Tag: alcs

Red Sox to take on Astros in ALCS

For the second time in the last four seasons, the Red Sox will be taking on the Astros in the American League Championship Series.

After the Red Sox knocked off the Rays from the American League Division Series in four games at Fenway Park on Monday night, the Astros did the very same to the White Sox at Guaranteed Rate Field on Tuesday.

Boston walked off on Tampa Bay to to punch their ticket to the ALCS, while Houston trounced Chicago by a final score of 10-1 to advance to their fifth consecutive championship series going back to 2017.

With that, the Red Sox and the Astros are the last two teams standing in the American League, setting up a rematch of the 2018 ALCS that Boston won in a convincing five games.

At this time three years ago, though, the Sox had homefield advantage in that series. That will not be the case this year after the Astros won their division by finishing with a 95-67 record in the regular season.

Over the course of the regular season, the Astros won the season series against the Red Sox, 5-2. They took three of four from them at Minute Maid Park from May 31 through June 3 before taking two of three at Fenway Park the following week.

The Red Sox will presumably board a flight to Houston on Wednesday and participate in a workout at Minute Maid Park on Thursday before kicking off this best-of-seven ALCS on Friday night.

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Here is the full schedule. Note that pitching matchups have yet to be determined:

Game 1 – Friday, Oct. 15, 8:07 p.m. eastern time — Red Sox @ Astros — FOX

Game 2 – Saturday, Oct. 16, TBA — Red Sox @ Astros — FOX or FS1

Game 3 – Monday, Oct. 18, TBA — Astros @ Red Sox — FS1

Game 4 – Tuesday, Oct. 19, TBA — Astros @ Red Sox — FS1

Game 5 (if necessary) – Wednesday, Oct. 20, TBA — Astros @ Red Sox — FS1

Game 6 (if necessary) – Friday, Oct. 22, TBA — Red Sox @ Astros — FS1

Game 7 (if necessary) – Saturday, Oct. 23, TBA — Red Sox @ Astros — FOX or FS1

(Picture of Hunter Renfroe and Christian Arroyo: Bob Levey/Getty Images)

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Reliving Andrew Benintendi’s ALCS Catch on Its One-Year Anniversary

One year ago Thursday night, October 17th, 2018, the Red Sox were one out away from jumping out to a three-games-to-one lead over the Houston Astros in the American League Championship Series at Minute Maid Park.

Entering the bottom half of the ninth inning with an 8-6 lead to protect after allowing one run to cross the plate in the eighth, former Sox closer Craig Kimbrel walked three of the first five hitters he faced in the frame to fill the bases and put the winning run at first for Astros star third baseman Alex Bregman.

Heading into that at-bat, Kimbrel had thrown just 53% of his 34 pitchers for strikes and even plunked Bregman in the previous inning.

On the very first pitch he saw from Kimbrel this time around, a 97 MPH four-seamer on the inner half of the plate, Bregman ripped laced a line drive to left field, one that was falling quickly as Andrew Benintendi was closing in on it.

Per Statcast, Bregman’s liner had an exit velocity of 86.3 MPH off the bat and 79% chance of being a hit.

If that line drive were to fall in for a hit, it certainly had the potential to clear the bases and give their Astros their second win of the series.

Benintendi had different plans though, as he closed in, sprawled out, and saved the day for the Red Sox with an incredible catch for the third and final out of the contest.

According to Baseball Reference, that catch had a Win Probability added of 18%, the second-highest amount for one play in Game 4 behind only Jackie Bradley Jr.’s two-run home run off Josh James in the fifth inning.

“I thought I got a good jump on it,”Benintendi later said following the Game 4 win. “It wasn’t hit that hard. I thought I could catch it, I timed it up well. At that point, it was do or die.”

Later named the Associated Press’ Play of the Year for 2018, Benintendi’s game-sealing catch was an altering one, and it could have made the difference between the Red Sox eventually topping the Los Angeles Dodgers in the World Series or getting sent home early by Houston for the second year in a row.

“It was fun. I’m glad I caught it,” Benintendi added.

It was also one of the few times we had seen Benintendi put his emotions on display while on the field to that point.

The 2019 season may not have gone the way the 25-year-old outfielder wanted it to, but the talent he displayed last October surely shows that he is more than capable of bouncing back in 2020.