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Baseball Series: The Shot Heard Around a Local Neighborhood

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By TERRY LYONS

ATLANTA – Welcome to Game 3 of the Unincorporated Community of Cumberland Series. After two games at the Harris County Series, Major League Baseball will stage its first pitch of the first truly local, everyday series with the Harris County Astros tied with the Cumberland Braves, 1-game apiece.

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Gone are the days of the World Series and amazing feats like the Miracle of Coogan’s Bluff which brought the 1951 NY Giants to an early version of the Local Series, called a Subway Series which was lost to the New York Yankees in six games. Gone are “I can’t believe what I just saw” moments, as no one will see it.

“We don’t market our game on a nationwide basis,” said Manfred as the series opened in Harris County, Texas. “Ours is an everyday game, you’ve got to sell tickets every single day to the fans in that market. And there are all sorts of differences among the clubs among the regions as to how the games are marketed.”

That is certainly true and to be fair to MLB and Manfred, he was explaining how every MLB club must compete in each MLB town to attract fans, sell tickets and get TV eye-balls on their regular season games. It’s a difficult task multiplied by 81 home games in the heat of summer, the cold dampness of April in the northern USA cities and the sad reality of being 20 games back in September for the cellar-dwellers.

Manfred was defending MLBs attempt to be “apolitical,” Yet, and in all seriousness, with the Atlanta Braves in the 2021 World Series, baseball found itself in the State of Georgia where they left this summer’s All-Star Game behind to make a stand against the obvious voter suppression laws being enacted by state lawmakers in reaction to the upset election of two Democratic United States Senators (Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock) in a State run by a Republican governor. The All-Star Game went to Denver, Colorado and baseball found itself right, smack in the middle of politics in these formerly United States.

Apolitical?

Let me say this,” Manfred said. “It’s harder than it used to be. It sure is.”

That brings us to the Braves, the club name and the (adopted from the Florida State Seminole fans) Tomahawk “Chop.”

“We have 30 markets around the country. They’re not all the same,” said Manfred. “The Native American community in that region is fully supportive of the Braves program, including the chop. And for me, that’s kind of the end of the story.”

Note to PR practitioners: When someone hoping to end a story says it’s “kind of the end of the story,” the public relations people still have a story and potential crisis on their hands.

While scores of athletic programs (college mostly) dropped mascots and program nicknames like, “Warriors, Redmen, and Indians,” and the North Dakota Fighting Sioux dropped their college nickname and have yet to replace it, as the Notre Dame Fighting Irish look on.  Two professional teams found themselves as the major focal points of the politically incorrect position of promoting their franchises as the Cleveland Indians (MLB) and the Washington Redskins (NFL).

The Redskins made the PC move to become the Washington Football Team two seasons ago but are yet to come up with a suitable team name. The Cleveland Indians made the announcement that they would become the Cleveland Guardians but were recently sued in U.S. District Court by a Roller Derby team claiming ownership of the word “Guardians.”

No matter what the case may be, someone, somewhere and somehow will be offended – some rightfully and others trying to make a fuss or a buck but the Braves and Astros will play Game 3 of the Series of the pastime formerly known as national.

The Sun Came Up Again for Astros

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By TERRY LYONS

BOSTON – Just as Houston Astros manager Dusty Baker predicted, the sun came up for the Houston Astros on Tuesday morning and it set in time for Game 4 of their American League Championship Series against the Boston Red Sox at Jam-packed Fenway Park. After the 12-3 throttling the ‘Stros took at the hands of the Sox on Monday, all signs pointed towards another Boston victory.

Momentum be damned.

The pundits’ predictions for three straight for the Red Sox at Fenway were plentiful. Yet, experience and past results showed that one game does not a series make. Best-of-seven playoff series often have pendulum-like sways and they play with the minds of the media, the fans but not the teams and players.

