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The Boston Red Sox are one win away from eliminating the defending champions and clinching their first World Series appearance since 2013.

Boston defeated the Houston Astros, 8-6, in Game 4 of the 2018 American League Championship Series on Wednesday at Minute Maid Park. The Red Sox have a 3-1 series advantage after Jackie Bradley Jr. gave them the lead for good with a two-run homer in the sixth.

George Springer and Tony Kemp went deep for the Astros in the offensive battle, but the home team couldn’t keep pace after a controversial fan interference call took away a potential Jose Altuve homer in the first inning and Andrew Benintendi saved the Red Sox and closer Craig Kimbrel with a diving catch in the ninth with the bases loaded.

Rotation Provides Astros With Clear Comeback Blueprint

Boston leads the series 3-1, but the starting pitching situation heavily favors the Astros.

Neither starter was effective Wednesday, as Boston’s Rick Porcello allowed four earned runs and seven hits in four innings in a performance that would have been worse if Altuve’s first-inning homer hadn’t been called off for fan interference. Houston’s Charlie Morton allowed three earned runs in 2.1 innings, forcing Josh James into early middle relief.

James won’t be necessary in the upcoming games, as Houston can turn to Justin Verlander, Gerrit Cole and Dallas Keuchel.

Verlander is a seven-time All-Star who won the 2011 American League MVP and Cy Young. He already has two victories in these playoffs, including Houston’s first win against Boston in Game 1 of the ALCS. Cole is coming off his best career season with a 2.88 ERA, 1.03 WHIP and 276 strikeouts, while Keuchel won the 2015 AL Cy Young and allowed only two earned runs in five innings Tuesday.

Boston can’t match that trio, especially with lingering rotation questions.

Chris Sale was hospitalized with a stomach illness, and Buster Olney of ESPN reported he “still feels weak” and won’t pitch until Game 6 “at the earliest.” Elsewhere, David Price is a postseason disaster with a 5.42 career ERA, and he has allowed seven earned runs and three homers in 6.1 October innings this year. He also may have limited availability after warming up during the eighth and ninth innings Wednesday.

Boston has been forced to ride journeyman Nathan Eovaldi, who has responded with a 2.08 ERA and 1.00 WHIP in two playoff starts, both wins. While he has delivered, he also isn’t the ace the Red Sox would surely prefer to counter Verlander.

The last MLB team to overcome a 3-1 playoff deficit was the Chicago Cubs in the 2016 World Series, and they did so on the backs of Jon Lester, Jake Arrieta and Kyle Hendricks in the final three games. Don’t be surprised if Houston does the same with its three aces.

Jackie Bradley Jr.’s Resurgence Can Power Red Sox to World Series Title

Red Sox fans are watching an October legend emerge.

Bradley was the hero in Game 2 when his bases-clearing double turned a 4-2 deficit into a 5-4 lead, which Boston didn’t relinquish. He then blasted a grand slam in the eighth inning of Game 3 to push a two-run advantage to six and ice the win.

His two-run moonshot Wednesday instantly swung momentum and continued his resurgence after Carlos Correa’s RBI single broke a tie in the fifth inning.

Boston led all of baseball in runs (876), hits (1,509), doubles (355), batting average (.268), on-base percentage (.339) and slugging percentage (.453), and its order already features MVP candidates in Mookie Betts and JD Martinez. The lineup becomes borderline unfair now that the slick-fielding outfielder who slashed only .234/.314/.403 during the regular season is a threat from the 9 hole.

The Red Sox will need to mash their way to a World Series title given their starting pitching questions and Kimbrel testing the heart rates of their fans every time he enters a game. He’s allowed at least one run in each of his four postseason appearances, and he loaded the bases in the ninth Wednesday before Benintendi robbed Alex Bregman of a potential walk-off hit.

Boston’s World Series chances rest on its offensive dominance, and Bradley’s heroics combined with the other weapons can overwhelm opposing pitchers.

Controversial Fan Interference Overshadows Game 4

The 2018 ALCS is now part of Championship Series fan-interference canon.

Even casual baseball fans remember Jeffrey Maier reaching over the Yankee Stadium wall during the 1996 ALCS between the New York Yankees and Baltimore Orioles and touching Derek Jeter’s homer. Baltimore right fielder Tony Tarasco could have made the catch and argued vehemently when he wasn’t awarded fan interference.

Elsewhere, Chicago Cubs fan Steve Bartman drew ire from fellow Wrigley Field attendees and was the subject of an ESPN documentary after he prevented Moises Alou from making a critical catch in the eighth inning of Game 6 of the 2003 NLCS, which the North Siders eventually lost to the Miami Marlins.

Those both should have been ruled fan interference and weren’t, while Wednesday’s incident involving Altuve and Betts was ruled fan interference when it shouldn’t have been.

