Nine thoughts on the Red Sox’ dominating win over the Astros in Game 3 of the ALCS - The Boston Globe

Playing nine innings while presuming the Red Sox’ laundry cart must be exhausted ….

The basic definition is when a starting pitcher works at least six innings and permits three or fewer earned runs.

His regular-season performance wasn’t as subpar as the perception — he led the Red Sox with 13 wins, struck out 185, and made 31 starts — and he did pitch a couple of gems by the current definition, including allowing just one hit in six innings against the A’s on July 2 and shutting out the Yankees through 5⅔ innings two weeks later?

But he came into Game 3 with a 7.02 ERA in his postseason career, and the lefty-mashing Astros had lit him up for 12 runs in 9⅓ innings this season.

Oh, nothing, just dominates from the get-go, throwing his fastest pitch of the season in the first inning, then striking out Yordan Alvarez, Carlos Correa, and Kyle Tucker in the second.

After E-Rod breezed through those dangerous Astros, the Red Sox’ half of the second inning lasted longer than a Jake Odorizzi warmup session.

The Sox scored six runs, forcing Astros starter Jose Urquidy to throw 46 pitches in the frame and 57 overall before he was mercifully pulled with two outs in the inning.

As colleague Peter Abraham pointed out, Astros starters have allowed 14 runs (12 earned), 13 hits, and 3 grand slams in 5⅓ innings in the series.

The Astros will turn to 37-year-old Zack Greinke in Game 4, which sounds like a good thing based on past accomplishments, but the Astros have been reluctant to use him this postseason (he pitched one inning in the ALDS against the White Sox).

Greinke missed time because of COVID-19 and a neck injury in the second half of the season, but he’s as savvy as any pitcher in the big leagues, and he’s capable of giving the Astros a better chance than some of the pitchers they’ve already run out there.

He’s 3 for 13 in this series without an RBI, which is tough to do considering the Red Sox have scored 25 runs in three games?

Former Red Sox third baseman Will Middlebrooks, an affable and insightful follow on Twitter, pointed out after Bogaerts’s single to center in the second inning that he has the savvy to fight through a slump: “Bogie is such a professional hitter,’’ tweeted Middlebrooks from his @middlebrooks account?

“He knows he’s not seeing it great, so what does he do.

He knows he’s not seeing it great, so what does he do.

Monday night’s crowd was amazing — the roar when Alex Verdugo worked a walk in the second inning was almost disconcerting — and it reminds me of the united city of 2013, with just a hint of the this-is-really-happening delight from 2004?

On his 61st pitch, E-Rod gave up a three-run homer in the fourth inning to the Astros’ Kyle Tucker, but that cut the Sox lead to … a comfortable six at 9-3.

The Red Sox hit three other homers besides Schwarber’s slam: Christian Arroyo (kid is a good player, isn’t he?) lifted a two-run homer over the Monster in the second inning; J.D.