Case in point:

  • Game 1: The Houston Astros won, 5-4, at home and took control of the series
  • Game 2: The Boston Red Sox won, 9-5, at Houston and escaped Texas with home field advantage in their pockets.
  • Game 3: The Red Sox lambaste the Astros, 12-3, to go up 2-1 in the series and gain control and all momentum.
  • Game 4: The Astros strike back, 9-2 at Fenway, making the series a best-of-three with Houston regaining home field ad.

Game 5 is late this afternoon at Fenway Park where the bright setting sun will cast shadows on the field, and make right fielders cringe upon every fly ball hit towards the Pru. If you ask the old Oakland Raiders of the NFL, you’ll also be reminded that the Autumn Wind is a Pirate. We’ll just have to see as Mother Nature has been kind to MLB as October 20’s weather forecast could easily be for September 1st.

Houston will send Framber Valdez out to the mound while Boston will stake its season with Chris Sale pitching the pivotal fifth game of the ALCS. Sox fans yearn for the days of yesteryear when Sale was an automatic “W,” and 10 strike-outs were the norm. Instead, we’ll see if Sale can bounce back from two subpar postseason outings, each coming after he’s battled an inflamed elbow, Tommy John surgery (March 30, 2020) and a slow return as the 2020 and 2021 MLB seasons marched on while the world battled COVID-19.

Sale’s last outing was Game 1 of the ALCS in Houston. He gave up five hits and an earned run but only pitched 2.2 innings. His first start of the MLB Postseason was Game 2 of the AL Divisional Series vs. Tampa Bay when he allowed five earned runs on four hits and lasted just one inning.

Not great.

Sale and Valdez matched-up in Game 1 of this series and Valdez wasn’t much better, allowing three runs (two earned.thank-you Jose Altuve), six hits with three walks in 2.2 innings pitched. In that series opener, each team utilized eight pitchers in another four hour epic.

Red Sox manager Alex Cora remains quite confident he’ll see a batter version of his one-time ace.

“He’ll be fine,” said Cora after Tuesday night’s Boston loss. “The way he threw the ball at the end of that outing in Houston, it was good. The way he worked in between starts, it was good. He will be ready.”

What did veteran and perfect prognosticator Baker think?

“This (series) is enjoying baseball as if you are a child,” said the Astros manager as if he were reading scrips for the motion picture, Field of Dreams.  “You know, this is one of the great things about baseball. When you’re dead in the water and things aren’t going good, and then all of a sudden, ‘boom, boom, boom,’ and you’ve got seven runs. That’s what they’ve been doing to us this whole series, and we’re capable of doing that as well.”

Baker is an amazing and respected baseball man who boils it down, knew the sun would rise once again for his ‘Stros, and that his team is close and getting closer by the game and the series.

Game 5s are a better prognosticator than Baker, however. This afternoon marks the seventh ALCS to be tied at 2-2 since the best-of-7 format began in 1985. Since then, six of the clubs that won Game 5 went on to win the pennant (all except the 2017 Yankees vs. these Houston Astros).

In other words, expect one hell of a Game 5 and to the winner … a ticket to the World Series awaits.

 

Red Sox Making an October Statement

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By TERRY LYONS

BOSTON – If it’s possible to make a statement in an October Major League Baseball game, the Boston Red Sox did so Monday night with a 12-3 demolition of the Houston Astros. The Boston victory in Game 3 of their American League Championship Series (ALCS), complete with three towering home runs came while while the Red Sox pitching staff limited the potent Houston offense to five scattered hits. The win gave Boston a 2-1 series lead.

In nearly all of professional sports, a combination of losing home field advantage in Game 2 and then getting throttled by nine in Game 3 would be such devastation that the losing team would fold up the tents and make vacation plans for Cancun for October 26-to-November 3.

But, not so for baseball. Not so for the Houston Astros.

