By TERRY LYONS
BOSTON – The Houston Astros have a relatively new, gorgeous, multi-purpose ballpark in the Space City and it’s served the team well. But, the ‘Stros might trade places with the Boston Red Sox on a Minute Maid moment. Consider the facts and the stats.
Coming into the series finale on Sunday at Fenway Park, the Astros were riding a four-game winning streak, the prior two victories coming at the expense of the hometown Sox to the tune of 8-4 on Friday night and 5-4 on Saturday afternoon for the FS-1 tv crowd. But, consider: Houston left fielder Jordan Alvarez was batting a sizzling .463 (25-for-54) at Fenway over his 14 career games at America’s Most Beloved Ballpark.
Alvarez had seven homers, 19 RBI and a .963 slugging percentage. His batting average, slugging and OPS (1.517) were all tops amongst active MLB batters. The next closest Sox opponent was 78 points behind Alvarez.
By the way, coming into today’s game, Alvarez leads all of MLB with his road numbers of .357 batting average, 1.134 OPS. .695 slugging, and .439 on base percentage. ย All the number improved!
On Sunday, as the Astros conducted a clinic in pitching, fielding and batting at the expense of the Sox, Alvarez reached base his four at bats, including a towering home run in the top of the fifth inning when Houston did five runs of damage and take a 6-0 lead in the game. Alvarez hit his solo HR immediately after 3B Alex Bregman took out some car headlights in the parking garage across Lansdowne Street outside of the left field Green Monster.
In the sixth inning, it was more of the same, as Bregman doubled and scored, Alvarez was intentionally walked and scored and SS Jeremy Pena had the honors to place another ball on the pavement outside of the House of Blues on Lansdowne.
Boston relievers, Brennan Bernardino (four earned runs) and Luis Garcia (five earned runs) took the brunt of the Astros’ in-game BP.
Boston’s relievers were sent to work early when starter and LHP James Paxton suffered a strained calf in the first inning and had to be removed from the game. Long reliever and RHP Lucas Sims came on in relief and pitched two serviceable innings, allowing only one run.
The Red Sox managed to score two runs in the home sixth, avoiding the 10-run rule type outing in what finished as a 10-2 rout with Sox first baseman Dom Smith pitching the top of the ninth inning for Manager Alex Cora in the all-out laugher.
Smith did receive a warm ovation from the Fenway faithful who withstood another Texan-sized shellacking as the Sox were swept for the second time since the MLB All-Star break (LA Dodgers took three, July 19-21).
Boston will be forced to do another Texas “two-step” when the Rangers visit Fenway for three games this Monday through Wednesday. Boston dropped to 61-55 on the season and three games back of the Kansas City Royals in the race for the final wild car slot, while Houston improved to 62-55.
For the agate column lovers, Sims took the loss for Boston and is (1 – 6) while Houston’s starter Hunter Brown improved to (10-7) on the year.