Astros vs. Red Sox live updates: Score and highlights from 2017 ALDS Game 4

Welcome to Game 4 of the American League Division Series, a matchup that 24 hours ago or so it sure did not seem like we were going to get. That’s not just a reference to how out of this series the Red Sox seemed before their victory on Sunday in Game 3 against the Astros: It’s also a nod to the awful weather that was expected — and is still on the radar — for Monday.

We just might start up Game 4, get a lengthy delay, and then see the starting pitchers removed not because they’re pitching poorly like in Game 3, but because nature demands it. I’m sure both fan bases will be able to reasonably handle whatever negative thing comes from such a situation and in the process dooms their team to a loss.

As usual with these live blogs, if you want to read from the beginning, scroll down to the “1st inning” header and then work your way back up.

Craig Kimbrel is back on the mound again — obviously — and retires Carlos Correa with a three-pitch strikeout. The lineup that never stops now brings Marwin Gonzalez to the plate as the Astros try to pad their 4-3 lead and make life more difficult for the Red Sox in the bottom of the ninth.

Gonzalez was hit by a pitch, so now it’s Astros’ hero Alex Bregman up once more. Bregman hits a long fly ball, but this one stays in the yard. Gonzalez stays put, and Gurriel comes to the plate to try to add to his big day and the Astros’ lead. Gurriel swings at the first pitch, giving him three of the four necessary components for a cycle. As it’s the ninth, that’s probably not happening unless this game somehow gets even weirder.

Carlos Beltran is pinch-hitting for Maybin, and he hits a ball off the wall that scores a run and now has two more Astros in scoring position. 5-3, Houston. And that’s it for Kimbrel, too: Addison Reed will try to stop the bleeding. And he does, in one pitch.

This is it for the Red Sox. Their season is down to three outs. Rafael Devers, Christian Vazquez, Jackie Bradley Jr. are set to face Giles, down 5-3.

Devers starts things off the right way with an inside-the-park home run! 5-4, Astros, and there are still no outs. That Beltran RBI looms large.

Man, Alex Bregman is a smooth defender. He grabbed a grounder and executed a spin and throw that Vazquez never had a chance to beat. The Red Sox are down to two outs, Jackie Bradley Jr. is up.

Bradley strikes out when he can’t hold up his swing, and the Red Sox are down to their final out. Here’s Dustin Pedroia to try to keep things going. Pedroia is batting just .133 in the series, so if he was waiting for a moment to get hot, this certainly qualifies.

2-1 count on Pedroia; Giles is pitching low and away, and Pedroia bit once. He also bites on a pitch low and inside, so the count is all tied up. Boston down to their final strike.

Pedroia fouls off 99, then lays off on Giles’ 27th pitch outside the zone. It’s a full count.

GIles is bringing the heat, with another high fastball that Pedroia fouls off. This feels like it’s setting up for another slider in the hopes Pedroia swings right through it.

Pedroia ends up grounding out to second, and that’s the ALDS: the Astros, 100-game winners in the regular season and the dominant force in the first two games of this series, are the first team to punch a ticket to the League Championship round.

Craig Kimbrel is warming in the Red Sox bullpen, so Boston has pivoted and appears to be going with Chris Sale until Kimbrel is ready, and then the long save for their closer. With the day off tomorrow — and again, no Game 5 unless you win Game 4 — why not?

Alex Bregman leads off the eighth. And Bregman hits his second homer of the series off of Chris Sale to tie this thing up at two! Like I just said: there is no Game 5 until you win Game 4. On the bright side for Boston, Sale’s four-plus frames means the bullpen is fresh if this thing ends up in extras.

On the downside for Boston, Evan Gattis just hit a ball on the third base line that the ballgirl interfered with. On the upside once again — what a rollercoaster! — Gattis was sent back to first base, so she probably helped out. Cameron Maybin now pinch-runs for Gattis, and does so from first base with McCann up once more.

Ken Giles is warming in the Astros’ pen at the same time Kimbrel is all warmed up in Boston’s. We might see some closer dueling here in a tie game.

Sale gets McCann to fly out to right for the second out of the inning, and that’s it for Sale. Craig Kimbrel is now on for an extended appearance, but it won’t be a save opportunity unless Boston scores in the bottom half.

Kimbrel is not off to a great start, with three straight balls and the last of them going to the backstop. The go-ahead run is now in scoring position. Kimbrel not only needs to get out of this now with Springer up in order to keep a run from scoring, but because extending the inning now would mean Reddick and then maybe Altuve up with a runner on.