The Astros are making their fifth consecutive appearance in the ALCS, splitting the previous four championship series, 2-2, and winning the World Series in 2017. To say they’ve been battle tested is an understatement. In the 2020 ALCS, the ‘Stros dropped the first three games to the Tampa Bay Rays only to become the second team in MLB history to fight back to play a Game 7. The Rays advanced but lost to the LA Dodgers, 4-2, in the 2020 World Series.

In Game 2 of the 2019 World Series against the Washington Nationals, the Astros dropped the first two games of the series at home with Game 2 a 12-3 shellacking (sound familiar?) That statement game by the Washington Nationals resulted in the Nationals returning home and proceeding to drop three straight to the Astros in a World Series where no team won on their home field.

When the Astros won their World Championship in 2017, they endured a devastating 6-2 loss in Game 4, allowing five runs to the LA Dodgers in the top of the 9th inning but bounced back to take an incredible 13-12 extra inning Game 5 win. After Justin Verlander and the Astros lost Game 6 in LA, Houston rebounded to take Game 7 with a 5-1 win. That series victory was tainted when Sports Illustrated revealed a pitch-tipping controversy a month after the series concluded.

Big-time victories don’t seem to carry over in Major League Baseball. when Nick Pivetta and Zack Greinke warm-up for Game 4 tonight, the canvas will be clean and Boston’s 12-3 Monday night win will be a distant memory for an Astros lineup that can crank it just as hard as the Red Sox did in Game 3.

In the pivotal game, Boston lived by the long-ball. In the bottom of the 2nd inning with the score already 2-0 Red Sox, newly acquired 1B Kyle Schwarber stepped-up to the plate with the bases loaded after a costly error by Houston All-Star 2B Jose Altuve. Astros starting pitcher Jose Urquidy misfired three times, twice with his four seam fastball and once with a change-up to take the count to 3-0 versus the dangerous, Fenway-loving bat of Schwarber.

Despite the 3-0 count and pressure mounting on the 26-year old Urquidy, pitching in his second season in the majors, Boston Manager Alex Coro gave his slugger the “green light” and Schwarber delivered with a 430-foot blast of a Grand Slam to right field to make the score 6-0, Boston.

Insurance runs were supplied by Sox 2B Christian Arroyo who hit a 399-foot, two-run homer in the bottom of the 3rd inning to elevate the Sox lead to 9-0 and J.D. Martinez’ 395-foot, two run dinger over Fenway’s Green Monster left field wall to put the Red Sox ahead 11-3 in the 6th. Two innings later, Raphael Devers placed an exclamation point on the Sox statement when he took Ryne Stanek for a 372-foot blast, crushing a 96 mph fastball over the Monster.

Not to be lost in the offensive barrage, Boston starter Eduardo “E-Rod” Rodriguez pitched for six innings, allowing only five hits, three runs while striking out seven. He was backed-up by scoreless innings tossed by each of Hansel Robles, Martin Perez and Hirokazu Sawamura.

“We’re playing good baseball, I think, all around, running the bases well, playing good defense, pitching well,” said Coro after the 12-3, Game 3 win. “Offensively this is the best we’ve been the whole season, and they’re locked in right now. The preparation – it’s a lot better right now. The communication is a lot better. Like I said, now it’s not about 30 homers or 100 RBIs. Now it’s about winning four games, and they’re doing everything possible in that batter’s box to grind at-bats and to put good at-bats, and they’re doing that.”

All that said, the scores will be wiped clean, by hand, on Fenway’s ancient scoreboard when the first pitch of Game 4 is thrown at 8:08pm (ET) tonight.

Houston Manager, the great Dusty Baker said it best, “They count as one (win). We come back and win tomorrow, the season — the series is even. I mean, you don’t like it. I’m not very happy about it, but you got to flush this one because you can’t bring this one or the last one back until tomorrow. And so, like I said, you don’t like it tonight, but the sun is going to come up in the morning.”

