HOUSTON -- Turns out, there was a logical explanation for the rotten October closer Craig Kimbrel was having.
"He was tipping his pitches for two weeks,'' said manager Alex Cora.
Well, that would account for it, then.
Kimbrel struggled mightily over two innings in Wednesday's 8-6 win in Game 4, walking three batters, hitting another and allowing two hits. Before Thursday's clincher, Kimbrel had pitched 5.1 innings and somehow managed to save four games, but walked five and allowed five runs for a gaudy 8.44 ERA.
On Thursday, former Red Sox reliever Eric Gagne, who had been a teammate of Cora with the Los Angeles Dodgers long ago, texted Cora to tell him that he detected something in Kimbrel's set-up that gave away what pitch was coming. Gagne had been watching the Red Sox throughout the postseason at his home in Arizona and could see the issue clearly, even from his couch. Mostly, it had to do with where he had positioned his hands prior to his delivery.
"(Wednesday), they were up,'' said Cora of Kimbrel's hands. "(Thursday), they were down. We found that out. We made adjustments and you saw the at-bats. They were a lot different. Too bad it took us so long to find it.''
Problem solved.
That was why Cora didn't hesitate to give the ball to Kimbrel in a ninth-inning save situation Thursday night. Perhaps the safer bet might have been to get another inning out of Nathan Eovaldi, who had contributed an inning and a third of scoreless relief from the seventh and eighth.
But Cora instinctively knew that with his delivery fixed and the tipping corrected, he would get the Kimbrel of old.
He did: Kimbrel struck out Carlos Correa swinging, and after a one-out walk to Yuli Gurriel, got Marwin Gonzalez looking before retiring Tony Kemp on a flyout to left.
"I'm sorry that I gave quite a few of you heart attacks the last few days,'' said Kimbrel. "Let's hope in the World Series, I can make them nice and clean.''
Even with his first two shaky outings, Kimbrel became only the ninth pitcher in history to post three saves in the ALCS. Two others -- Dennis Eckersley and Greg Holland -- each recorded four saves.
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