Red Sox Lay Down The Hammer With A Piss Missile From Steve Pearce And A Dagger Grand Slam By Jackie Bradley Jr. To Take Series Lead

I saw all the wet blanket Big J reporters with blue checkmarks say that the Alex Bregman Instagram post means nothing, just as the Aaron Judge New York, New York boombox move meant nothing. They’re wrong. We’re talking about professional athletes competing in the playoffs. They’re human beings. Would it fire you up if the other team was trolling you? Yeah. Why would these guys be any different? They’re not.

I’m not saying that’s the reason why the Red Sox beat the Yankees or why the Red Sox exploded for eight runs in Game 3 in Houston, but you’re a fool if you think that they don’t see or hear this shit, and you’re an even bigger fool if you think it doesn’t add a little more fuel to their fire. Of course it does.

If you didn’t catch the Instagram post, Bregman posted a video of Houston’s back-to-back-to-back home runs off of Boston’s Game 3 starter from earlier in the season when Nathan Eovaldi was with Tampa. It was deleted an hour later after the video went viral. Eovaldi proceeded to pitch six innings, held the Astros to two runs without allowing a homer and got the win. Again, if you think that wasn’t even an ounce of motivation for Eovaldi on the mound, then you’ve never played organized sports before, like most of the dorks in the press box that were holding the scorebook in middle school.

You can stick to your incorrect stance that the Instagram post played a non-factor in Game 3, but I’d love to hear your thoughts on the fact that the Astros were busted for cheating in Game 1 and also against the Indians in the Division Series. These things motivate professional athletes. Alex Cora said before Game 3 that if you need extra motivation when you’re playing in the playoffs then “you better check yourself,” but extra motivation never hurt anybody. The Red Sox have that and then some.

We asked JD Martinez in his Section 10 interview if he’d have any extra motivation playing against the team that released him in 2014. He said he didn’t, and I believe him, but there’s no way he doesn’t get extra gratification from performing against them. I believe those to be two different emotions. Martinez doubled in the game’s first run in the first inning when Boston opened up the game with three straight hits.

In the third inning with runners at first and second and two outs, Steve Pearce hit a ball to left field that was ruled caught and later confirmed by replay review. I’m being completely honest with you, that ball hit the wall and should’ve been two runs for the Red Sox. Boston won this game by six runs so I have no reason to die on this hill other than for the simple reason that I examined the tape more than the Zapruder film and the replay shows that the ball hit the wall and was not a catch.

You can see the ball change directions after it hit the wall, and you can see no mark on the wall before it hits and then the mark that it leaves on the wall after it hits. Some people said that it was the ball’s shadow, but then the “shadow” wouldn’t still be on the wall after the ball ended up in the glove. Whatever. Not a big deal now, but that’s a huge miss by the replay crew.

Fueled by hatred, Pearce came up in the sixth inning in a game that was knotted up at two and launched a baseball into the sun. Couldn’t make a play on that one, as it was 456 feet away from home plate. The game would remain a 3-2 ballgame until the eighth inning when the Astros called upon noted douchebag and woman abuser (allegedly, but not really) Roberto Osuna, who proceeded to not just piss down his leg, but empty his entire bladder and then chug a few gallons of water to make sure that the stream was nice and steady for a considerable amount of time.

With two outs and two aboard via base hits, Alex Cora went to his bench to grab Brock Holt in a pinch hit spot for Ian Kinsler. Osuna hit Holt on the foot to load the bases, as Cora again went to his bench to pinch hit Mitch Moreland for Christian Vazquez with the bases loaded. With two strikes on Moreland, Osuna drilled his second consecutive batter to force in a huge insurance run to bring Jackie Bradley Jr. to the plate. With the count even at one, Bradley unloaded on a fastball up and in and launched it six rows deep for a grand slam.

With the game blown wide open, you could hear a pin drop in Houston. These ain’t the 2017 Red Sox, folks. The Astros might have the better team on paper, but the 2018 Boston Red Sox don’t fuck around. They know what it’s like to taste defeat in October, and they’ve finally decided that they don’t actually like it. You know what else they don’t like? When you talk your shit before you’ve won anything. It’s a best of seven and the Red Sox have announced themselves as a team that isn’t going to lay down and die because the Astros are defending World Series champs that were picked by all the so-called experts.

Shout out to the Red Sox bullpen, who continues to make the Mike Felger’s of the world look like complete idiots. Ryan Brasier, Matt Barnes, Joe Kelly and Eduardo Rodriguez combined for three innings of shutout relief. Brasier, Kelly, Barnes, Heath Hembree, Chris Sale, and Rick Porcello have combined for a 0.00 ERA, 5 hits allowed, and 17 strikeouts in 21.1 innings out of the Red Sox bullpen this postseason. Can’t win a World Series with this bullpen, though.

In Game 4, it’ll be Rick Porcello versus Charlie Morton. Back on June 3, Porcello threw six and a third innings in Houston, holding the Astros to two earned runs on five hits, while striking out five. Opposing him in that game was Morton, who gave up six earned runs in five and a third, serving up a couple bombs to Mitch Moreland and Andrew Benintendi. See you Wednesday night.

Final score: Red Sox 8, Astros 2 — Boston leads ALCS 2-1