ALCS: Sox and ‘Stros Vie for Game 3

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BOSTON –  (Staff and Wire Services Reports and Preview Material – Boston’s DH J.D. Martinez and 3B Rafael Devers uncorked two grand samplings of power Saturday to lead the Red Sox and even their American League Championship Series with the Houston Astros at one game apiece. Tonight, the Red Sox return to Fenway Park with home field advantage and some serious momentum on their side as they host the Astros for a pivotal Game 3 in their best-of-seven showdown.

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Martinez and Devers became the first pair of teammates in MLB’s postseason history to hit Grand Slams in the same game, doing so in the first and second innings respectively of Boston’s decisive 9-5 win in Game 2 on Saturday at Houston. Boston cruised to the key win with a fourth-inning solo homer from Enrique “Kike” Hernandez, who continued his big to be the new “Mr. October” with a 2-for-4 performance to make him 16-for-32 (.500) with five home runs and nine RBIs through seven 2021 MLB Postseason games.

A career .242 hitter, Hernandez has an MLB-record 15 hits over his last five playoff games and became the first Red Sox batter to homer five times in five postseason games. He has already matched Todd Walker (2003) and former Sox DH David Ortiz (2004 and 2013) for the club record for home runs in a single postseason.

Already without injured ace Lance McCullers Jr., the Astros’ rotation took another blow in the form of an injury to Game 2 starter Luis Garcia. He exited after serving up the grand slam to Martinez, leaving potential Game 4 starter Jake Odorizzi to pitch in a surprise mop-up role.

“I was caught off guard by it. I think everybody was,” Odorizzi said. “I sucked up four innings. That’s the best way of putting it. Those can be crucial as we move forward in the series.”

Houston right-hander Jose Urquidy is set to make his postseason debut in a critical spot as he starts Game 3. The 26-year-old had been in line to start Game 4 of the team’s AL Division Series against the Chicago White Sox before it was rained out. Urquidy went 8-3 with a 3.62 ERA over 20 starts in the regular season. In his postseason career, he is 1-1 with a 2.81 ERA in eight appearances (four starts).

Boston will counter with left-hander Eduardo Rodriguez (0-1, 5.40 ERA). The 28-year-old went winless in two playoff starts against Tampa Bay in the ALDS and is 0-1 with a 7.02 ERA in 10 career postseason games (three starts).

Rodriguez struggled in two regular-season starts against Houston as he went 0-1 with an 11.57 ERA in 9 1/3 innings. Overall, Rodriguez is 1-3 with an 8.53 ERA in six career starts against the Astros.

The Urquidy-Rodriguez duel has led to a relatively high (for postseason) Over/Under of 9.0 runs at DraftKings. Then, there’s the Fenway Park factor, as well.  Game 3 will mark the first of three ALCS games to be played at The Fens, a band-box for run scoring, especially if the New England winds kick in.

Boston Needs to Make Texas Toast

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By TERRY LYONS

BOSTON – In a recent Digital Sports Desk column which had a general theme, “When they go low, we go high,” the finer points of the City of Tampa were underlined and applauded as opposed to the B.S. that the New York Post threw at the City of Boston when the New York Yankees were the guests at America’s Most Beloved Ballpark, Fenway Park. While the Post proclaimed, “Boston Sucks,” Digital Sports Desk took the high road and pointed out that Tampa had a title-town winning streak ongoing with the reigning Super Bowl champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers of the NFL and the defending Stanley Cup champion Tampa Bay Lightning of the NHL. Tampa also claimed direct connections with the likes of hometown heroes such as musicians Ray Charles, Cannonball Adderley, Stephen Stills, David Sanborn and the model and actress Lauren Hutton.

The obvious question as the weekend of October 15-16-17 approaches and the fans of Houston wonder “What Say You?”

Houston is NOT a “HELL HOLE,” as the New York Post’s Wallace Matthews once wrote when the Knicks faced the Rockets in the 1994 NBA Finals. It is the most populous city in the State of Texas and the fourth most populous city in the United States with 2.3 million people and growing.

