BOSTON -- The very first pitching matchup featuring two No. 1 overall draft picks in postseason history went exactly how we all expected. They both got hit pretty hard.
Red Sox left-hander David Price (No. 1 pick in 2007) turned in his latest meh postseason outing in Game 2 of the ALCS on Sunday night (BOS 7, HOU 5), allowing four runs in 4 2/3 innings against the Astros. He faced 23 batters and nine reached base, which is ... not great. It's not great.
On the other side, Astros right-hander Gerrit Cole (No. 1 pick in 2011) tossed what very well might've been his worst outing of 2018. He surrendered a season-high five runs (four earned) in six innings. The unearned run scored as a result of his own error -- Cole fielded a comebacker in the first inning and chucked it over Yuli Gurriel's head at first base and into the camera well.
"That's tough. That's uncharacteristic," said Cole of the error. "I fielded the ball, I checked second, I felt like I had good footing. I threw to Yuli and the back foot gave out as I was throwing it, and I just goosed it."
Sunday night was the first time Cole allowed five runs in a start since Sept. 23 of last season, which is 34 starts ago. That includes regular season and postseason. Only five times in 32 regular season starts this year did he allow as many as four runs, and he only did it twice in his final 14 starts of the season. You don't throw 200 1/3 innings with a 2.88 ERA (140 ERA+) in the DH league without limiting stinkers. Runs can be hard to come by when he's on the mound.
For Cole, there was a common thread each time he got beat Sunday night: Missed location. Mookie Betts started the game with a booming double off the center field wall, then Andrew Benintendi following with an RBI single to right to give the Red Sox a quick 1-0 lead. Look where catcher Martin Maldonado wanted the first pitch fastball to Benintendi and look where Cole threw it:
On one hand, Cole and the Astros love love love to elevate fastballs. That one checked in at 96 mph. On the other hand, the Red Sox are very good at hitting at hitting high fastballs. They did it better than any other team in baseball during the regular season. Cole missed his spot and put the fastball somewhere Benintendi could handle it, and gave up a run-scoring hit.
"I did get a (reliever) up early just because it was going pretty fast for (Cole) in the first inning," Astros manager A.J. Hinch said. "Really the first inning, just his own error really created that. If you can just get the outs when you're supposed to get the outs the inning can change a little bit. With the first two hitters they ambush him a little bit we're down 1-0."
Later in that first inning Cole missed his spot again, this time leaving a 2-2 fastball out over the plate to Rafael Devers, who poked it through the left side of the infield to drive in another run. Cole walked the previous batter, Steve Pearce, on four pitches to load the bases. He couldn't spot his fastball -- 19 of his 25 pitches in that first inning were heaters -- and the Red Sox took advantage.
"I was just not able to find the zone with it and be able to put pressure on with those offerings," said Cole following Game 2. "I found myself without leverage and I found myself with traffic, and I had to make some pitches. I did the best I could in those situations, but when you're facing some of the best hitters in the world, they do their job as well."
The Astros, because they are extremely good at baseball, rallied in the second and third innings to take a 4-2 lead. Cole gave it back and then some in the bottom of the third. He gave up single to Xander Bogaerts, a loud double off the Green Monster to Pearce, and then a walk to Devers to load the bases with one out. Only half of his first 24 pitches that inning were strikes.
After loading the bases and striking out Ian Kinsler for the second out, Cole missed his location with a 2-1 fastball to Jackie Bradley Jr., who banged it off the Green Monster the other way for a bases-clearing double. Cole's missed location to Bradley was not as egregious as the Benintendi single, but he missed enough to put it right in Bradley's wheelhouse.
"I was have a little trouble that inning, trying to feel my way through the strike zone," Cole said. "I felt that, after I got the count back 2-1, that I was just going to try to execute fastball down and away, and I executed it down, but it crept out over the plate too much, which gave (Bradley) enough barrel to put it right on the wall down there."
To Cole's credit, he was able to settle down following that three-run second third inning -- Cole mentioned making an in-game adjustment but wouldn't elaborate -- and finished his start having retired the final 10 batters he faced. Five runs (four earned) on six hits and two walks in six innings hardly qualifies as a good start, especially in the postseason. Cole was on the ropes several times in the early innings and deserves some credit for not allowing the knockout shot.
Unlike Chris Sale in Game 1, when he was missing velocity and had no idea where the ball was going, Cole was a pitcher having a bad game more than anything in Game 2. His stuff was lively as usual and he just missed his spot a bunch of times at unfortunate times. The Red Sox deserve credit for making Cole and the Astros to pay for those mistakes, because, as we saw during the regular season, Cole's stuff is so good he can get away with imperfect location.
The Astros came into ALCS with a decided starting pitching advantage, at least on paper, and the Cole vs. Price matchup may have been the most lopsided given Cole's regular season (and ALDS) dominance and Price's postseason track record. Rather than follow Justin Verlander's lead and cruise through his start, Cole labored throughout the early innings in Game 1, and several misplaced fastballs led to some serious damage on the scoreboard.
