Astros score 7 runs on 5 hits in Game 1 of ALCS

We knew that hits would be hard to come by for the Astros in the ALCS.

The Red Sox won 109 games in the regular season and beat the Yankees in the ALDS. They threw out their best pitcher last night versus the Astros in Chris Sale. In Game 4 of the ALDS, Sale came in and pitched well before Craig Kimbrel almost blew the lead in the ninth inning. Maybe that appearance messed up with Sale’s routine because he was off early in the game.

In four innings pitched, Sale issued four walks and one hit. That one hit gave the Astros an early 2-0 lead off a George Springer single. Alex Cora has a quick hook on Sale, but he didn’t have his best stuff last night. To place all the blame of Sale would be unfair because their pitchers allowed a playoff record ten walks. It was an ugly game, but the Astros were able to get the big hits, albeit only five of them.

The biggest walks of the night were Jose Altuve and Alex Bregman in the ninth inning last night. Brian Workman came into the game at the top of the ninth inning facing the top of the lineup down 3-2. George Springer struck out to lead off the inning, but it would be a while before they would retire the side. Bot Altuve and Bregman rode home on a three-run homer by Yuli Gurriel around the Pesky Pole in a similar way like Johnny Pesky did in 1948.

Tonight, David Price started off a little wild, walking Altuve and Bregman. After that, Price was locked in striking Gurriel out looking and Tyler White swinging. I saw an interesting note during tonight’s TBS broadcast. No team in LCS history has come back from losing both games at home and win the series. The pressure is on Price and company to pitch a clean game tonight to avoid that fate.