Certainly, Houston’s most famous claim to fame is the Johnson Space Center and “Mission Control” for the many NASA missions exploring outer space. Houston is called “Space City” and “H-Town.” The Houston Astros, once the “Colt 45s,” won the World Series in 2017 but not without controversy of sign stealing and drum-banging that cost GM Jeff Luhnow and Manager A.J. Hinch their jobs, along with Boston Red Sox Manager Alex Cora (who was then a bench coach for the ‘Stros before taking the reins in Boston for the 2018 World Series title season).

Houston was home to the then “mod” Astrodome, then known as the “Eighth Wonder of the World.” The indoor baseball venue was the very first “dome,” built beginning in 1962 and opened in 1965. It hosted rock shows (Elvis, The Stones, Pink Floyd), heavyweight title fights (Ali) and the college basketball game of the century which featured 52,963 fans watching Elvin Hayes (39 points) and the University of Houston defeat the UCLA Bruins of Coach John Wooden and center Lew Alcindor (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) 71-69 on January 20, 1968.

Houston was the home of United States Presidents George H.W. Bush and his son, George W. Bush. It claims a wide variety of famous singers, songwriters, actresses and models, from Kenny Rogers to Lyle Lovett to Kelly Emberg (model) or Charlies’ Angels star Jaclyn Smith. Boxing great George Foreman hails from Houston, as does the greatest gymnast of all-time, Simone Biles.

Houston has active arts and theatre, the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, and is widely known as a tech and medical center of the world, especially fighting every dreaded form of cancer.

How could Matthews ever call Houston a hell hole when it is the hometown of Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter and Destiny’s Child and two-time Academy Award winner Renée Zellweger is from nearby Katy, Texas?

The Red Sox will have their hands filled with the Astros this weekend, as the American League Championship Series (ALCS) opens up in Texas. The Astros went 95-67 this season and took the American League West title. This year will be the ‘Stros fifth consecutive appearance in the ALCS. The Astros lost the likes of outfielder George Springer (Toronto) and pitcher Gerrit Cole (NY Yankees) to free agency and are still great.

As MLB’s version of a “Final Four” has arrived, the sports world of Boston is not focused solely on baseball. Out in Foxboro, another Texas team, the vaunted Dallas Cowboys, will pay a visit to play the New England Patriots this Sunday (4:25pm). NFC East leader Dallas arrives with a 4-1 record and as winners of four straight, while the hometown Patriots are 2-3 and will need to compete mightily in order to gain a wild card berth in the NFL Playoffs. Nevertheless, the Cowboys vs Patriots will have “big game” status and higher TV ratings than the other three major sports combined.

Speaking of other major sports, the Boston Bruins will open their 2021-22 NHL season with a home game against another Texas team, the Dallas Stars, on Saturday night. The Bruins’ season begins with high hopes for another trip to the Stanley Cup Playoffs and maybe even another appearance in the Stanley Cup Finals, largely dependent on the backline defense and goaltending sans the great, but injured, free agent Tuukka Rask (hip surgery).

It doesn’t end there, as the 75th Anniversary season of the NBA is soon to begin and the Boston Celtics will open on the road against longtime rival New York Knickerbockers with a Wednesday, October 20 appointment at Madison Square Garden. That game will be up against a possible Game 5 of the ALCS, as the series will move to Fenway Park for Game 3, 4, 5, scheduled October 18-19-20, with seasonal weather forecasts to delight the faithful fans at The Fens.

Lastly, the Boston College Eagles (4-1, 0-1 in ACC) will play a make it or break it ACC matchup in Chestnut Hill this Saturday night when the N.C. State Wolfpack (4-1, 1-0 in ACC) visits The Heights. Although it’s still relatively early in the college football season, the outcome of the game for the Eagles — especially at home — will determine their ability to compete for the upper echelons of the ACC. Believe it or not, this game is likely to determine Bowl eligibility and/or destinations for B.C.

