Mandatory Credit: Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports
Houston Astros (1-1) at Boston Red Sox (1-1)
RHP José Urquidy (0-0 -.–) vs. Eduardo Rodriguez (0-1, 5.40)
Game 3 – 8:08 p.m. ET – Fenway Park – FS1
It’s that pivotal Game 3 we’re all so familiar with watching during the postseason. The Red Sox were able to hold serve by splitting on the road in Houston. It mostly happened because Boston jumped out to a 9-0 lead off the strength of grand slams in each of the first two innings of Game 2. J.D. Martinez slugged the initial blast, followed by Rafael Devers in the following frame. And, as if he hadn’t already done enough this October, Enrique Hernandez hit a solo homer in the fourth to cap the scoring for Boston.
After a career-high 4.0 fWAR and 20 homers in his first season with the Red Sox, Hernandez is slashing .500/.514/1.094 with five dingers, nine RBI, and nine runs scored through 35 postseason plate appearances. No, that’s not a typo.
As for Houston, they’ll need to get its typically relentless offense going after an uneven two games. Carlos Correa and Yuli Gurriel both own an OPS over 1.300 in this series, but of the top four of Dusty Baker‘s Game 2 lineup (Jose Altuve, Michael Brantley, Alex Bregman, and Yordan Alvarez), none own an OPS higher than .708.
