Astros still have nobody hitting behind him and the Sox have been allowed to either pitch around him completely or pitch to him such that he can't put up a big number with one swing of the bat with somebody on ahead of him. There are short batting orders and then there are SHORT batting orders. The Astros have been pretty feeble after Springer, Altuve, Bregman and now Altuve is limping around.
Their biggest weakness compared to last year has been how many holes this batting order has past Bregman. Correa is not getting it done. Gurriel is not getting it done. I really thought AJ would move Gonzalez up in the order and move Gurriel down, maybe even try to see if Correa can do more than he has done. If those guys continue to fail behind Breg the Sox are never going to feel compelled to come after him at the plate.
The guy is a fabulous ballplayer, keeping the Astros in this game with his sensational fielding when he has been hampered at the plate. AJ has to do something and I suspect he has to try to do it for the Wednesday game. This park is a shoebox and you are not going to win games even in the post season with 2 runs a game. Altuve limping around may well be the straw that breaks the camels back. I don't see Porcello caving on Wednesday. Astros are going to have come out and beat him.
Right now Game 5 and Sale become a pretty interesting topic if the Sox can win game 4. Game 5 oddly enough might be the best shot the Astros have of extending the series back to Fenway.