Astros, Dodgers advance in MLB playoffs
The Astros rallied for a wild 5-4 victory over the Red Sox in Boston
on Monday to win the best-of-five American League division series three
games to one.
The Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros punched their tickets to the next round of the Major League Baseball playoffs on Monday as the Dodgers swept Arizona and the Astros eliminated Boston in four games.
The
Astros rallied for a wild 5-4 victory over the Red Sox in Boston on
Monday to win the best-of-five American League division series three
games to one.
"We felt like that we could
win this series, but we knew it was going to be tough," said Astros
manager AJ Hinch. "We get out to a 2-0 (series) lead, and then you come
to Fenway and it's just a different animal. But our guys just stayed the
course."
Astros infielder Alex Bregman
belted a game-tying home run off Red Sox ace hurler Chris Sale --
pitching in relief -- to lead off the eighth inning and Josh Reddick
delivered a two-out run-batted-in single later in the inning off of Red
Sox closing pitcher Craig Kimbrel that put the Astros up 4-3.
The
Red Sox gave disheartened, rain-soaked fans at Fenway Park a last
glimmer of hope in the bottom of the ninth when Rafael Devers led off
the inning with a drive to deep left centre field. It bounced off the
wall and gave Devers an inside-the-park home run.
But
it wasn't enough as the Astros reached a league championship series for
the first time since 2005 -- when they were in the National League.
George Springer and Jose Altuve drove in one run each for the Astros.
Andrew
Benintendi hit a game-tying two-run homer in the fifth inning and
Xander Bogaerts smacked his first career playoff homer, a solo blast in
the first, for the Red Sox.
In Phoenix,
rookie Cody Bellinger homered and drove in two runs, Yu Darvish pitched
five strong innings, and the Dodgers swept their way into the National
League Championship Series with a 3-1 victory over the Diamondbacks in
game three of their series.
Anthony
Rizzo of the Chicago Cubs hits a single in the eighth inning against
the Washington Nationals during game three of the National League
Division Series at Wrigley Field on October 9, 2017(GETTY/AFP)
Bellinger
and Austin Barnes homered off Diamondbacks pitcher Zack Greinke while
Japan's Darvish gave up one run and struck out seven in five-plus
innings.
Bellinger, the likely NL Rookie
of the Year, had 39 regular-season homers but was one-for-12 in the
series before his opposite-field homer made it 2-0 in the fifth inning.
"I have been trying to hit it the other way so it felt good," said Bellinger. "We got to keep going and stay sharp."
Cubs take control
Elsewhere,
the World Series champion Chicago Cubs gained the upper hand in their
NL division series with a 2-1 win over the Washington Nationals.
The victory put the Cubs up 2-1 in the best-of-five series with a chance to close it out at Wrigley Field on Tuesday.
Anthony
Rizzo put the Cubs ahead in the eighth inning with a run-scoring single
to shallow centre field. Cubs closer Wade Davis pitched a scoreless
ninth to preserve the win.
Nationals
starting pitcher Max Scherzer held the Cubs hitless for 6 1/3 innings
before surrendering a double to Ben Zobrist in the seventh. Albert
Almora followed with a run-scoring single off of reliever Sammy Solis
that tied the game at 1-1.
In the other
AL series game, Aaron Judge capped a four-run second inning with a
two-run double as the New York Yankees clobbered the Cleveland Indians
7-3 to even their series at two games apiece at Yankee Stadium.
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