Altuve appeared to tie the game with a two-run homer in the first, but he was called out after replay review. A fan touched Betts’ glove as he leapt at the wall, but it wasn’t a straightforward case of the spectator reaching into the field of play. Rather, Betts extended his glove into the stands while trying to make an incredible catch.

Twitter believed it was a home run given the ball’s placement, and Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports shared the relevant rule:

Houston fans responded with a chorus of boos, and the Astros were still stuck in comeback mode in a tightly fought game. They could have used those two runs in the two-run loss.

If the legacies of past controversial fan-interference situations are any indication, the play will linger in baseball lore for much longer than the result of the series.

What’s Next?

The Red Sox have the opportunity to win the series on Thursday in Game 5 in Houston.

This article will be updated to provide more information soon. 

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The New Orleans Pelicans and Houston Rockets faced off in their respective season openers on Wednesday night. One team looked a Western Conference Finals contender. The other looked like a squad very unsure of itself.

The roles just weren’t what most expected.

Anthony Davis nearly posted a triple-double and Nikola Mirotic added 30 points, helping the Pelicans earn a 131-112 road win over the Rockets.

New Orleans shot 53.1 percent from the floor and racked up 36 assists as a team against the Rockets, who looked lackadaisical on both ends. Julius Randle added 25 points in 24 minutes off the bench. 

The Rockets shot just 42.9 percent overall. Reigning MVP James Harden had 18 points, nine rebounds and 10 assists, and Chris Paul had 19 points and six assists. Carmelo Anthony finished with nine in his Rockets debut. 

Pelicans Have NBA‘s 2nd-Best Frontcourt Trio

This headline almost said “best,” but the Warriors employ Kevin Durant, Draymond Green and DeMarcus Cousins. It’s a good reminder that the Warriors remain unfair.

But the Pelicans’ frontcourt looked equally unstoppable Wednesday.

Davis is a historical force who has the potential to go down as one of the 20 greatest players ever. He routinely puts up video game stat lines and is one of the five best defenders in the league. LeBron James is the best basketball player in the world until proven otherwise, but Davis isn’t far behind.

Davis finished with 32 points, 16 rebounds, eight assists, three blocks and three steals. No player has done that since Shaquille O’Neal in 2001. Davis has thrown down the MVP gauntlet already. 

Mirotic also picked up right where he left off last season, drilling six threes on his way to a 30-point night. The Pels’ decision to allow Cousins to walk in free agency now looks prescient with Mirotic and Randle shining.

If Randle keeps playing like this, he won’t think twice before declining his $9.1 million player option for next season to re-enter free agency in July. He was an offensive force and now looks comfortable beyond the arc, knocking down a pair of triples on four attempts. Randle hit only 10 threes all of last season.

The Lakers made a major mistake when they allowed Randle to walk for nothing this summer.

Rockets Defense Is a Mess

Remember the narrative that Mike D’Antoni couldn’t coach defense? That James Harden didn’t play it? The Rockets and Harden eliminated that last season, finishing seventh in the NBA in defensive efficiency.

But one night into the 2018-19 campaign, it’s time to start a dialogue.

The Rockets put together an effort on par with some of D’Antoni’s worst moments with the Knicks. They were undisciplined in rotations, lazy in one-on-one situations and let the Pelicans whirr the ball around the perimeter as their eyes pingponged along. 

Houston clearly misses associate head coach Jeff Bzdelik, the defensive wizard who was instrumental in instilling structure. Bzdelik retired in September, and it seems as though no one decided to pick up the slack on the coaching side.

James Ennis struggled in his new role as Trevor Ariza Lite, and Melo was in full Melo mode in his first career game off the bench. Even Clint Capela looked disinterested as the Pels bigs destroyed him inside.

Woof. 

Julius Randle Should Be Considered 6MOY Frontrunner

It’s already time to slide Randle into the conversation for Sixth Man of the Year.

The award is so difficult to predict. Terry Rozier may not get enough minutes in Boston to impress voters with counting stats. Lou Williams isn’t likely to repeat an unexpected career season. JJ Redick will probably head back to the starting lineup once the Sixers realize their new starting five isn’t working.

Barring injuries that would thrust him into the starting five, Randle is going to be getting 25-plus minutes per night and have a green light when he’s on the floor. His aggressiveness was on full display against Houston, and he seems comfortable being a fulcrum on the second unit. Randle can earn himself a fat payday next summer by proving himself to be an elite starter in a bench player’s role. 

Again, why did the Lakers allow him to leave for nothing while they trot out a rickety frontcourt?

What’s Next? 

The Pelicans host the Sacramento Kings on Friday. The Rockets travel to Los Angeles to play the Lakers on Saturday.  

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As he sat before reporters in a Dodger Stadium interview room, Clayton Kershaw kept coming back to one word: huge.

Austin Barnes’ game-tying single in the fifth inning? Huge.

A 5-2 win in Game 5 to put his Los Angeles Dodgers up three games to two in the National League Championship Series? Huge.

