Quotes, notes and stars from the Red Sox’ 5-4 loss to the Indians in ALDS Game 1:
INDIANS 5, RED SOX 4: McAdam: Third inning staggers Porcello | Indians silence key Sox bats | Miller sparks memories of Uehara 2013 | First impressions of Game 1 loss
QUOTES
* “In one-run games, [whenever you take] 90 feet [it’s a] pivotal moment...I can’t say that [Andrew Benintendi] was surprised by it, but ideally you’d like to see a guy get back and get through the catch...In the end it cost us 90 feet.” -John Farrell on Benintendi’s play when Roberto Perez took second base in the fifth inning, helping lead to a run.
* “Well, one, [Andrew Miller is] really good. There’s a combination of things. I didn’t want their meat of the order to come through a third time if they had a chance to tie the game . . . When Andrew first came in, they made him throw a lot of pitches. That’s a heck of a lineup, but he was up to the task. That’s why we got him.” -Terry Francona on why he went to Miller so early.
* “You can spin it however you want to spin it, I threw the pitches that I thought were going to be the best pitches to throw and they hit three balls out of the ballpark. Go back and look at, recap what happened, what the situations were, why that happened and come up with a better game plan and -- hopefully we win this in the next three games -- but if I get another opportunity in the fifth game, kind of rectify the mistakes I made tonight.” -Rick Porcello on the three home runs he gave up in the third inning.
* “This is a selfless team, it’s awesome. This win just sums up who we are.” -Miller said on the Indians’ win.
* “He didn’t put a number on it, but I knew to be ready early.” -Miller said when asked if Francona specified how early he was expected to enter the game.
NOTES
* Rick Porcello didn’t make it through five innings (4 1/3) for the first time since July 29, 2015, when he pitched two innings against the White Sox.
* The Killer B’s (Mookie Betts, Xander Bogaerts, Jackie Bradley Jr.) finished 0-for-11 with 7 strikeouts and one walk (Betts).
* Andrew Benintendi’s home run in third made him the youngest Red Sox player to his a home run in the postseason (22 years, 92 days), passing Reggie Smith (22 years, 188 days) in the 1967 World Series.
* Andrew Miller has now pitched in 10 1/3 postseason innings in his career and has yet to give up a run, striking out 14.
* The Red Sox and Indians combined for six solo home runs, tied for most home runs in a Division Series game.
STARS
1) Roberto Perez
Perez hit a home run in his first at-bat and scored another run after a single in his second at-bat. Perez also took an extra base on a fly ball to right, setting himself up to score the run in the fifth on Jason Kipnis’ single.
2) Andrew Miller
After giving up a double to Brock Holt to start his outing, Miller locked things down for the Indians, striking out four in two innings.
3) Trevor Bauer
It was expected that Bauer was going to roll over in this game, but he did enough to keep Cleveland in the game.