HOUSTON -- It would be difficult to find a starting pitching matchup more disparate than Game 3 of the ALCS on Tuesday night. The Red Sox started flame-throwing righty Nathan Eovaldi and the Astros countered with finesse southpaw Dallas Keuchel. Among the 140 pitchers to throw 100 innings in 2018, Eovaldi ranked third in average fastball velocity (97.5 mph) and Keuchel ranked 133rd (89.5 mph).
"He gives you a different look than some of the other guys that they've got," said Red Sox utility man Brock Holt prior to Game 3. "But with the movement that he does, keeps the ball down, just pitches to contact. He's tough to square up ... (He) gives the offense a different look as opposed to someone like (Justin) Verlander or (Gerrit) Cole or (Charlie) Morton. So he's a good mix for them and he's a tough challenge."
The Red Sox answered Keuchel's finesse style with a non-pull approach early in Game 3 (BOS 8, HOU 2). The first three batters of the game recorded hits and gave Boston a quick 1-0 lead. Mookie Betts slashed a single back up the middle, Andrew Benintendi filleted a single to the opposite field, and J.D. Martinez poked a double down the first base line the other way. To use an old baseball cliche, the BoSox were definitely not trying to do too much in that first inning.
"That was just good pieces of hitting. Made the pitches I wanted to, and was just unfortunate with the placement," said Keuchel following Game 3. "There wasn't a single hard-hit ball in the first inning above (93 mph exit velocity). That's just tough luck."
Following that two-run first inning, Keuchel did settle down and hold the Red Sox to one infield single and two walks in innings two through five. The two walks came back-to-back with two outs in the third inning -- Keuchel got ahead in the count 0-2 on Martinez but lost him to give the Red Sox life that inning -- and Keuchel needed a tremendous catch from Tony Kemp to escape that jam unscathed.
Keuchel's night ended after 84 pitches and five innings and it was a bit of a surprise he went that long. Batters put up a .293/.348/.466 line against him the third time through the order during the regular season, and Astros manager A.J. Hinch opted to let Keuchel face the top of Boston's lineup a third time in that fifth inning. He got through the frame with three ground balls, so the Red Sox had a chance there, but couldn't make anything of it.
Normally an extreme ground ball pitcher, Keuchel recorded eight of his 15 outs on the ground compared to seven in the air. This was also the first time all season he failed to strike out a batter in a start. Only five of those 84 pitches generated a swing and miss, and, looking at the pitch chart, it's easy to see the Red Sox didn't expand the zone a whole lot against Keuchel in Game 3.
Keuchel threw only 42.4 percent of his pitches in the strike zone during the regular season, third lowest among qualified starters behind Patrick Corbin (38.1 percent) and Kyle Gibson (39.2 percent), and that is entirely by design. During his Cy Young peak, Keuchel was the master at making a pitch look like a strike, only to have it finish out of the zone. I count eight total swings on pitches below the strike zone in that graph. The BoSox wouldn't bite.
"I just kind of kept going with what I was doing. I didn't make mistake pitches. They were going with the outside part of the plate. I was able to land some breaking balls early and throw a few cutters in, and elevated heater to really get them off the low and away. That afforded me five innings. I would've liked to have gone six, but I understand the reasoning."
Although they scored only two runs against Keuchel and had limited success after the first inning, the Red Sox did an excellent job avoiding Keuchel's trap in ALCS Game 3. They didn't chase out of the zone and they worked long at-bats, and forced him out of the game earlier than Hinch would've liked. The bullpen was in play in the sixth inning on the first day of three straight days with a game, and Steve Pearce hit the go-ahead home run against a reliever (Joe Smith) who hadn't pitched in a big league game in 16 days.
On a pitching staff loaded with high velocity right-handers, Keuchel is an outlier as a finesse lefty who rarely beats hitters in the strike zone. When he's at his best, you see a lot of weak contact -- particularly weak ground balls -- on pitches down below the zone. Keuchel executed those pitches in Game 3. He did what he always does. The Red Sox refused to give in, however, and were able to break through early before forcing Keuchel out in the middle innings.
"In the ALCS, you're trying to do everything you can to get on base," Keuchel said. "You say guys go the other way when they're not usually going the other way. Guys taking pitches when they're usually swinging. It's a gamble here. It's a dogfight. We were on the losing end."