We all occasionally get stuck on one word, but Kershaw gets a break for one big (or should that be huge?) reason: Even in this era where we sometimes celebrate four-inning starts, the value of a truly dominant starting pitcher hasn’t changed that much.

It’s still huge, which is why what Kershaw showed Wednesday did more than simply move the Dodgers within one win of returning to the World Series. The Kershaw who dominated Game 5 is the ace who can lead the Dodgers to a World Series title for the first time in 30 years.

He’s never done it before, not in any of those three seasons when he won a Cy Young Award, nor in the 2014 season when he was also the National League’s Most Valuable Player. We remember the games where he fell short of greatness a lot more than the ones where he dominated, but that’s all part of the burden of being who he is and pitching for the team he represents.

No one has to remind Kershaw that the Dodgers haven’t won a World Series since 1988. It came up again in a press conference this week.

“No disrespect to 1988, we hear about that a lot,” he said. “And I’ve said it before, but we are sick of it. And it’s up to us to do something about it.”

It’s up to all of them. Kershaw won’t be starting Games 6 or 7 this weekend in Milwaukee, so he’ll need to trust his teammates to get him to Game 1 of the World Series on Tuesday in Boston or Houston. He’ll need help from his hitters, just as he did after he fell behind 1-0 in the third inning Wednesday.

That was the inning in which Kershaw walked the opposing pitcher and later walked Ryan Braun to load the bases with two outs after the Brewers had scored. It was also the inning in which he seemed to find himself, relying on sliders and curves to strike out Christian Yelich and Jesus Aguilar to keep 1-0 from becoming 3-0 or 4-0.

The eight-pitch Aguilar strikeout ended the third, and though we didn’t know it at the time, it basically ended the Brewers’ night. The 1-0 lead wouldn’t hold, and they didn’t get another baserunner until Aguilar’s two-out double off Ryan Madson in the ninth.

It seemed they might get Kershaw out of the game in the fifth, when Dodgers manager Dave Roberts readied Yasiel Puig to hit for Kershaw if Barnes made an out and the tying run remained on third base with two outs. Kershaw assumed he would be coming out in that situation, which is one reason he called Barnes’ hit “huge.”

After the game, Roberts revealed he was going to stick with Kershaw regardless.

Kershaw ended up going seven innings, allowing only one run on three hits with nine strikeouts. It was his 10th postseason start with no more than two runs and no more than four hits, matching Justin Verlander for second in history behind Roger Clemens’ 11, per Baseball Reference.

It’s hard to forget Kershaw’s past postseason failures, including 2014, when he was the NL MVP but had a 7.82 ERA in two playoff losses to the Cardinals.Jamie Squire/Getty Images

Given the way we so often talk about Kershaw in October, you wouldn’t think that. You’d think most of his starts were like his bad Game 1 in this NLCS, the game in which he went only three innings and gave up five runs (four earned).

At his postgame press conference Wednesday, Kershaw said he wasn’t looking for redemption after that clunker, just as he said he won’t be looking back at Game 5 as a reason why he’ll pitch well the next time. He simply believes in himself and his ability to win, just as the best starting pitchers always have.

He believes it as much now, with a fastball that topped out at 92.5 mph and averaged 90.8, according to Brooks Baseball, as he did back when his average fastball was 93-94 mph and when his best fastballs would come in at 96 or 97. Kershaw doesn’t want to say he has reinvented himself—in an interview that aired Wednesday, he told Fox Sports’ Ken Rosenthal that he still believes the velocity will return—but like all great pitchers, he knows how to win with what he has.

“Just a classic case of he executed a lot of pitches,” Brewers manager Craig Counsell said in his postgame press conference.

Counsell has a fine team, but what he doesn’t have is a Kershaw. Give the Brewers credit for cleverly making use of what they do have, and even for another unconventional move Wednesday, when they started left-hander Wade Miley but had him face only one batter before switching to right-hander Brandon Woodruff.

“We were able to give Woody some matchups,” Counsell said.

The Dodgers are trying to get Kershaw another two or three matchups—in the World Series against either the Red Sox or Brewers. And he’s trying to get the World Series ring that would help define what is already a Hall of Fame career.

Danny Knobler covers Major League Baseball as a national columnist for Bleacher Report.

Follow Danny on Twitter and talk baseball.

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It took less than an inning for controversy to envelop Game 4 of the American League Championship Series between the Houston Astros and Boston Red Sox.

It appeared as if Jose Altuve tied the game at two in the bottom of the first inning with a two-run homer, but replay review called him out because of fan interference. A fan made contact with Red Sox right fielder Mookie Betts’ glove as he made a leaping attempt at the wall, and that was enough for the replay decision to be an out.

The play was more complicated than a straight-up fan interference, though, because it was Betts who leaped into the crowd rather than a spectator blatantly reaching into the field of play.

Altuve was visibly upset with the call, and the fans at Minute Maid Park vehemently booed as they watched what could have been a tie game turn back into a 2-0 Boston lead.