Wilyer Abreu hit a liner down the right field line off Josh Hader to a section of the park that was about six inches from foul territory with two outs in the bottom of the ninth and the winning run at second. The Red Sox would have won if it had just landed fair because it wasn’t going to make the stands.
The ball landed foul somehow.
These kinds of incidents, the minor setbacks that might cause a club to break, have the power to make or break a team. The Red Sox persevered despite the difficulties to secure one of their season’s marquee victories, even though Abreu eventually struck out to force extra innings.
Roman Anthony defeated the Houston Astros 2-1 on Friday night by hitting a walk-off single in the bottom of the tenth inning, sending the spectators home delighted. The Red Sox have now won three straight games to go to 60-51 on the season, and Anthony’s dramatic winner came after Ceddanne Rafaela pushed the ghost runner from extra innings to third on a fielder’s choice.
Cooper Criswell had a difficult task against the Astros after being called up from Triple-A to make his first major league start of the season, particularly since Hunter Brown, a Cy Young Award candidate, was beginning for the opposing team.
Criswell gave the Red Sox more than enough, but Brown was as overpowering as promised.
The right-hander needed just 84 pitches to complete the seven innings, demonstrating his effectiveness and efficiency. Christian Walker’s single home run in the top of the second inning was the only damage the Astros could muster as he scattered seven hits and two walks.
Additionally, Criswell benefited from several well-timed defensive plays and foolish baserunning errors by the Astros, who allowed three outs on the base paths, two of which instantly erased earlier Red Sox mistakes.
The issue was that, for a while, Brown was even better than Criswell.
Brown was ranked third in the American League going into the game in terms of ERA (2.54) and strikeouts (149), second in terms of hits per nine innings (6.242), and fifth in terms of pitchers’ wins above replacement (3.8). By dominating the Red Sox over seven innings on Friday, he strengthened his position in each of those categories.
Although they had early opportunities, the Red Sox were unable to take advantage of them.
With two outs in the third inning, Roman Anthony singled, and Alex Bregman followed with a single that left fielder Jesus Sanchez misplayed, putting Anthony and Bregman in scoring position. However, Brown recovered and ended the threat by striking out Jarren Duran.
Then, in the sixth inning, Duran doubled with two outs on what would have been a standard single for almost any other baseball player. However, Alex Cora had assigned Abraham Toro to the cleanup position, and he flew out to depart Duran at second.
Brown finally started to lose steam in the seventh.
Trevor Story, who is now 18 for 18 on stolen base tries this season, stole second after the 26-year-old walked him. The Red Sox then had two baserunners with no outs after Brown hit Masataka Yoshida on the payout pitch after going to a full count against him.
The guys moved into scoring position thanks to Carlos Narvaez’s first-ever sacrifice bunt, and Wilyer Abreu tied the score at one with a sacrifice fly that drove Story home from third.
Brown ended with four hits, a walk, and six strikeouts in seven innings pitched, allowing just one run.
Getting Carlos Correa back in a Houston Astros uniform after his trade from the Minnesota Twins on Thursday to fly out to deep center field allowed Garrett Whitlock to come on and throw a scoreless eighth inning, avoiding his own fielding mistake on a comeback to the mound.
Despite Trevor Story’s double and Rob Refsnyder’s pinch hit walk, Abreu missed bringing the game-winning run home by mere inches before striking out to force extras. Aroldis Chapman then followed with a flawless top of the ninth, at one point launching a sinker at 103.3 mph to force a flyout from Walker.
The Red Sox, however, stood tall once they arrived. With the help of Story’s outstanding performance, Greg Weissert pitched a scoreless top of the 10th to gun down the lead runner at the plate, setting the stage for Anthony’s heroics in the bottom of the inning.
