Astros advance to ALCS with close Game 4 win over Red Sox

The Astros will either face the Indians or Yankees.

Well, if there was going to be no Game 5 in this ALDS matchup at least Game 4 gave baseball fans about as many random baseball things as they could handle. On a rainy day in Fenway Park, with the stands only half full because of the last minute scheduling and the weather, the Astros finally got the job done and eliminated the Red Sox from the postseason.

But boy was that game chock full of fun and weird baseball.

It started as all the other games in the series had, with the Astros taking a very early lead. In this case that lead came in the form of Jose Altuve grounding into a double play and bringing George Springer home in the process.

Boston came back to tie things in the very next inning, with a solo home run from Xander Bogaerts. He had been 0-14 all series so there couldn’t have been a perfect time for him to break out of that slump for the Sox.

Springer then put Houston back on top again with a single in the second inning to bring Yuli Gurriel home and make the score 2-1.

While the Red Sox didn’t come back to tie it again the bottom of the second, they did add some fireworks to the proceedings when Sox manager John Farrell and veteran second baseman Dustin Pedroia got into it with the home plate umpire over a called third strike.

Farrell protected his player and got ejected, while Pedroia stayed in the game and lived to fight another day.

Boston tried to even things up by waving Mitch Moreland home on a Hanley Ramirez single to shallow left field, but he was thrown out at the plate. It wasn’t even close, because as I said that’s Mitch Moreland trying to run on a shallow hit to left field.

Things stayed the same for two innings, when the Astros put Justin Verlander in the game out of the bullpen in the bottom of the fifth with one on and one out. He immediately gave up a go-ahead home run against the first batter he faced Andrew Benintendi, and Boston led Houston 3-2.

The tables weren’t turned for long though.

Chris Sale, Boston’s ace, had also come into the game in relief starting in the fourth inning and was pitching a gem through the seventh. That couldn’t last forever though and the same as it happened in Game 1, Alex Bregman homered off Sale and Houston pulled even.

With things knotted at 3-3, Boston pulled Sale for closer Craig Kimbrel but the scoring wasn’t over. Kimbrel gave up an RBI single to Josh Reddick and Houston had the lead back. 4-3, with Boston only having six outs left to turn things around.

They wouldn’t come all the way back, as Houston got an insurance run in the top of the ninth inning thanks to a double off the Green Monster from Carlos Beltran. But they’d at least threaten with an exciting Rafael Devers inside-the-park home run to put them within one run.

The Astros will play either the Indians or Yankees in the ALCS depending on that series’ outcome.