New York, New York: Memorable moments from the ALDS victory and a look ahead to Houston

Aaron Judge is probably regretting blasting “New York, New York” by Frank Sinatra walking past the Red Sox clubhouse after a game two victory at Fenway Park. The Sox ended up turning the tables on Judge and the Yankees, winning both games at Yankee Stadium to punch their ticket to the ALCS.

What did the Red Sox do after they won game four? They blasted “New York, New York” in their locker room as they celebrated at Yankee Stadium to fire back at the young superstar.

This may be one of the greatest videos to surface thus far from the Red Sox’ celebration in New York, very satisfying for fans young and old. Let’s move on though to talk about some of the most important things that happened throughout each game of the ALDS.

Game One:

Game one between the two rivals was just how you would expect it to be. A close game that was both riveting and nail-biting to watch. The Red Sox won 5-4 after a great start from Chis Sale and a save by Craig Kimbrel. Sale struck out eight batters in 5 ⅓ innings and only allowing two runs on five hits.

The most memorable moment of the night for the Red Sox was watching J.D. Martinez blast a three-run homer into the Monster Seats to give the Sox a 3-0 lead over the Yanks.

One of the biggest moments in the game was when Brandon Workman struck out Gleyber Torres with the bases loaded and two outs.

Workman showed us the heat in that strikeout, and that saved the Red Sox from losing Game 1.

Craig Kimbrel also recorded a four-out save in the victory, securing it for the Red Sox 5-4.

Game Two:

Game two just wasn’t a good game overall from the starting pitching perspective of the Red Sox. Price had a horrible outing, giving up three hits, three runs, and two home runs. Aaron Judge got the party going when he blasted a homer in the first inning.

Not too soon after that, Gary Sanchez makes it a 2-0 game in the second after blasting yet another homer off of Price.

One of the few bright spots for Boston through game two was Ryan Brasier barking at Gary Sanchez to get back in the batters box. What did Brasier do after Sanchez stepped back in the box? Struck him out, obviously.

Sanchez had two home runs in game two, one off of Price and another off of Velazquez. Here’s his second.

The Yankees went on to win game two 6-2 after a big night from Sanchez, evening the series at one game a piece.

Game Three:

So we’re on to game three at Yankee Stadium, and what a game it was for Boston. Nathan Eovaldi pitched a great game. He threw seven innings, allowing one run on five hits while striking out five and allowing no walks.

Eovaldi has historically been good against the Yankees so it was a great move by Cora to push his start up a day. Besides Eovaldi though, the Red Sox offense crushed it.

With the bases loaded, Andrew Benintendi comes up huge driving in three runs on a bases clearing double to put the Sox up 7-0 in the top of the first.

We should probably talk about the utility man, Brock Holt, hitting for the first ever cycle in MLB postseason history. This was probably the most memorable moment of the whole series as Alex Cora put Holt in at second base to play over Ian Kinsler. You could’ve never imagined that Holt would accomplish this. He also played extremely well in the field.

The Sox 16-1 victory was a huge turning point in the series. The Red Sox proved their dominance over the Yankees in that victory, showing they were the better team and taking a 2-1 series lead.

Game Four:

Game four was probably the most nail-biting game of the series for both fan bases. Rick Porcello got the nod and was excellent. Ian Kinsler started a big inning for the Sox in the top of the third, driving in Steve Pearce from third base, but that’s just where it started. Eduardo Nunez then drove in Kinsler with a single to left field.

Oh and don’t forget about Christian Vazquez hitting a dinger in the top of the fourth to make it 4-0 Red Sox.

Alex Cora did the unusual heading into the later innings. The ace, Chris Sale, made an appearance in the bottom of the eight to set up Craig Kimbrel for the save.

The Yankees loaded the bases in the bottom of the ninth for Kimbrel but he got out of the jam and the Red Sox won the game and the series. Here is the final out from Kimbrel.

What’s Ahead:

With the series win over the Yankees, the Red Sox will now take on the defending champion Houston Astros. It was announced on Wednesday that Chris Sale will start game one and David Price Will start game two.

This came as a shock for some people who thought David Price wouldn’t see another start in the postseason. Price, however, has historically been okay against the Astros and went 2-0 against them this season. As for Nathan Eovaldi and Rick Porcello, it will probably be a toss-up between the two to see who will pitch games three and four.

The Red Sox need strong starts from their starting pitchers, ideally giving them six or seven innings to avoid having to lean too heavily on the shaky bullpen. The Astros realize this though, so expect Houston to work some counts and try to drive up pitch counts early in these games.

As far as the offense goes, they will probably roll the same lineups they went with in a majority of the games against the Yankees. I’m sure we’ll be seeing more of Brock Holt and Rafael Devers this series with Houston featuring more right-handed pitching in their rotation than the Yankees.

Mookie Betts needs to have a stronger impact on this coming series. We need to see him drive in more runs and ultimately get on base more than he did against the Yankees. J.D. Martinez will be looked to to drive in a lot of runs, and Ian Kinsler needs to come up big during this series.

The Astros have a great team with players like Jose Altuve, Carlos Correa, Justin Verlander, Dallas Keuchel, the list goes on. A key for the Sox to win this series will be for the pitchers to shut down guys like Altuve, Correa, and Bregman. It’ll be pretty hard for them to do that as those guys have hot bats but it can be done.

A key for the Sox offense will be to make the Houston pitchers work. Make them throw you strikes, work the count and run up the pitch count. The more pitches they throw, the faster they will come out of the game. Of course, it doesn’t get all that much easier once you get to the Astros bullpen.

All in all, the series will be exciting and Red Sox fans should be both nervous and excited at the same time. This is arguably a matchup of the two best teams in baseball, and Houston has a great team that could very well win this series. But it’s the Sox year all year, so let’s hope that continues!