Baseball: Astros down Red Sox to advance in playoffs
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NEW YORK: The Houston Astros rallied for a wild 5-4 victory over the Red Sox in Boston on Monday to advance in the Major League Baseball playoffs.
The Astros won the best-of-five American League division series three games to one. Astros infielder Alex Bregman belted a game-tying home run off Red Sox ace hurler Chris Sale -- pitching in relief -- to lead off the eighth inning and Josh Reddick delivered a two-out run-batted-in single later in the inning off of Red Sox closing pitcher Craig Kimbrel that put the Astros up 4-3.
"We felt like that we could win this series, but we knew it was going to be tough," said Astros manager AJ Hinch. "We get out to a 2-0 (series) lead, and then you come to Fenway and it's just a different animal. But our guys just stayed the course."
In the other AL series game, Aaron Judge capped a four-run second inning with a two-run double as the New York Yankees clobbered the Cleveland Indians 7-3 to even their series at two games apiece on Monday night at Yankee Stadium. The series winner will face the Astros for a spot in the World Series.
Ken Giles held the Red Sox scoreless in the bottom of the eighth, and Kimbrel gave up a two-out, run-scoring double to Carlos Beltran that made it 5-3 for the visitors.
The Red Sox gave disheartened, rain-soaked fans at Fenway Park a last glimmer of hope in the bottom of the ninth when Rafael Devers led off the inning with a drive to deep left center field off Astros closer Ken Giles. It bounced off the wall and gave Devers an inside-the-park home run.
But it wasn't enough as the Astros reached a league championship series for the first time since 2005 -- when they were in the National League.
George Springer and Jose Altuve drove in one run each for the Astros. Andrew Benintendi hit a game-tying two-run homer in the fifth inning and Xander Bogaerts smacked his first career playoff homer, a solo blast in the first, for the Red Sox.
Game one starter Justin Verlander, making his first career relief appearance, earned the victory.National League action resumed on Monday as the World Series champion Chicago Cubs gained the upper hand in their NL division series with a 2-1 win over the Washington Nationals.
The victory put the Cubs up 2-1 in the best-of-five series with a chance to close it out at Wrigley Field on Tuesday. Anthony Rizzo put the Cubs ahead in the eighth inning with a run-scoring single to shallow center field. Cubs closer Wade Davis pitched a scoreless ninth to preserve the win.
Nationals starting pitcher Max Scherzer held the Cubs hitless for 6 1/3 innings before surrendering a double to Ben Zobrist in the seventh. Albert Almora followed with a run-scoring single off of reliever Sammy Solis that tied the game at 1-1.
Elsewhere, Judge, who was hitless in his first 11 at-bats of the series, drove in his first two runs of the series for the Yankees against the Indians.
Yankees starter Luis Severino allowed three runs on four hits and a walk in seven innings, pitching most of the night with a sizable lead.
After getting one out last Tuesday in the AL wild-card game against the Minnesota Twins, he rebounded Monday to strike out nine.
The decisive game five is Wednesday in Cleveland, where the Indians will be looking to snap a five-game losing streak in elimination games.
