It was almost a disaster, but the Red Sox escaped with a 7-5 win over the Astros in 12 innings last night. The game lasted about five hours and finally ended at 1:11am, when Heath Hembree struck out Marwin Gonzalez with two men on base.
It must’ve felt like an eternity to those in the Red Sox’ overworked bullpen, who threw 8-2/3 innings and have now thrown 30 innings over their last six games. The starting rotation has thrown only 27 innings in that same span.
Hembree, who pitched the 10th, 11th and 12th innings, “was on fumes in that third inning,” manager John Farrell said.
After Ryan Hanigan worked a 13-pitch walk to load the bases in the 12th, Jackie Bradley Jr. lined a single to break a 5-5 tie and score the first Red Sox run since the third inning.
This game could’ve been over in the ninth, when the Sox had a 5-3 lead and Craig Kimbrel was given a clean inning to work with.
With three outs from the four-time All-Star closer, the Red Sox would’ve escaped one mess of a game -- a mess of a series, really -- and locked up their crucial road win against the Houston Astros, the popular preseason World Series favourites.
Three outs would’ve negated another way-too-brief outing from a Red Sox starting pitcher. This time it was Henry Owens who disappointed, lasting only 3-1/3 innings.
Kimbrel had recorded three outs without allowing a run 290 times in his career. This time, three outs was too much to ask.
Kimbrel recorded the first two.
Up next was the Astros’ three-hitter, their budding superstar, Carlos Correa. He rifled a 96-mph fastball into right field for a double. The Red Sox shuffled their infield defense to arrange a pull-side shift on red-hot cleanup hitter Colby Rasmus and everybody must’ve forgotten about Correa, because he ran over to third base standing up while Kimbrel stared at him from the mound, helpless with nobody to throw to. He dug his foot into the mound.
His first pitch to Rasmus was a 98-mph fastball that Rasmus swung at and missed.
On the second pitch, Kimbrel threw Rasmus a 98-mph fastball, low and inside. Rasmus crushed it over the right-center field fence for a two-run blast.
“I was trying to execute the same pitch I did to him the first one,” Kimbrel said. “Tried to get up there and just kind of pulled it.”
It was the third meltdown by Kimbrel in 10 games this season. The overpowering closer has five saves and 16 strikeouts in nine innings. But he’s also allowed five runs.