Spring walks, though, so that’s exactly the situation he finds himself in: Reddick up with two runners on. After a long, eight-pitch at-bat where Reddick fouled off repeated high fastballs, he pokes a ball the other way past shortstop Xander Bogaerts to give Houston a 4-3 lead. Now it’s Altuve’s turn to add to that lead and give Giles a cushion for the next two frames. Kimbrel got out of it, but the lead still exists.

Betts and Moreland are both sat down in just nine pitches total, which means it’s looking like the bottom of Boston’s order is going to be responsible for any comeback. Before that, though, Hanley Ramirez, who has been swinging as hard as humanly possible all day, is up. And now, Hanley Ramirez did not swing so hard, and he is out.

With Springer, Reddick, and Altuve due up once again, the Red Sox are keeping Chris Sale out their for a fourth inning of work. With the threat of rain not what it was, and a need to win Game 4 before you can worry about how Game 5 goes, it makes sense. Plus, Addison Reed and Craig Kimbrel can take over at any time now, and Reed can warm in a hurry if the wheels start to come off four innings in as they did for Price in Game 3.

Springer gets his third hit of the day with a single to left, and while the scorebug might say there are two outs in the inning, I assure you, there are zero. FS1 has now taken it down completely so they can unplug it and plug it back in.

Hey, it’s back, and with the proper number of outs! And now there’s one added to it, as Reddick shoots a big-league fly ball to Benintendi in left, bringing up Altuve.

Reed has started warming, and he looks like he’s moving quick. He threw just six pitches in Game 3 on Sunday, so he shouldn’t have rust nor lack of rest.

Altuve struck out looking at the same pitch that got Dustin Pedroia heated earlier, so maybe Mark Wegner just hates short second basemen. Reed is all warmed up, but it’s still Sale in to face Correa with two outs.

Pitch 61 from Sale is a base hit to left, and it feels more and more like this is the last inning for him. His next batter might even be his last, as pitching coach Carl Willis just came out for a mound visit.

Sale has Gonzalez down to his last strike, and given the lead, the biggest pitch of the outing is coming up. The pitch was as big as the break on it, with Sale going looooow on a slider that Gonzalez whiffed through. That’s gotta be it for the lanky lefty, who made it through four scoreless on 65 pitches.

Justin Verlander is still in, too, and quickly sits Pedroia down. Sale update: he got high fives in the dugout, so he’s likely out of the game. Except Addison Reed sat down in the pen, so... Sale is coming back out for a fifth inning? Baseball is wild.

Verlander makes quick work of Bogaerts, too. Two outs, and Benintendi is back up. He flies out to Josh Reddick in the right field corner, and Reddick manages to not accidentally roll the ball into the stands for a homer. To the eighth!

There’s Chris Sale again to begin the sixth inning, and he gets the first out immediately. Sale is likely still in because of the lead change and the rain coming at a different pace than expected. Sale finally allows a baserunner, with Gurriel reaching on an error, and he’s now at second with Evan Gattis up.

Gattis strikes out, and Sale is now at 38 pitches with two down and Gurriel still at first. Sale’s got the movement he was missing on his pitches in Game 1, which could be a good sign for a hypothetical Game 5. Assuming that’s still the plan, anyway: Boston might be pulling a Price here and worrying about tomorrow when it comes.

McCann goes down, and that’s three scoreless relief innings for Chris Sale. He’s at 41 pitches, and the Red Sox remain up 3-2.

Rafael Devers draws a walk, and once again has trouble putting his bat down at a normal time in a normal way. Vazquez follows with an out to center, and that brings up Bradley Jr. once again. Bradley hits into an inning-ending double play, but on the bright side for his day, he didn’t strike out again. On to the seventh!

Sale is back out here for the fifth after a 14-pitch first inning, to face Altuve, Correa, and Gonzalez. The umps are trying to figure out the plan for delaying this game, and while they aren’t there yet, the conversation has started. Rafael Devers just scooped up a soaking wet ball barehanded and made an accurate, strong throw to get Altuve at first, helping Boston’s cause of squeezing work out of Sale.

Sale does not look diminished like he did in Game 1, and he’s throwing in the upper-90s. Not to be outdone, Justin Verlander is now in the Astros’ bullpen warming up... and he might not just be warming up, even if he’s the scheduled starter for Game 5. Hinch said before the game Verlander is in the pen today to be used if needed, so he might get the same side session as live game action Sale is.

Sale strikes out Correa after a nine-pitch at-bat, and Correa just tosses his bat up in the air, a little more confused about physics than he was before that at-bat began.

