The Boston Red Sox suffered a Game 1 loss to the Houston Astros in the American League Championship Series on Friday night, but they are not lacking confidence following the series opener.
A major reason behind that is because they will have Nathan Eovaldi on the mound for Game 2, the right-hander providing extremely trustworthy in the biggest of situations.
Chris Sale, who started Game 1 and allowed one run in 2 2/3 innings, was leading the charge of the Eovaldi hype train following Friday's 4-3 loss in Houston.
"I don't think there's another guy on the planet I would rather be pitching tomorrow than Nate," Sale told reporters after the game, as shared by WEEI's Rob Bradford. "You look at what he's done this year, you look at his postseason resumé, the guy stacks up with anybody, honestly. I don't care where we're at, who we're facing, what the lead, what the deficit is. It doesn't matter. We got the right guy on the right mound tomorrow. That's all we can say.
"Our lineup is going to bang with the best of them, there's no doubt about that," Sale added. "We got to do the little things right. And with Nate taking the ball tomorrow that's everything..."
Eovaldi has been nails in each of his postseason performances this season. He got the ball for Boston's Wild Card win over the New York Yankees -- one run on four hits in 5 1/3 innings -- as well as a Game 3 win in the AL Division Series against the Tampa Bay Rays. Eovaldi allowed two runs on three hits in five innings that night, too.
Of course, a big performance from Eovaldi could put Boston in position to split the series in Houston and head back home while overtaking home-field advantage.
Game 2 between the Red Sox and Astros is scheduled for 4:20 p.m. ET on Saturday, and you can tune into pregame coverage starting at 3 p.m. on NESN.
