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BOSTON – It was the kind of specialist curveball that could make a pitcher a lot of money. It just left Nathan Eovaldi’s fingertips, bent in midair, and landed on Christian Vázquez’s glove. It crossed the home plate, perhaps exactly as Eovaldi intended, dotting the upper, far corner of the impact zone, on the outer edge.
That’s what it looked like to Eovaldi, who shoots comfortably, and Red Sox Manager Alex Cora, to many of the Red Sox players, and perhaps millions of fans.
But the most important man saw it differently. According to home plate umpire Laz Diaz, who was working in Game 4 of the American League Championship Series, the pitch was high (definitely not wide because the overhead replay showed the ball clearly crossing the plate).
Against Jason Castro at the time, the score was 1-2, two outs in the ninth inning and two men on base, the score was 2-2. Had Diaz called a strike, that half would have been over and Boston would have hit at the end of the ninth quarter with a winning chance that 38,010 fans had called them.
But Diaz’s arm never came off. He called the pitch a ball, which extended the at-bat and potentially the series. Two innings later, Castro dribbled a one-finger fastball into midfield from Eovaldi, and Carlos Correa scored from second base to give the Houston Astros full lead.
“I felt like I had a good shot in the outside corner, but it didn’t turn out the way I wanted,” said Eovaldi. “But I have to go back and respond and take a good step forward.”
From there, Houston unleashed the long-awaited offensive blast and threw Boston 9-2 and even the series seven runs at the start of the ninth place, two games each. Game 5 is at Fenway Park on Wednesday, after which the series will return to Houston on Friday for at least Game 6.
While Boston fans were upset with the decision, the game was still tied when Diaz called the ball into the field and there was no guarantee that the Red Sox would score. However, when they came to hit at the end of the half, the game got really out of control.
“If it’s a strike, it changes everything, doesn’t it?” said Cora. “But I think we had a chance early on. They did an outstanding job with the Bullpen. We didn’t attack enough and now we’re going to Game 5.
The Red Sox took a 2-1 lead in the first half as Xander Bogaerts beat Astros kicker Zack Greinke by two runs. At this point, the “Groundhog Day” feeling that Houston manager Dusty Baker implied on Monday — after seeing Boston win three grand slams in the previous two games — may have returned to him. Instead, the game was decided by good shots, and Houston’s savior took two goalless shots in sevens and threes.
Boston was still breaking into the top of eighth place when Jose Altuve fired a shot from Garrett Whitlock over a giant ad over the left-court wall to level the score and bring the stagnant Astros bench to life.
At the start of the ninth inning, Cora thought she would hold the Astros in one hit and be revived in the lower half of the Boston scrimmage.
But Carlos Correa took the lead with a double right field. Eovaldi beat up Kyle Tucker and then deliberately marched on Yuli Gurriel. Aledmys shot Diaz, and that brought left-handed Castro to the plate, leaving two open and two out.
Castro only entered the game as a pinch shooter in the seventh inning.
“I’m a fan,” Correa said, because I’ll tell you, I can’t do that. Sitting that long and opposing a man who scored 100 in a time of famine. This is special.”
Castro fouled a 98mph fastball to score 1-2 points and then, seeing the curveball coming from high, nearly froze before plunging into the controversial quarter in the far corner.
“Because of where it came from, maybe it would never be in the region until the very last point,” Castro said, agreeing that perhaps it should have been called a strike. “It’s one of those pitches that’s hard to call, or even look like a hit.”
The gamble of watching the field instead of swinging paid off, and Eovaldi and the Red Sox shooters never recovered. It came to a dozen dough plates in half a hit.
There was some grumbling about Diaz’s hit zone during the game. Cora had to rein in the third inning as she vigorously discussed a so-called third inning against JD Martinez, which made her shy away from doing so later, when it was far more important.
“I told him, ‘I’m not going to get kicked out of this game, but we thought it was a strike,'” Cora said, and she disagreed with us.
And of course Diaz decided.
Tyler Kepner contributing reporting.
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