After two chilled losses at Fenway Park, the Los Angeles Dodgers returned home on Thursday feeling the heat trailing the best-of-seven World Series 2-0 to the Boston Red Sox and in need of a spark.
While the Los Angeles weather for Game Three on Friday will be more to the Dodgers liking, the back-to-back losses in Boston will have sent a shiver through fans who will be well aware of the uphill climb now facing their team.
Only 13 times have teams lost the opening two games of any best-of-seven Major League Baseball postseason series and rallied to erase the deficit.
"We've got to find a way to win a baseball game," said Dodgers manager Dave Roberts. "Obviously we come out of here (Boston) going home down 2-0.
"We're not swinging the bats well right now. That's obvious. But I think getting home ... I think we'll be ready for Game Three."
Boston with its mid-7 Celsius game time temperatures and Fenway Park with its quirky dimensions and features proved an inhospitable place for the Dodgers.
But with the next three games at the spacious Chavez Ravine where temperatures will hover around 27C, the Dodgers are focused at the task in front of them -- winning Game Three and taking the first step towards sending the series back to Boston.
"I think the big takeaway is you can't win four games in one night," said Roberts. "So just the focus-on-one-game-at-a-time mentality.
"I know it's easier said than done. But that's as simply as you can put it, and that's the best way to go about it."
The odds and history may be against the Dodgers but they are not without hope.
Dodgers teams have dug themselves out of 0-2 holes three times, including in the 1955 World Series when the then Brooklyn Dodgers became the first team to overturn an 0-2 deficit to beat their bitter rivals the New York Yankees.
The Dodgers also accomplished the feat in the 1965 and 1981 World Series coming back after losing the opening two games on the road.
Pressure is not an unknown quantity for the Dodgers, who took the World Series to a Game Seven last year before losing to the Houston Astros and while the situation is critical, it is not yet do-or-die, as Roberts pointed out.
"Understanding and appreciating that it's the World Series, it's still not a do-or-die like Game Seven, it was a do-or-die situation," said Roberts.
"So I know that even just getting back home feels different.
"It's going to be exciting tomorrow. The key is we've still got to go out there and play a good baseball game." (Reporting by Steve Keating in Toronto. Editing by Greg Stutchbury)
source: news.abs-cbn.com
NEW YORK -- The Houston Astros rallied for a wild 5-4 victory over the Red Sox in Boston on Monday to advance in the Major League Baseball playoffs.
The Astros won the best-of-five American League division series three games to one.
They'll battle either the New York Yankees or Cleveland Indians for a World Series berth.
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.
Ken Giles held the Red Sox scoreless in the bottom of the eighth, and Kimbrel gave up a two-out, run-scoring double to Carlos Beltran that made it 5-3 for the visitors.
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 center field off Astros closer Ken Giles. 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.
Game one starter Justin Verlander, making his first career relief appearance, earned the victory, allowing one earned run on one hit, Benintendi's homer, with two walks in 2 2/3 innings.
Boston manager John Farrell was ejected in the second inning for arguing balls and strikes.
The Astros will open the ALCS on Friday either at Cleveland or at home to the Yankees.
"We're going to face a great team, whoever it is, and we're going to have to be ready to play," Bregman said. "But I'll tell you this, the game that we just won is going to prepare us a lot for those crucial moments during the next series."
The Yankees, who fended off elimination in New York on Sunday, hosted the Indians again later on Monday.
- Cubs take control -
National League action resumed on Monday as 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 center 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.
Ryan Zimmerman had put the Nats up 1-0 in the sixth with a run-batted-in double.
Later Monday, the Los Angeles Dodgers tried to close out the Diamondbacks in Arizona after winning two at home.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
NEW YORK -- The Boston Red Sox kept their Major League Baseball playoff bid alive Sunday with a 10-3 victory over the Houston Astros at Fenway Park.
The Red Sox offense had sputtered in dropping the first two games of the best-of-five American League division series in Houston.
But back home in Boston they more than doubled the four runs they scored over the course of the first two games with the help of home runs from Rafael Devers and Jackie Bradley.
Boston, still trailing 2-1 in the series, will try to pull level when they host game four on Monday.
Devers smacked a two-run homer in the third inning to put Boston up 4-3, their first lead of the series.
The 20-year-old became the youngest Red Sox player ever to homer in a playoff game and just the sixth player in major league player in history to homer in the post-season before turning 21.
Bradley's three-run home run -- his first career post-season homer -- was part of a six-run seventh inning for Boston.
Hanley Ramirez went 4-for-4 with three runs-batted-in and Sand Leon drive in another run for the Red Sox.
Ramirez had taken the field before the game with a banner bearing the legend "Believe in Boston".
"We don't give up," he said. "We keep working.
"We were in the post-season last year and unfortunately we couldn't do the job," added Ramirez, recalling that the Red Sox were swept in the first round last season. "I told everybody it's not going to happen two years in a row."
After the Red Sox fell into an early hole -- with Carlos Correa hitting a two-run homer and Josh Reddick driving in a run for the Astros in the first inning -- Boston relief pitcher David Price produced four shutout innings with four strikeouts.
"Monster," Ramirez said of Price's performance. "Great heart, great competitor."
The winners of the series will take on either the New York Yankees or Cleveland Indians for a World Series berth.
The Yankees, trying to fend off elimination after falling in the first two games in Cleveland, gave the ball to Japanese pitcher Masahiro Tanaka on Sunday night.
Both National League division series resume on Monday, when the Chicago Cubs host the Nationals at Wrigley Field after splitting the first two games in Washington and the Los Angeles Dodgers try to close out the Diamondbacks in Arizona after taking two wins at home.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
