Jason Castro did not start for the Astros on Tuesday night at Fenway Park, but he wound up making a significant impact in Game 4 of the American League Championship Series.
Castro, who entered the contest in the seventh inning, smacked a go-ahead RBI single in the ninth inning off Red Sox ace Nathan Eovaldi. While the veteran catcher appeared to benefit from a terrible call by home-plate umpire Laz Diaz, Castro coming up clutch off the bench was nonetheless impressive.
The missed call Castro took advantage of was a 1-2 curveball from Eovaldi. The hook appeared to catch the top-right corner of the strike zone, but Diaz ruled it a ball. As the 34-year-old explained after the game, he knew he probably wasn't going to do damage with anything up.
"With his stuff and his velocity, with the way I hit I'm trying to get something that's not at the top of the zone," Castro told reporters, per The Athletic. "Going into the at-bat, those are things that I'm trying to game plan for, to be smart about the pitches I go looking after. Where that (1-and-2 curveball) started, I didn't think that was a pitch I could pull the trigger on and it was a ball and I was able to move on to the next pitch. The split was up enough that I could kind of stay through it. You have to respect his fastball with how hard he throws, but I was able to just stay through it long enough and miss the infielders."
Castro and Co. now have momentum heading into Game 5 of the best-of-seven series. They'll look to regain the lead in the series Wednesday night in Boston.