As Sale approaches 30 pitches, it seems even more likely this would be his last inning, rain or no. There’s number 30, and it turns into a fly ball to center that ends the inning. Six up, six down for Sale. Not bad for a “side session.”

The rain might not be coming when initially predicted, by the way, unless the winds change:

Meanwhile, Verlander isn’t just throwing some pitches in the pen — he’s going all-out, warming up to replace Charlie Morton, who is still in the game in the fifth inning. That is... not good news for the Red Sox. But if you’re an Astros’ fan reading this, you’re fist-pumping all over the place right now.

Aaaaand here comes Justin Verlander after a walk to Xander Bogaerts. AJ Hinch is not messing around and letting even the idea of a Game 5 begin to form in Boston’s mind.

This, by the way, is Verlander’s first-ever relief appearance. The postseason is so great.

And because the postseason is so great, Andrew Benintendi, the first-ever batter Justin Verlander has faced in relief, just hit a two-run homer to put the Red Sox ahead, 3-2.

The crowd is now alive, Verlander can’t locate his breaking stuff, and Mitch Moreland just drew a walk to bring up Hanley Ramirez. Verlander escaped further damage with a fly out, though, so now it’s on to the sixth, and maybe a new Red Sox pitcher? The weather changing and a lead might have tweaked the plans somewhat...

Chris Sale is officially in the game. Which version of Sale the Astros will see could be what determines the winner of this game.

It’s a little early for Sale to be in, but the Red Sox must be hoping he can get two innings in before the rain gets to the point of the game being delayed. If he can’t get two innings in before what the radar says is going to happen happens, well, Sale either got crushed so it doesn’t matter, or the Red Sox scored a bunch of runs to delay the proceedings, anyway.

Sale’s first inning was a 1-2-3 affair, so, the plan is working so far. If that continues, the plan is probably Sale until the storm or three innings, whichever comes first, Joe Kelly for a few outs, then Addison Reed and then Craig Kimbrel. Of course, the Red Sox still need to score first, and they’ll give that another shot in the bottom of the fourth against the bending-but-not-breaking Morton.

Morton starts things off with a strikeout of Devers and then Vazquez. The rain keeps picking up, but supposedly the rain isn’t getting as hard as it’s going to until 3:15-3:30, so Sale should still have time for a second inning of work at this rate. Boston is likely treating this as a side-session for their ace, so anything beyond two innings might not be in the cards unless the weather gifts them a chance and/or Sale’s second inning goes as quickly as his first.

Bradley goes down on strikes, which the Red Sox might not be that upset about given they’re trying to beat the rain here before they focus on beating the Astros.

We were wondering how much more Rick Porcello was going to be allowed to do since he was already at 56 pitches, and we might have just gotten our answer between innings:

Porcello must have noticed his time slipping away, as he quickly recorded two outs. Yuri Gurriel came up after that, though, and as he’s been doing lately, he crushed a pitch and got a double. It was hit hard enough that Jackie Bradley wasn’t able to catch up to it in center, and he gets to almost everything.

Porcello got Gattis to pop up to Pedroia in shallow right field after, though, so he’s through three innings and 70 pitches. Sale will likely come in for the fourth, as with the worsening rain still on the way, Boston will want to get him an uninterrupted couple of innings of work for efficiency’s sake.

Andrew Benintendi opens up the bottom half of the third with a single to left, but is doubled off after on some bad luck: Betts hit a liner hard to third, and there just wasn’t enough time for Benintendi to get back before the throw.

And that luck now seems even worse, as Mitch Moreland immediately followed that up with a double. Hanley Ramirez swung so hard at the first pitch he saw after this that his helmet came flying off, so he just might be trying to drive both Moreland and himself in. Strike two also featured Hanley’s helmet coming off.

Hanley eventually did crush a ball to the moon, except it went foul. He then followed that up with a hit, and the Red Sox rewarded him with an ill-advised send of Mitch Moreland that ends with an out at the plate and the end of the third.

Mookie Betts took a chance and slid for a ball Yuli Gurriel hit to the outfield, but he missed it, and Gurriel now is on third base with a leadoff triple (or at least an error-aided equivalent). Porcello follows it up with a huge strikeout of Evan Gattis, who swings through instead of crushing the high fastball Porcello had not had any luck with until this point.

Porcello gets Brian McCann down 0-2, but then McCann works it to 3-2. Porcello ends up catching him with a slider inside that McCann definitely was not prepared for, which ends the threat of a sac fly. Bad news for Boston: George Springer and the top of the never-ending lineup are here again.

