Kyle Schwarber hit a second inning grand slam that capped off a six run outburst, and Eduardo Rodriguez pitched 6.0 innings Monday night as the Boston Red Sox took a 2-1 lead in the American League Championship Series with a 12-3 win over the Houston Astros at Fenway Park.
It didn’t take Boston long to knock out Houston starting pitcher Jose Urquidy with that big second inning. Alex Verdugo started it with a one out walk. JD Martinez then doubled off the green monster in left, and Hunter Renfroe walked to load the bases. Christian Vazquez followed with an opposite field single to right to make it 1-0 Sox. Christian Arroyo made it 2-0 when he reached on an error by Astros second baseman Jose Altuve on a ball that took a bad hop. Schwarber unloaded them on a 3-0 pitch deep into the right field stands at an estimated 430 feet. It was the third grandslam in the last two games by Boston, who only had three the entire regular season. Kike Hernandez kept the inning going with a single, Rafael Devers flied out, and then Xander Bogaerts who started the frame also singled ending the night for Urquidy. Yimi Garcia came on and retired Verdugo on a flyout to finally end the rally. They kept at it in the third as Vazquez singled in another run, and Arroyo put one into the first row of the monster seats for a two-run homerun. Houston got on the board when Kyle Tucker hit a two out, three-run homer to right in the top of the fourth one of the very few mistakes that Rodriguez made in his outing. The Sox weren’t done playing long ball as Martinez greeted reliever Phil Maton with a two out, two-run homerun to left in the bottom of the sixth and Devers finished the scoring with a solo shot in the eighth.
Rodriguez (1-0) allowed three runs on five hits with no walks and seven strikeouts. He became the first left handed Boston pitcher since 1912 to have at least seven strikeouts and no walks in a postseason start at Fenway Park. Hernandez, Martinez, and Vazquez each had two hits. Urquidy (0-1) was charged with five runs on five hits in 1.2 innings and Yuli Gurriel had two hits in the loss for Houston. Game 4 is Tuesday night at 8:08 p.m. The Red Sox haven’t announced a starter yet, while the Astros are going with Zack Greinke who went 11-6 with a 4.16 ERA in the regular season.
