May 14, 2016
Red Sox 6, Astros 5 (11 innings)
W – Uehara (2-1)
L – Feliz (1-1)
We shouldn’t be surprised by any of this anymore. After being nails on Friday night, Gregerson brought absolutely no command in Saturday’s save situation, allowing Boston to send the game to extras and ultimately win it.
Correa started the scoring in the first with a solo blast that cleared the Green Monster and left the damn building. In the bottom of the inning the Sox loaded the bases knocked in a run with three straight hits and then loaded the bases with nobody out. After a grounder to third that resulted in a force play at home, McHugh walked Travis Shaw to make it 2-1 Boston. McHugh then induced an inning-ending double play. All things considered, it could’ve been a lot worse.
In the 2nd Springer bested the Green Monster for the second time in as many games, this time with the bases juiced. Clay Buchholz had walked a couple of hitters before getting to Springer, and when Springer worked the count to 3-1 Buchholz was clearly frustrated with the strike zone. His next pitch landed 370+ feet away.
The Astro bats cooled afterward, and the Red Sox chipped away at the deficit, scoring a run in each of the 3rd and 4th innings. Given his early struggles, though, McHugh pitched a tough six innings and was in line for the win, one that would have been well-deserved given the potency of the Boston lineup. Neshek and Harris pitched scoreless 7th and 8th innings respectively. The Astros threatened to add an insurance run a couple of times but never managed to. Of particular suckage was in the 8th inning: with runners at the corners and one out, Castro missed the bunt signal for a squeeze play and Marwin was dead meat coming in from third.
Gregerson pitched the 9th and couldn’t have found the strike zone with Google Maps, throwing more balls than strikes. Somehow he almost weaseled his way into a save anyway, getting a runner at first with two outs. Then David Ortiz happened, tripling to deep left-center a couple feet past a diving Marisnick’s glove and tying the game. Remarkably, Hanley Ramirez might have let the Astros off the hook by unsuccessfully trying to bunt his way on base and win the game.
In the bottom of the 11th, with Michael Feliz on the mound, Xander Bogaerts singled and reached second on a wild pitch to Ortiz. Rather than walking Ortiz with first base open, Hinch elected to have Feliz continue pitching to Ortiz, who already had two RBI on the day. This proved to be a mistake: Ortiz drove a double to center to win it.
Instead of being in the driver’s seat and having a legit shot to steal three out of four in Boston, the Astros now hope to split the series tomorrow.