Astros win a rough-around-the-edges opener of the ALCS

BOSTON — On the first night of true October playoff weather in the Northeast, in the coziest and most intimidating building in baseball, in the first game of an American League Championship Series between two of the best teams of recent vintage, something was causing hearts to seize and nerves to snap. Two of the best pitchers in baseball, and a parade of lesser ones, lost all feel for the strike zone. Outs were thrown away. A low-key and good-natured manager flew into a rage. A catcher’s throw to second pegged an umpire.

Were it not for the impressive work of the Houston Astros’ bullpen, perhaps the lone unit on either side to give a respectable representation of itself, Game 1 of the ALCS at Fenway Park might have gone completely off the rails. As it was, the defending World Series champs held on early and exploded late for a 7-2 victory over the Boston Red Sox in a game that failed to deliver on its promise but managed to entertain in its own strange and meandering way.

[ALCS Game 1 box score: Astros 7, Red Sox 2]

A four-run outburst by the Astros in the ninth, featuring home runs from Josh Reddick and Yuli Gurriel, sent many in the sellout crowd of 38,007 filing up the aisles and out into the night. It is an uneasy feeling gripping Boston, its hopes now resting on star-crossed left-hander David Price in Game 2 on Sunday night, when he will face hard-throwing Astros right-hander Gerrit Cole.

Had anyone been told that both teams would carry two-hitters into the ninth inning, they would have envisioned an epic, lengthy duel from the two aces facing off in Game 1, Red Sox left-hander Chris Sale and Astros right-hander Justin Verlander, both leading candidates for this year’s AL Cy Young Award. But that was far from the case.

Sale had a rare command meltdown in the second inning and was gone after four shaky innings trailing 2-0. Verlander saved his meltdown for the fifth, giving the lead back, uncharacteristically, on three straight walks and a wild pitch. By night’s end, the teams had combined to walk 14 batters, with 10 of those walks issued by the Red Sox.

Was it the weather, the nerves or something else that had everyone on edge?

The umpiring certainly didn’t help. Pitchers for both teams took issue at times with the strike zone of home plate umpire James Hoye, but at the end of that fifth inning, Red Sox Manager Alex Cora absolutely lost it. His arguing from the dugout over the called strike three on Andrew Benintendi got him ejected — for just the second time all year — but before he left the field, he went at Hoye furiously in the grass between home and first, getting his full money’s worth for the ejection before crew chief Joe West stepped between them.

West would have his own signature moment in the top of the eighth, when a throw from Red Sox catcher Christian Vazquez, attempting to nab a would-be base-stealer, drilled West near the shoulder.

But the worst night of all might have been that of Eduardo Nunez, Boston’s third baseman. It was Nunez who, in the clinching Game 4 of the AL Division Series, made the charging, staggering play to end the game and vanquish the hated New York Yankees.

But on Saturday night, it was Nunez’s defense that might have cost the Red Sox the game. He failed to make a play to his left on George Springer’s one-hop smash that went just under his glove, a bases-loaded single that drove home the Astros’ first two runs. And four innings later, he made an error on a Gurriel grounder that helped the Astros score the go-ahead run.

Sale’s fastball averaged 94.7 mph this season and 94.6 mph in his Game 1 start against the Yankees in the ALDS a week earlier. But on Saturday, pitching in short sleeves despite temperatures that dropped into the 40s, Sale’s first offering clocked in at 91, his second at 89. His command was off as well, as he needed 34 pitches to muddle through the second inning, just 16 of them for strikes.

The impression was of a pitcher who wasn’t quite right physically. Sale suffered from a bout of shoulder inflammation in the second half of the season, limiting him to five starts combined in August and September. The drop in velocity and the sudden and uncharacteristic loss of command were both red flags. His wipeout slider, typically a deadly weapon, was virtually useless. Only two of Sale’s first 69 pitches produced swings-and-misses.

That Sale was able to gut through four innings with such diminished weaponry, and allow only those two second-inning runs, was testament to the veteran’s guile and competitiveness.

It might have seemed like a small thing, but the way Sale pitched the fourth inning — his velocity back up, his command better, his slider having regained its bite — was a good omen for the Red Sox. Knowing his time was short, he dialed up the intensity, with excellent results. It is certainly possible, given Boston’s thin bullpen and the aggressive way Cora managed the ALDS, that Sale could make a relief appearance in Game 3 or 4 in Houston.

Meanwhile, against the highest-scoring offense in baseball, Verlander seemed to be in total command, right up until the moment he wasn’t. He had retired 10 straight Red Sox hitters before Steve Pearce singled leading off the fifth, and then the right-hander lost all feel for his pitches. After striking out Brock Holt, he went walk, walk, walk to the bottom third of Boston’s order, the last of which plated the first Red Sox run, then uncorked a wild pitch that brought home a second run and tied the game.

After he finally escaped the inning — on the called third strike to Benintendi that set Cora off — Verlander gathered himself, completed an uneventful sixth and handed what was then a one-run lead off to his deep and potent bullpen.

Ryan Pressly handled the seventh and Lance McCullers Jr. the eighth. After the Astros broke the game open in the ninth, Houston Manager A.J. Hinch had the luxury of keeping his closer, Roberto Osuna, under wraps and giving the last three outs to Collin McHugh.

Four hours 3 minutes after it started, Game 1 ended with a weak grounder, a clean play, and the Astros forming a handshake line to celebrate a win that counts as much as any other, even if it didn’t follow the script anyone could have drawn up.

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