astros. Peacock spent a chunk of 2017 in the bullpen so he made just 21 starts, but in those starts, he compiled a 3.22 ERA, 111 innings, and struck out just under 11 batters per nine innings. The Red Sox put the ball in play regularly, so we’ll see how this battle of styles plays out. In the first inning, Boston got one hit, but Peacock kept it from turning into anything.