The week of Boston sports festivities begins tonight in Houston when Red Sox ace Chris Sale (5-1) takes to the mound against Framber Valdez (11-6) of the Astros. Sale was shelled his last time out against the Tampa Bay Rays but has worked his mechanics ever since the October 8 debacle when he threw only one inning but let up five earned runs in a game the Red Sox managed to win 14-6. Boston exploded with five home runs in that game, which turned their series around and helped the Sox advance to the ALCS with a 3-1 series upset over Tampa.

Red Sox Salvage a Game in Houston

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HOUSTON – Boston’s Christian Arroyo hit a three-run homer and starting pitcher Martin Perez tossed 7 2/3 scoreless innings as the Boston Red Sox posted a much-needed 5-1 victory over the Houston Astros on Thursday afternoon to salvage the finale of a four-game series.

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Boston shortstop Xander Bogaerts broke out of an 0-for-24 mini-slump with a two-run double in the seventh inning as the Red Sox halted the Astros’ four-game winning streak. Bogaerts added an infield single in the ninth.

Perez (4-2) allowed six hits and one walk and struck out four during an 82-pitch effort. The left-hander has won his past four starts.

Houston’s Yuli Gurriel went 3-for-4 with a ninth-inning homer for the Astros, as they had outscored Boston 18-4 while winning the first three games of the series. Aledmys Diaz added two hits for the Astros.

J.D. Martinez had two doubles for the Red Sox.

Perez was five outs away from his third career shutout before tiring in the eighth. He allowed a one-out single to Garrett Stubbs and issued a two-out walk to Diaz to conclude his outing. Adam Ottavino entered and got Alex Bregman to fly to left-center to end the inning. Fellow right-handed reliever Brandon Workman served up Gurriel’s eighth blast with one out in the ninth before retiring the final two batters.

Earlier, Red Sox 3B  Rafael Devers led off the second inning with a double off the fence in center and Hunter Renfroe drew a walk against Houston starter Jake Odorizzi (0-3). Arroyo followed and received a cutter on the eighth pitch of the at-bat and hit it into the Crawford Boxes in left for his first homer of the season.

The score remained 3-0 until the seventh when Jason Verdugo walked against Astros right-hander Cristian Javier and Martinez followed with his second double.

That brought up Bogaerts, who had come up in the same situation two innings earlier and had struck out to keep his funk going. This time, Bogaerts laced a 2-2 slider into the left-field corner to score two for his first hit since May 25 against the Atlanta Braves.

Odorizzi lasted just three innings and allowed three runs and four hits. He walked three and struck out two.

Red Sox Head to Space City

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HOUSTON – If the Boston Red Sox are smart, they’ll sign Bill “Spaceman” Lee to a contract today for a span of the next 10 days. The Sox and Houston – home of the Johnson Space Center – will play seven baseball games in 11 days, with four coming this week at Minute Maid Stadium in Texas, while three games between Boston and the Astros will be scheduled for June 8-10 at Fenway Park.

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Going into this afternoon’s game, the Red Sox (32-20) are four games ahead of Houston (28-24) for the AL Wild Card slot, as Boston trails Tampa (34-20) for first place in the AL East. Houston has won each of the last regular season series between the two clubs but 12 of the last 23 contests were decided by one run.

Boston will start lefty Eduardo Rodriguez (5-3, 5.06 ERA) against Houston’s Jose Urquidy, a righty with a (3-2) record and 3.32 ERA. Overall, Boston starters have thrown 5-or-more innings in 44 games this season, third best in the majors behind the Oakland A’s (46) and LA Dodgers (45). The Red Sox are 15-3 when their starter goes 6+ innings and that was an issue for Rodriguez his last time out when he pitched a season-low 4.o innings against Philadelphia on May 23.

Prior to that start, Rodriguez had a MLB high and career-best of 36 starts going at least 5+ innings.  Rodriguez has lost his last three consecutive outings but has received only one run of support in those three games combined.

The Red Sox begin 17 consecutive days of games at Houston this afternoon.