A Pitchers’ Duel Early, ALCS Game 4 Ends With an Astros Offensive Explosion

BOSTON — A pitchers’ duel through eight innings, Tuesday’s ALCS Game 4 culminated in an Astros offensive explosion. Turning the tables on a Boston team that had bashed its way to wins in Games 2 and 3, Houston scored seven times in the ninth inning to turn a 2-2 tie into a series-evening 9-2 rout.

What happened late was everything that didn’t happen early.

The Astros got the early edge they so desperately wanted. Two innocent outs into the top of the first, Alex Bregman turned on a Nick Pivetta fastball and lofted a 354-foot Fenway fly that settled in the Monster seats. The Astros had now homered in all seven of their postseason games, and Zack Greinke had a 1-0 lead as he took the mound for what could conceivably be his final big-league appearance.

The bottom of the first also began with a pair of outs, but then it was Boston’s turn to get homer-happy. Rafael Devers drew a walk, and with “Greinke” chants emanating from the stands, Xander Bogaerts drove a slider deep into the night. Statcast measured the two-run blast at 413 feet.

Greinke was fortunate to escape the inning down by just a run. After issuing his second free pass of the frame, he threw a fastball that Hunter Renfroe roped down the third-base line at 110.7 mph. Earmarked for the left-field corner, the .620-xBA smash was instead snagged by Bregman, who turned the would-be double into a force out. Boston’s lead remained 2-1, and that was the score when Dusty Baker lifted the future Hall of Famer in favor Brooks Raley with one out and a runner aboard in the ensuing inning. Greinke — two days shy of his 38th birthday, and with an uncertain free-agency looming — had thrown 37 pitches.

The right-hander’s Cooperstown case seems clear cut. Since debuting with the Kansas City Royals in 2004, Greinke has accumulated 63.8 WAR, the fourth-highest total in the majors over that span behind only Justin Verlander, Clayton Kershaw, and Max Scherzer. As the JAWS leaderboard suggests, Greinke is already well worthy of baseball’s ultimate honor.

Asked about his famously enigmatic Game 4 starter in Monday’s media session, Baker shared the following sentiment:

“You’ve heard me say a number of times how much I like the guy. Is he different? Yeah, but that’s what makes the world go round. You don’t want everybody the same. That would be boring as hell.”

Tuesday’s contest was anything but boring. Coming on the heels of back-to-back games where the Red Sox held 9-0 leads in the fourth inning, this one stood a tenuous 2-1 heading into the fifth.

The home plate umpire had thrust himself into an unwanted spotlight in the third. With one out and Alex Verdugo running on a full-count pitch to J.D. Martinez, Laz Diaz rang up the slugger on an offering that was clearly wide (Diaz’s zone would not improve as the game went on). Martinez took exception, as did Alex Cora. Moreover, Baker was miffed. Assuming ball-four, Martinez had stepped toward first, hindering catcher Martín Maldonado’s ability to prevent the steal of second. It didn’t matter. Cooler heads eventually prevailed, and Verdugo wound up being stranded anyway.

The Red Sox squandered an even better scoring opportunity in the fourth. Christian Arroyo tripled with one out, but neither Kyle Schwarber nor Enrique Hernández was able to bring him home. Cristian Javier, who had relieved Raley to begin the third, proved to be the panacea Houston’s over-burdened pitching staff needed. By the time he was replaced by Phil Maton in the sixth, the 24-year-old starter-turned-reliever had blanked Boston for three innings.

Pivetta, meanwhile, provided the solid start the Red Sox were hoping for. Thrust into a relief role for the pivotal regular season finale, and then twice in the ALDS, the righty allowed just one run and a pair of hits over five frames. Josh Taylor and Adam Ottavino subsequently combined to toss a scoreless sixth, and Garrett Whitlock a scoreless seventh.

A crowd of 38,010 sang “Take Me Out To The Ball Game” with the Red Sox clinging to the same 2-1 lead they had after one inning.

And then that lead slipped away. With Whitlock back out for the eighth, Jose Altuve — a villain to many, a hero to others — led off the inning by swatting the first pitch he saw a lusty 400 feet, tying the game at two apiece. It was Altuve’s 21st career postseason home run, moving him ahead of Derek Jeter and into sole possession of third place on the all-time list; Bernie Williams had 22, while Manny Ramirez had an October-best 29.

Michael Brantley followed Altuve’s bomb with a bloop that found outfield grass, but that was it for the Astros’ rally. Bregman bounced into a double play, Yordan Alvarez flew out, and the Fenway faithful were able to exhale. “Sweet Caroline” was then sung per usual, albeit with a sense of apprehension that hadn’t existed the night before. When Kendall Graveman followed with his second straight shutdown inning, that unease only grew.

The feeling — apprehension morphing into fear — proved prescient after Cora sent Nathan Eovaldi to the mound for the ninth. Much as Dave Roberts’ decision to use Julio Urías in NLCS Game 2 backfired, Boston’s use of a starter in the late innings fell flat. More accurately, it landed like a ton of bricks.

Carlos Correa greeted Eovaldi with a double, and two outs later — just when like it looked like the Red Sox ace might escape unscathed — Jason Castro delivered a go-ahead single; the hit came after he took a borderline pitch that could have been called strike three earlier in the at-bat. Then the roof caved in on Boston’s chances of taking command of the series. After six more batters and a pitching change — a bases-clearing two-bagger by Brantley was another key blow — the Astros led by a score of 9-2. What was once a pitchers’ duel was now a rout.

Boston put two aboard in the bottom half, but by then the result was all but decided. On the brink of falling behind 3-1 in the series for much of the night, Houston had ridden a seven-run inning — not to mention a bullpen that came through big with 10 strikeouts across 7.2 innings of shutout ball — to a resounding win. Four hours and four minutes after the first pitching was thrown, the ALCS was knotted at two apiece.

Game 5 is tomorrow, with Framber Valdez slated to take the hill for Houston, while Chris Sale is expected to take the mound for Boston.