McAdam: Red Sox show their mettle by winning third-straight road playoff game

HOUSTON -- Over the course of the Red Sox' record-setting 108-win season, the Red Sox were so successful at Fenway that it was sometimes easy to forget just how accomplished they were away from home.

Through three road games this postseason, the Red Sox are providing a reminder.

Hint: they're good on the road. Really good.

The Sox swept both games at Yankee Stadium to wrap up their American League Division Series with New York, and that roll continued Tuesday night with an 8-2 thrashing of the Houston Astros in Game 3 of the American League Championship Series.

Just how rare is an October victory for the road team at Minute Maid Park? The win Tuesday was only the second suffered the Astros since the start of last year's postseason. Houston was 8-1 at home en route to a title last year, then continued their dominance earlier this month by taking two games from Cleveland in an ALDS sweep.

It takes a certain mentality to go into the Bronx and eliminate the Yankees, then come in and stomp on the defending champions. Both Yankee Stadium and Minute Maid Park are loud, hostile environments, but the Sox have been undeterred.

"They're not only talented, but they're tough,'' said Red Sox president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski. "Our leadership, our staff, Alex (Cora)...they're tough guys. We played a bad game here and there during the season, but we bounced back. We're resilient. That's the type of club we have. I don't know what's going to happen (the rest of the way), but our guys are comfortable coming in here.

"You can just feel it, too, before the game and (Monday) working out. I couldn't tell you when it was 2-2 that we were going to win the game, but they did a good job. You can see that they don't back down.''

That stands in stark contrast to the last two seasons. Both in 2016 and 2017, the Red Sox opened the postseason on the r0ad -- and failed to win a game. In 2016, they dropped two in Cleveland, and last year, it was even worse. The Sox were embarrassed, losing both games -- irony, alert -- 8-2.

This year boasts a different staff, and a different attitude.

The Sox aren't intimidated by the stage or the surroundings.

"We've done it all year,'' said reliever Ryan Brasier of his team's success on the road. "You don't get to 108 wins without winning on the road. We just to keep the same mentality going and trying to get wins wherever we can.''

A lot of that comes from establishing themselves early in games. When the Sox throttled New York in Game 3 of the ALDS, they scored a run in the first, two in the third and seven in the fourth before the Yankee could manage their only run.

The next night, in the Game 4 clincher, it was more of the same: three in the third and a solo run in the fourth before the Yanks broke through with their first run in the fifth.

The same formula got applied Tuesday night. Four batters into the game, the Sox had already staked themselves to a 2-0 lead.

Each time, the Sox succeeded in taking the hostile home crowd out of the equation early.

"Especially if you're on the road, if you can kind of keep them at bay where the home team can't feed off that momentum, that's always nice,'' said Mitch Moreland, who came off the bench as a pinch-hitter in the eighth and forced home a run when he was hit with the bases loaded. "You see it — it helps (to score early). It puts momentum in our direction.

"If you can put a crooked number up early, it lets your pitcher settle in and kind of puts the game in your hands.''

There's still plenty more to go in the postseason, but so far, the Red Sox, who had the best home record in all of baseball during the season, are just 2-2 at Fenway, while remaining undefeated (3-0) on the road.

It helped that, in both series, the Red Sox had the convenience and comfort of starting at home, and winning the first game of both series. That gave them some confidence as their began each series and positioned them to keep going when the games shifted to the opponents' ballpark.

Then again, maybe we're making too much about location, location, location. Maybe that's needlessly complicating things. It could be more basic than that.

"I don't know that we would characterize ourselves as a good road team,'' Moreland concluded. "I just think we're a good team, in general.''