ALDS Game 1: Indians Homer Past Red Sox to Take Game One

In a matchup of teams that haven’t been in the playoffs since 2013, the Boston Red Sox and Cleveland Indians started their best-of-five series on Thursday at Progressive Field.  From the looks of things before the game started, the Red Sox looked to be the favorites at least in this game as their 22-game winner Rick Porcello was on the mound.  He was going to face promising pitcher Trevor Bauer but the scales were tipped favorably on the Red Sox side.

The Red Sox would jump on Bauer in the first inning.  Dustin Pedroia led off the game with a double, and it appeared the Red Sox were going to do what they did all season to other teams.  Brock Holt followed suit hitting a single sending Pedroia to third with no outs.  Bauer would be able to get the next to out in hopes of ending the early threat.  Hanley Ramirez saw it a bit differently.  Ramirez jumped on the early offering from Bauer for a double scoring Pedroia easily with Holt following.  A strong relay throw made for a play at the plate.  At first glance it appeared that Holt scored making the game 2-0 early.  Indians catcher Roberto Perez felt that he was able to get the tag down in time and encouraged Cleveland skipper Terry Francona to challenge the call.  After the review it was determined that Perez tagged Holt’s knee before he touched the plate.  What could have been a difficult two-run hole, ended up being just 1-0 and the end of the inning.

It looked as if Porcello was going to continue his dominance on the mound striking out the Indians in order in the bottom of the first inning.  He would show that he was human in the second inning allowing the Indians to score their first run of the game.  His armor would be severely dented in the third inning.

After top prospect Andrew Benintendi hit a home run in the Red Sox third, the Indians would show they had some power of their own.  With the score 2-1 in favor of the Red Sox, Roberto Perez made it a game again hitting a home run of his own for Cleveland tying the game at 2-2.  The Indians wouldn’t be down showing off their power as both Jason Kipnis and Francisco Lindor would follow suit hitting solo shots of their own to give the tribe a 4-2 lead when the third was over.

The Red Sox would get a little closer in the fifth inning when catcher Sandy Leon hit a home run bringing Boston closer.  Not sure if it was the air in Cleveland or what but the balls were flying out all night long.  Bauer was chased in the fifth making way for former New York Yankee Andrew Miller.  Miller would go two innings for the Indians striking out four and eventually picking up the win.

Boston would pull within one in the eighth on a Brock Holt home run, but that is as close as they would get.  Cody Allen shut down any threat striking out four enroute to his first save of the postseason.

Game two is scheduled for Friday afternoon at 4pm est at Progressive Field.  David Price goes for the Red Sox against Corey Kluber for the Indians.  It is really anyone’s guess on how this game is going to go.