Porcello did not fool Springer with a slider, and it’s now 2-1 Astros. Josh Reddick follows it up with a single, and the Red Sox are lucky Andrew Benintendi’s throw didn’t end up in the dugout and advance the runners: the throw went way off target, likely due to the rain that is once again coming down hard. Now it’s Altuve up with two outs and two on, trying to extend the Astros’ lead to at least two.

Altuve held off on a swing on the 3-2 count, and now the bases are loaded for Carlos Correa. Porcello can’t intentionally unintentionally walk him this time. No matter, though, because Porcello managed to punch out Correa, too. It’s real hard to get a read on what kind of game Porcello is capable of having here, but as he’s already at 56 pitches, we might not need to wonder for much longer.

In the bottom of the second: Back-to-back singles by Hanley Ramirez and Rafael Devers get the Red Sox a pair of baserunners for Christian Vazquez. The backstop shows bunt, but it would be surprising to see him stick with that since he’s actually been a useful hitter for Boston the last couple of months.

Vazquez draws a four-pitch walk, loading the bases and initiating a meeting between Morton and the Astros’ pitching coach. Jackie Bradley Jr., the number nine hitter, is the one with the chance to change this game with a single swing.

Instead, Bradley strikes out with help from a questionable call on an outside pitch — Brian McCann deserves some credit for framing that thing, and given the delayed call by the ump, it might have been his tiebreaker.

Dustin Pedroia also struck out on a pitch that none of the digital strike zones agree with, so the Red Sox and Astros might want to take note and just stop taking those questionable calls expecting them to be balls. John Farrell got himself ejected in order to keep Pedroia from getting ejected, so now it’s bench coach Gary DiSarcina who will make the decisions for the potential last game of Boston’s season.

The Red Sox end up getting nothing, with Morton pitching his way out of a bases-loaded jam following a Bogaerts’ pop up. It’s still 2-1 Astros as the third begins.

A year ago, the season coming down to Rick Porcello would have instilled confidence in Red Sox fans. He had a season that led to the AL Cy Young award, and his combination of strikeouts and groundouts made him dangerous against any kind of hitters. Fast-forward to 2017, and Porcello can’t keep the ball down at the same time that homers are up across the entire league due to strategy, a changed baseball, or a little of columns A and B. So... yeah, Sunday was good for Red Sox fans, but confidence in Porcello probably is not a thing you’ll feel on Monday.

That is, unless you’re an Astros fan, and you remember your team is full of dinger-happy hitters. Then you’re super confident in the chances Porcello is giving your team to win.

Porcello is pitching out of the stretch, which is intriguing given that’s not a normal thing for him. Maybe he figured something out pitching well in relief earlier in the series. At this point, it can’t hurt: Porcello led the league in homers allowed.

Well, it’s hard to judge too harshly based on one batter, but Porcello already left a pitch out over the zone, which George Springer promptly hit off the Green Monster for a leadoff double. Springer then made it to third on a ball that got away from backstop Christian Vazquez. Reddick draws a walk on a high, inside fastball, and here’s Jose Altuve and his .727 ALDS batting average with two on.

Altuve hits into a double play, and the Red Sox concede the run. It’s 1-0 Houston, but given there were just two runners on, the heart of the Astros’ order coming up, and no outs, one run and just one out left seems pretty great right about now.

Carlos Correa draws a walk, one where it’s hard to tell if Porcello was just missing the strike zone or if he was being very careful not to leave a pitch out over the plate to him. We now for sure Marwin Gonzalez’s walk was a miss, as he got on first with a HBP. As David Cone points out, it wasn’t even that far inside, but Gonzalez is real close to the plate when he starts his swing. Have to respect the dudes willing to tempt fate like that.

Porcello gets out of this situation he created with a strikeout of Alex Bregman, and it’ll be Charlie Morton facing a slightly rejiggered Red Sox lineup in the bottom half of the first.

You might remember Charlie Morton as a sinkerballer who relied heavily on his defense and balls in play to succeed, but now he throws in the mid-90s and struck out 10 batters per nine, so... this should be fascinating. The Red Sox don’t strike out a whole lot, but Morton also knows how to use contact against a team.

And it’s a tie game already. Xander Bogaerts is batting second instead of leading off, and apparently he prefers it, as he took Charlie Morton deep to right field. We’re all tied at 1-1. Mookie Betts follows it up with a single off the wall, thanks to a strong barehand rebound grab and throw by Marwin Gonzalez. Betts then took off and stole second, though, so sorry about the wasted effort, Marwin.

Moreland strikes out on a check swing call, and the first is over after 30 minutes and 72 pitches.