After punching their ticket to the ALCS with a walk off win against the heavily-favored Tampa Bay Rays, the Boston Red Sox now know who they will face for a chance to play in the World Series, the Houston Astros.
The two teams last met in the postseason during the 2018 ALCS, which saw the Red Sox defeat Houston in five games and eventually go on to become World Series champions.
Both clubs took care of business in the divisional round, winning their respective series 3-1 and leaving little room for doubt regarding which team deserved to move on.
After barely squeaking their way into the postseason, the Red Sox have proven their playoff-worthiness, knocking off both the New York Yankees and Tampa Bay Rays in decisive fashion.
While their offense was inconsistent at times during the regular season, the Red Sox have lit up the stat sheet in their five postseason games, posting a team batting average of .328, a slugging percentage of .547 and a .919 OPS. The Sox have also hit 11 home runs and driven in 32 runs in total and lead all postseason teams in each category.
First-year member Kiké Hernández has been one of the keys to the Sox’s offensive success, posting a .435/2 HR/6 RBI slash line in 23 at-bats through his five postseason games.
Hernández also set a Red Sox postseason record by recording seven-straight hits in the ALDS vs. the Rays 一 the seventh being a solo home run over the Green Monster in Fenway Park.
Offense has been no issue for the Red Sox since being shut out by Tampa Bay in game one of the ALDS, scoring a combined 26 runs in the final three games of the series. Their pitching however, will need to step up for their date with Houston.
Red Sox pitchers have combined for a 4.13 ERA, 1.00 WHIP and a .207 opposing batting average this postseason, although those numbers are slightly inflated due to Chris Sale’s disastrous one-inning start in game two of the ALDS 一 a game the Sox came back to win by a score of 14-6. Still, the Sox pitching staff has allowed at least five runs in their last four postseason games, a trend that does not bode well for Boston considering their next opponent.
The Astros have posted at least six runs in all four of their postseason games this year, including nine runs in game two and 10 in game four. Houston is also hot off a decisive ALDS win, defeating a Chicago White Sox team that looked poised for postseason success in four games.
Houston’s offense has been led by their usual cast of characters, including Jose Altuve, Yordan Álvarez, Michael Brantley, Alex Bregman and Carlos Correa. All five have done their part for a Houston ballclub looking to further remove themselves from the cheating scandal that hung over their heads during the 2020 season.
Houston’s pitching staff has marginally outperformed the Red Sox’s to this point, allowing just six runs in three of their four ALDS games, with the outlier being the 12 runs they surrendered to Chicago in their game three loss. The Astros’ team postseason ERA of 4.63 would be much lower had Brooks Raley not surrendered three runs in 0.1 innings of work to the tune of a whopping 81.00 ERA.
The 2018 postseason meeting between these two teams was wildly entertaining, expect this 2021 rematch to be more of the same. Both teams come into this series with great offensive numbers, but with underperforming pitching staffs.
All things considered, this year’s ALCS looks poised to be decided by explosive offense rather than shut-down pitching. Houston has been dominant throughout 2021, but Boston looks ready to continue another one of their patented magical postseason runs. Expect a high-scoring series that goes the distance, with the Red Sox to eventually out-slug the Astros and advance to the Fall Classic.
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