HOUSTON — This year’s ALCS showcases baseball’s two best teams of 2018. Are the Red Sox and Astros showing us their best, however?
Through the first two games, both at Fenway Park, this series felt more like a survival battle than a clash of the titans. Both the Red Sox, who posted a 108-54 regular-season record, and the Astros (103-59) have seen some of their celebrated players suffer from slumps, injury or sickness. And the results have been felt in two contests that stood out for their competitiveness more than their high level of play.
Start with the reigning AL Most Valuable Player, Jose Altuve, who started at designated hitter in Game 3 Tuesday at Minute Maid Park due to a right knee problem that put him on the disabled list for nearly four weeks in July and August. While he produced adequately in 33 regular-season games after returning from the DL, he had slashed only .227/.292/.409 through the Astros’ first five playoff contests, and he re-aggravated the injury during AL Division Series Game 2 against the Indians.
“He’s doing his best,” Astros manager A.J. Hinch said of Altuve on Monday. “It’s not comfortable for him. I know he’s what we call grinding and battling and doing everything that he can.
“… He’s able to be a productive player. But he’s battling a little bit.”
A.J. HinchAPAltuve’s double-play partner, Carlos Correa, is not soaring, either. The 2015 AL Rookie of the Year put up by far his worst major-league season, slashing a modest .239/.323/.405, and that had carried into this postseason with a .176/.364/.353 through ALCS Game 2; five walks boosted his on-base percentage and, therefore, his help to his teammates. He missed more than six weeks in the summer with a back issue, and his oblique also has plagued him.
“Carlos has had to battle a couple different things throughout the year, and it’s been a broken year for him, medically,” Hinch said. “And he’s had to endure that. He’s had something almost every year of his career. … He’s had to toughen himself up and get through it.
“The good part about Carlos is he’ll always post when he’s available. … He’s had to battle some swing adjustments along the way and some aches and pains and missed some time. But I think sometimes you have to remind people he’s a really good player and he has a chance to have great impact. He’s had some big hits for us this postseason, maybe not at the rate that we’re all accustomed to. But at the same time, I trust him when he’s on the field and he’s a really good player.”
If the Red Sox have avoided the trainer’s table in such a public way, they’ve nevertheless had to cope with an ailing ace and a struggling closer. Chris Sale, who started ALCS Game 1, was expected to join the team on Tuesday
with a stomach problem. The Red Sox have yet to confirm that he’ll start Game 5 on Thursday.
“Yeah, we talked to him,” Rick Porcello, the Red Sox’s scheduled Game 4 starter, said of Sale. “And now that we know that he’s OK, when the hell is he going to pitch?”
Closer Craig Kimbrel has created a different sort of concern. Even as he converted his first three save opportunities of the month, he did so in a fashion that did anything but inspire. He gave up a total of four runs over those three appearances — at least one in each game — totaling 3 1/3 innings. Sunday night’s ALCS Game 2 concluded in dramatic fashion when — with Altuve at first base and the Red Sox up by two — Houston’s Alex Bregman hit a long flyball that Red Sox left fielder Andrew Benintendi grabbed as he stood virtually against the Green Monster.
“[Sunday], he was misfiring arm side, but we’ll see,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora said Monday. “Hopefully, he pitches a lot the next three days, and that will be good news for us.”
It would be better news for the Red Sox if Kimbrel performs at his best.
