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With his first starting postseason win,
David Price traveled the 'road to redemption' on Thursday night in
Boston's 4-1 pennant-clinching win. The lefty went six dominant innings—keeping Houston batters off-balance with a mix of four-seam fastballs, cutters inside and devastating change-ups away. Price went six full innings, giving up no runs on just three hits, while striking out nine and walking none. Boston jumped out early on
Justin Verlander—with
J.D. Martinez taking a hanging breaking ball off the back wall of the
Crawford Boxes in left-field for a 1-0 lead. That held up until 21-year-old
Rafael Devers went into those same
Crawford Boxes with a three-run, opposite-field home run—pushing the lead to 4-0 in the sixth inning. Also, both
Mitch Moreland (2-4) and
Ian Kinsler (2-4) had multiple-hit games. While
Matt Barnes gave up a run on a solo home run, the bullpen otherwise continued its solid work—with starter
Nathan Eovaldi chipping in with four
huge outs.
Craig Kimbrel (who apparently had been tipping his pitches earlier in the series) came on in the ninth and closed out the win for his third save of the
American League Championship Series.
Jackie Bradley, Jr. was named the
ALCS MVP. And so, the
2018 Carmine Hose move on to the
Fall Classic—against either the Milwaukee Brewers or the Los Angeles Dodgers.
