These are the Don’t Back Down Red Sox until further notice
Playing Nine Innings (Game 3 edition) while figuring John Farrell’s job is now safe until at least Tuesday . . .
1. Well, wasn’t Sunday a day we thought we’d never see — when David Price and Hanley Ramirez morphed into postseason fan-favorites at Fenway Park. Yet it’s true. All of it. Price pitched four innings of superb middle-innings relief and Ramirez had four hits and three runs batted in as the Red Sox rallied from a 3-0 first-inning deficit to prolong their season with an exhilarating 10-3 win over the Astros.
All of this may come as a surprise — especially Price and Ramirez, perhaps the most maligned players on the roster, working in tandem to save a season that seemed to be in its waning innings. But maybe it shouldn’t. The Red Sox got slapped with the label of boring and placid all season long. Yet they went a combined 35-19 in August and September to fend off the Yankees, and they were a remarkable 15-3 in extra-inning games. They sure did have a lot of walkoffs for a boring, listless team. I think Red Sox fans had the collective belief that the season was going to end Sunday. We had enough evidence to know better, or to at least recognize that they’d put up a fight. They’re still down, 2-1. But they’re the Don’t Back Down Red Sox until further notice.
2. Here’s David Price, relief pitcher, 2017, playoffs and regular season included: 7 games, 15 1/3 innings, 8 hits, 4 walks, 19 strikeouts, 0.00 ERA. Sunday, in his four crucial innings in which he held the 896-run, 238-homer Astros (in the regular season) at bay while his own offense came to life, he was as impressive as he was when we first saw him. You remember, right?
In the 2008 ALCS matchup between the Red Sox and Rays, he was the secret weapon out of Tampa Bay’s bullpen, blowing away J.D. Drew for the crucial out in Tampa Bay’s Game 7 win. I saw that guy Sunday, and what’s even more remarkable is doing this in a different role after coming back from an injury. I’m not sure he’s the Red Sox’ version of ’16 Andrew Miller quite yet, and he wasn’t Pedro Martinez coming in for six no-hit innings of relief in Game 5 of the 1999 ALDS against the Indians. But he was awfully close. The man is earning his money — and his ovations.
3. Wasn’t this just the quintessential enigmatic Hanley Ramirez game? I’ll admit it: I thought he was pandering when he ran out for pregame introductions carrying a Believe in Boston banner. The believing in Boston part is easy. It’s believing in the guy toting the banner that’s problematic.
Hanley Ramirez unfurled this flag as he walked out during player introductions.
It seems to me he’s spent a good part of the season attempting to Ortiz’s personality, which is . . . well, it’s weird, but I get it, I guess. Who wouldn’t want to be like him? The problem is that as a hitter he imitated 1992 Jack Clark. Yet there he was, cutting the Astros’ lead to 3-2 in the third inning with an RBI rocket to the wall, then coming around to score on Rafael Devers’s go-ahead homer. In the seventh, he roped a gapper double with the bases loaded to make it 6-3, his fourth hit of the day, and by this point you almost expected it. An engaged Hanley is a productive and fun Hanley. It appears as though he is engaged rather than merely trying to convince us he is.
4. I’ve always been reluctant to blame John Farrell entirely for some of his goofy lineup and roster decisions. Sure, most of it is on him. He signs the lineup card. But you have to figure he has some clearance or approval from Dave Dombrowski and the front office to, say, bench Ramirez and put gimpy-kneed Eduardo Nunez in the No. 2 spot in the batting order for the opener of this series even though he hadn’t survived a full game since Sept. 8. Or bench Rafael Devers in Game 2 for Deven Marrero, who isn’t a good hitter even in Triple A. Due in part to injury and, hopefully, clarity, Ramirez and Devers were in there for Game 3. And wouldn’t you know it, Ramirez sparked the Red Sox comeback, then Devers capped it with a two-run homer off left Francisco Liriano for a 4-3 lead in the third inning.
Rafael Devers went 2 for 3 with a home run, three RBIs, and a strikeout.
5. Devers’s go-ahead blast made him the youngest Red Sox player to homer in the postseason. He had his hiccups at the plate after his spectacular start, and his defense is . . . let’s just call it a work in progress. But if Farrell pulls him from the starting lineup at any other point during this postseason — even if the Red Sox are facing a tough lefty — he should be fired on the spot. Devers finished 2 for 3 with 3 RBIs and 2 runs scored.
6. Mookie Betts set his offensive bar at Mike Trout level in 2016. There is an element of Red Sox fans that were frustrated he didn’t reach it again this year and perceived this as a bad season. It was not, by any means. Betts led the team with 24 homers, stole 26 bases, set a career-high for walks with 77, drove in 102 runs, and scored 101. Yes, he hit just .264, but this player is a solution, not a problem. But it was his defensive performance in Game 3 — especially a Dwight Evans-in-Game-6 catch that robbed Josh Reddick of a three-run homer — that served as a reminder of why he was a top-10 player in the American League in WAR this season.
Mookie Betts robbed Josh Reddick of a three-run home run in the second inning.
When an outfielder accounts for 15 defensive runs saved, that’s a Gold Glove-level performance. Betts had 31 — thirty-one! — runs saved this season. You witnessed three more — and the statistic’s palpable value — Sunday.
7. This was the 71st straight game against the Red Sox that Carlos Correa has homered in the first inning. No need to fact-check. I remember every one of them, honest. I’ve mentioned a few times this postseason that it’s a bummer that Xander Bogaerts — who arrived in the majors before Correa and Indians dynamo Francisco Lindor — isn’t on their level as a ballplayer, especially since he was arguably the Red Sox’ second-best hitter in the 2013 World Series charge. Correa (Baseball America’s No. 7 prospect pre-2014), Lindor (No. 13 pre-’14) and Bogaerts (BA’s No. 2 prospect that year) were regarded as elite talents. But Bogaerts was not in their ballpark this season, and Correa and Lindor have both delivered memorable hits this postseason. Bogaerts, meanwhile, is still looking for his first hit. He was 0 for 5 Sunday.
8. Doug Fister entered his start as the Red Sox starting pitcher with the most impressive postseason résumé, with none of his more acclaimed and well-compensated teammates even close. He ended it just like the rest of them. Fister, who took a 2.60 ERA in nine playoff appearances (eight starts) to the mound, reminded us that the worst-case scenario was the most likely scenario with a 27-pitch first inning that put the Red Sox in a 3-0 hole. He retired four batters total before Farrell, predictably engulfed in boos, removed him with one out in the second for the Joe Kelly Experience. Credit to Farrell for getting him out before the lead grew larger. Credit a lot to Farrell, actually. Who expected that this Sunday?
9. So we should pray for rain Monday, yes? It means Chris Sale would get the start Tuesday on his regular rest, which is a far more appealing option than Sale on short rest or Rick Porcello under any circumstances. Rain on Monday works for me. Wouldn’t mind thinking about this one a little longer.
It was Win, Dance, Repeat for Andrew Benintendi, Mookie Betts, and Jackie Bradley Jr. in the outfield after the Red Sox’ win.
