Stanley Cup: Bounce here, bounce there and Blues, Bruins now tied 2-2

ST. LOUIS — It usually takes a lucky bounce here and there to win the Stanley Cup.

Game 4 of the final between the Bruins and the Blues had a whole lot of bounces — and not a lot of luck for goaltenders Tuukka Rask and Jordan Binnington.

Whether it was nerves, fatigue or simply traffic in front, Rask and Binnington each gave up rebounds aplenty and both teams cashed in on the prime scoring chances Monday night. The Blues’ Alex Pietrangelo pounded a slap shot that seemed to handcuff Rask and the juicy rebound left the puck in midair where Ryan O’Reilly swatted it into the net.

The goal put the Blues up 3-2 and turned out to the game-winner in the 4-2 victory that knotted the final at 2-2.

Binnington chalked up the second-chance goals to smart shooting.

“Players were doing a good job and shooting the puck, but you know, yeah, there were some rebounds tonight but nothing out of the ordinary, I’d say,” Binnington said.


Both of O’Reilly’s goals came off rebounds. He took a rebound off of a Zach Sanford shot behind the net and beat Rask on a wrap-around to the right side just 43 seconds into the game.

Charlie Coyle evened things up with 6:46 left in the first after he found himself alone in front of the Blues net to bang home the rebound from a Zdeno Chara shot.

The Blues took advantage of another second-chance opportunity at 15:30 in the first. This time it was Vladimir Tarasenko pouncing on a big rebound in the slot off of a Pietrangelo shot to make it 2-1.

“To find your chances, you need to go in the red zones and score some greasy goals maybe,” Tarasenko said. “If you look on our goals, it pays off for us. It kind of was the game plan, so we try to keep it same way and create traffic for Rask and try to get rebounds.”

Rask struggled again during a Boston power play in the second period as O’Reilly almost poked in his own rebound on a short-handed rush.


“You try to control them all, but sometimes you do, sometimes you don’t,” Rask said.

The Bruins capitalized shorthanded at 14:19 of the second as Brandon Carlo found the back of the net for the first time this postseason after Binnington couldn’t handle a Patrice Bergeron shot with the puck caroming off of his pad.

“First shot he might get stuck a little bit,” Carlo said. “From there, you can try to get him moving side to side and ultimately put the pucks past him and it’s great that we can crash the net. Hopefully we can learn from that and utilize it in the next couple of games.”

The goal quieted the Enterprise Center and took away the momentum St. Louis generated during a prolonged shift in the Boston zone, which featured several line changes and dangerous scoring chances as well as creating the power play that led to the short-handed goal.

Then came O’Reilly’s heroics and the first Stanley Cup Final victory at home in St. Louis franchise history. Game 5 in the best-of-seven series is Thursday night in Boston.

“I felt like it was going to be tough to go to Boston down 3-1 and have a chance to win so we had to make sure we came out with our best game,” Blues defenseman Colton Parayko said. “We’ve been a good rebound team all year long and all playoffs long. That was the biggest thing. We were a confident group coming into tonight and I think we showed it.”

source: sports.inquirer.net

Red Sox pinch-hitters come up clutch again in World Series

LOS ANGELES — Boston’s bench is a big reason why the Red Sox are one win from their fourth World Series title since 2004.

With the Red Sox regulars being held in check by the Los Angeles Dodgers, it was pinch-hitters Mitch Moreland and Rafael Devers who came up with huge at-bats as Boston rallied for a 9-6 victory Saturday to take a 3-1 lead in the Series.

Moreland hit a three-run homer off Ryan Madson in the seventh inning and Devers singled home Brock Holt with the tiebreaking run in the ninth.

Boston’s pinch-hitters have come up big all Series. Through the first four games, they are 6 for 18 (.333) with two home runs and seven RBIs. The Red Sox are batting .218 overall.

“The bench has been the key to our entire playoffs,” slugger J.D. Martinez said. “The guys that no one expects are the ones who are delivering. It is unreal.”

