
The ALDS has been defined by short starts. The two teams combined to throw 389 pitches. Eight Rays relievers held the Red Sox to one run in 10 1/3 innings before Vázquez's walk-off home run. Tampa's bullpen deserves a mention here as well. The 20 strikeouts are easily a new Red Sox postseason record, surpassing their 16 strikeouts in Game 5 of the 2004 ALCS.
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Reds, 2020 NL Wild Card Series Game 1 vs. Red Sox pitchers struck out 20 batters overall, the fourth most in a postseason game in baseball history:ġ. Even with that, six Boston relievers combined to allow just those two runs in eight innings. The Rays tied the game on Franco's homer and a Randy Arozarena double in the eighth inning. Game 3 goes down as a well-earned win for Pivetta. That's 8 2/3 innings and 140 pitches in 72 hours or so. Fresh off throwing 4 2/3 innings and 73 pitches in Game 1 on Thursday, Pivetta fired another four innings and 67 pitches in Game 2 on Sunday. The 20-year-old wunderkind went 2 for 6 with a home run Sunday, and is 6 for 15 with two doubles and a home run in the ALDS overall.īoth bullpens stood tall, really, though Nick Pivetta stood the tallest. Wander Franco has played like a star since the moment he arrived in the big leagues, and he's been at his best in the postseason. Overall, Eovaldi now owns a 1.92 ERA in 32 2/3 career postseason innings. Red Sox manager Alex Cora pulled Eovaldi after five innings and only 85 pitches rather than let him face Meadows a third time in a one-run lead, which was a smart move given their history.

Leaning on the splitter has been a clear plan of attack against the Rays and has been all season, yet Tampa was unable to adjust. Tampa's hitters missed with 10 of their 15 swings against Eovaldi's splitter in Game 3, an absurd rate. Here are Eovaldi's five most splitter-heavy starts in 2021. He leaned heavily on his splitter after throwing the pitch only eight times in the Wild Card Game. Eovaldi settled down and retired 14 of the final 17 batters he faced following the home run, including seven strikeouts. The Rays were unable to build on that early lead. That's eight hits spanning Games 2 and 3. He lined a double off the Green Monster in his first at-bat, dunked a run-scoring single to center in his second at-bat, then slammed a solo home run over the Green Monster in his third at-bat. The Red Sox sometimes center fielder, sometimes second baseman went 5 for 6 with a home run and three doubles in Game 2, becoming only the fifth player in history with four extra-base hits in a postseason game. Hernandez stayed hot and made historyĬall it the Enrique Hernandez series.

The play cost the Rays a run as well as a runner at third with two outs, and who knows how the game plays out from there? Perhaps the pitcher pitches differently and gives up another hit and another run. Vázquez then walked it off in the bottom half. Mike Zunino followed the Kiermaier double with a strikeout, ending the inning. Common sense says Díaz would have scored from first on the play since he was running on contact with two outs. MLB rule 5.05(a)(8) says when "any bounding fair ball is deflected by the fielder into the stands, or over or under a fence on fair or foul territory, (the) batter and all runners shall be entitled to two bases." The call on the field was correct because Renfroe did not knock the ball over the wall intentionally.
