The Red Sox needed to win to clinch the AL East last night. The Sox had Doug Fister on the mound and hoped to be popping champagne at the end of 9 innings. The good news is that Sox pitching only allowed 3 runs, but the bad news is the Sox bats could only muster two runs. The Yankees won, so the Sox will have to wait another day to clinch. The tension is getting high as the total number of games left to play falls to two.
Fister got himself in trouble right off the bat where he had runners on 2nd and 3rd with no outs. Fister worked out of trouble though as he got the next three Astros in order without allowing them to score. Fister wouldn’t be as lucky in the 2nd inning as he gave the Astros the lead. Fister gave up an RBI single to Bregman. Sox 0-1. The Astros added to the lead in the 5th inning when Fister gave up a 2 run homer to Bregman. Basically, Bregman was taking the Sox on all on his own. Sox 0-3.
The Sox finally scored a run in the bottom of the 5th. Rafael Devers hit an RBI double to score Moreland. Sox 1-3. Fister’s night would end with one out in the 6th. Fister was out and David Price was in. Price finished off the 6th and also pitched a scoreless 7th frame. The Sox also got another run in the bottom of the 6th when Pedroia hit an RBI groundout. The Sox had a runner at 3rd with only one out when Andrew Benintendi struck out to deny the Sox a tie game. The Sox had the bases loaded later in the inning with Hanley at the plate, but he couldn’t be the hero and ground out to end the inning.
Addison Reed pitched a scoreless 8th, but the Sox bats were running out of time. Brock Holt ended the 8th inning when he got caught stealing and then Craig Kimbrel pitched a scoreless 9th to put everything in the hands of the bats in the bottom of the frame. Hanley Ramirez gave the crowd a moment of hope with a two out double, but then Devers grounded out to end the game with a Sox loss.
Red Sox 2 Astros 3 BOXSCORE
WP: Morton (14-7) LP: Fister (5-9) SV: Giles (34)
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