2018 Junior League Championship Game 2: Astros @ Red Sox

So not the result I hoped for.

Ok, since it’s entirely possible that we won’t get a chance to worship at the altar of The Great God Citgo again I’ll tell you this story which is relevant and self contained.

Among the things I have done is chasing L’Hermione up and down the East Coast from Yorktown to Calais. It stopped in Boston for a time and I thought I would take Richard and my activist brother to see it.

We drove to Worcester (pronounced woo-stir if you’re not from ’round heyah) and took the Green Line into Boston and saw the ship (confounded another French TV Interviewer who asked if I knew about Lafayette’s contributions to the Revolution to which I answered with my standard, “1776, 1789, or 1830?” which shut him up right quick. He was looking for a dumbass, not a acolyte of Clio.).

On the way in we had shared the train with a bunch of Sox fans going to Fenway (also on the Green Line) for a game against the Yankees, all happy and bubbly. They lost and on the way back the train was again full of all those same folks who were uniformly well behaved and polite.

But they’d had a few to drown their sorrows and at one place we stopped a long time before someone got on the intercom and said, “Sorry for the delay, we have a departing passenger who will not take his hands off the train. Authorities should be here momentarily.”

I can only imagine how that conversation went-

“Sir, you’re holding the train up.”

“Holding the train up?! Nah, the train is holding me up.”

Well, it’s better when I do it in person with the accents and all.

Things were looking ok for the Red Sox even though they were losing 3 – 2 until the 9th when the ‘Stros errupted for 4 Runs and it could have been worse. The Red Sox offense was practically non-existent throughout and if you’re a fan, you should be worried. Even if the ‘Stros lose tonight they could sweep at home and we’ll never see Fenway again, at least this season.

To stop the bleeding the Sox are sending up David Price (L, 16 – 7, 3.58 ERA). He lost in the Division Championship allowing 3 Runs on 3 Hits with 2 Home Runs and 2 Walks. He lasted 1.2 Innings for an ERA of a whopping 16.20. He’s appeared in 9 post-Seasons, in 2017 he was in 2 games for 6.2 scoreless Innings on 5 Hits earning a 0.00 ERA. He throws Fastballs with some Cutters and Changeups for variety.

The ‘Stros will counter with Gerrit Cole (R, 15 – 5, 2.88 ERA). He’s appeared in 2 post-Seasons before this, but the last one was in 2015 so it’s not relevant. This year he won his game in the Division Championship allowing 1 Run off 3 Hits and 1 Home Run for an ERA of 1.29. He pitches Fastballs with some Sliders and Curves.