Moreland’s homer to right field on a first-pitch changeup from Ryan Madson was Boston’s second pinch-hit homer in the World Series. The 1959 Dodgers and 1975 Red Sox are the only other teams with multiple pinch-hit home runs in the same Fall Classic. Not bad for a team that hit only two pinch-hit homers during the course of a 162-game regular season.

Moreland joins Bernie Carbo (who had two in 1975), Bobby Kielty (2007) and Eduardo Nunez (Game 1 this year) as Boston players who have homered in a World Series game as pinch-hitters.

“With the way we play, we’re constantly trying to get some guys on base, put pressure on the other side. So we got that chance right there,” Moreland said after hitting his third World Series home run. “I saw him throw a couple of changeups to Jackie (Bradley Jr.) up in the zone. I decided, why not sit on that one first pitch? And when he threw it, I saw it pretty good, and put a good swing on it.”

It was Moreland’s fourth career postseason homer but first as a pinch-hitter. Prior to that swing, Moreland was batting .250 this postseason (4 for 16) but was 1 for 6 in a pinch-hitting role.

Devers was batting .276 (8 for 29) for the postseason, and Saturday night was only the third time he has been brought in off the bench. After Holt doubled off Dylan Floro with one out, Devers laced a 2-0 changeup to center, scoring Holt for a 5-4 lead, and the Red Sox went on to score five runs in the ninth.

The third baseman, who turned 22 on Wednesday, became the youngest player in World Series history to have a pinch-hit, go-ahead RBI in the ninth inning or later. The last player younger than 23 to deliver a pinch-hit RBI in the Fall Classic was Pittsburgh’s Milt May in 1971 against Baltimore.

“I was just ready for my moment to come, whenever that may be,” Devers said. “Being in the National League, you’ve got to be ready from the first inning with obviously the pitchers hitting. So I just wanted to be ready for whatever the situation was.”

Red Sox hitting coach Tim Hyers said Boston’s bench success can mostly be attributed to first-year manager Alex Cora and the way he has been able to keep everyone involved by always communicating to players about when they will be used during a game.

“He just has a way of giving them confidence by telling them, ‘I am going to use you here, be ready, be prepared’ and then it happens,” Hyers said. “They are prepared and have confidence when they walk out to the batter’s box because the manager has prepared them to go out and show.”

source: sports.inquirer.net

Giles falters again, Astros lose to Dodgers in Game 4

HOUSTON — This time, the Astros couldn’t save Ken Giles.

Houston’s hard-throwing closer faltered again in Game 4 of the World Series, taking the loss in the Los Angeles Dodgers’ 6-2 victory on Saturday night.

Giles was charged with three runs without getting an out, inflating his postseason ERA to 11.75. He’s allowed at least a run in six of seven appearances — a staggering flop after posting a 1.14 ERA over his final 38 regular-season games.

Last time out, Giles gave up a solo homer to Yasiel Puig and a tying hit to Enrique Hernandez to blow a lead in the 10th inning of Game 2. Houston bailed him out, rallying for a 7-6, 11-inning win.

There was no such comeback after Giles’ Game 4 collapse.

With the game tied at 1 in the ninth inning, Giles allowed a leadoff single to Corey Seager and walked Justin Turner. Cody Bellinger then lined a double into left-center, bringing Seager home.

Manager A.J. Hinch pulled Giles at that point, but the closer was charged with two more runs when Turner and Bellinger later scored.

Boos rained down from the home crowd as Giles walked off.

The player nicknamed 100-miles-Giles has quickly become a liability. He has a pair of saves this postseason — in Game 4 of the AL Division Series against Boston and Game 1 of the AL Championship Series versus the Yankees after allowing a run in each game — but he had blown leads in two of his last three outings before Saturday.

Giles had a 2.30 ERA in 63 appearances in the regular season. His ERA in two World Series games is 27.00.

Hinch was keeping the faith, though, saying after Game 2 that he thinks “Ken Giles is going to get another save in this series. I think he’s going to get some really big outs.”

He added: “Just because somebody has a bad day at work, does not mean that they need to be condemned and sent away. … I’m going to keep putting him in and trusting him.”

After this latest performance, Hinch may need to find a new go-to at the back of the bullpen.

source: sports.inquirer.net