HOUSTON — Kiké Hernández ran down Yordan Alvarez’s 409-foot fly ball to right-center field in the first inning. He was there to make the catch, but he didn’t.
The ball hit off the inside of his glove and dropped to the grass. The official scorer ruled it an RBI double and it put the Astros ahead 1-0.
“I’ve thought about this for nine innings. I still think if I catch that ball, it’s a different ballgame,” Hernández said after the Red Sox lost 5-0 to the Astros in Game 6 of the American League Championship Series here at Minute Maid Park.
Houston advanced to the World Series, winning the ALCS 4-2 after Boston won two of the first three games.
Hernández said all three Red Sox outfielders were shaded to the opposite field “quite considerably.”
“Off the bat, I didn’t think I was going to be able to get to the ball,” Hernández said. “I thought (right fielder) Hunter (Renfroe) was going to have a better chance than me at getting the ball just based on where we were starting. Or I thought it was going to be a homer. I wasn’t sure what was going to happen. The ball kind of hung up there and I was running to it and halfway there I was like, ‘I might be able to get to it.’ And I just happened to look at Hunter to see where Hunter was. But the time I looked back up, the ball was already almost there. I got to the spot but the ball kind of beat me to the spot. And I wasn’t able to close my glove in time.”
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