The term "must-win'' gets tossed around a lot over the course of a long season.
You hear it when a team is in the midst of a losing streak. You hear it when a team has lost the first two (or three) games of an important series.
Of course, those aren't actually "must-wins.'' They're more like necessary wins, or important wins.
But Friday night in Minute Maid Park? Yes, that's actually the textbook definition of a must-win. Without one, the Red Sox will be done until spring training, sent home short of their goal of winning their second World Series since 2018 and their fifth this century.
The Red Sox trail three games to two in their best-of-seven ALCS matchup with the Houston Astros. What seemed like an almost certain series win for the Sox just a few days ago is now very much unsure. And even if the Sox pull out a victory Friday, they'd have to win again Saturday to win the American League pennant.
But first things first.
Here are three keys to taking Game 6. Game 7 can, for now, wait.
1. Rediscover the offense.
This is probably the primary challenge. After totaling 21 runs in Games 2 and 3, the Sox bats have gone into an early hibernation, totaling just eight hits and a measly three runs in Games 4 and 5. Whereas the Red Sox were not long ago setting postseason records for most grand slams in a single series, the Sox have slumped badly.
In Game 5, other than the hits they managed, they hit just three fly balls into the outfield. Some credit must go to Houston sinkerball artist Framber Valdez, who had the Sox hitting one ground ball after another.
But the Sox also looked a little pull-happy in the last two games, deviating from their "whole field'' approach that proved so successful -- not just earlier in the ALCS, but throughout the postseason, when the Sox set a record for six consecutive games with double-figure hit totals.
Gone, too, are the extended rallies that came to typify their offensive success in the first few games. In Games 1-3, the Sox managed to bat around a total on two different occasions, while once sending eight men to the plate and another time, seven; in the last two games, they've not done that a single time.
While Wednesday's 9-1 loss, the Sox never even had more than one baserunner in a single inning.
"We were tearing the cover off the ball, pretty much one through nine (earlier in the series),'' acknowledged Xander Bogaerts, "We can start by getting the ball up in the air. Let's try that out. Set up a good game plan. Hopefully, we stay more to the middle of the field, I really do feel like, for the most part of the year, we've been dealing with these kind of situations, so what's a better team than us to be prepared for this?
"It's just a bad time for (a slump) to happen, man. We've got to regroup and have some really good ballgames in Houston.''
2. Have a bounce-back mentality.
There's little time to bemoan their circumstances. The Red Sox don't have the luxury of feeling sorry for themselves.
But if it's any consolation, this team has responded well to crises over the course of the season. When they experienced a COVID-outbreak, they rallied and had a better September. When they lost five-of-six in the final week of the season, they responded with a sweep of the Nationals in the final series of the year. When they were faced with a win-or-go-home wild card meeting with the Yankees, they seized the lead in the bottom of the inning and never looked back, ousting their rivals.
And, when they dropped the opener of the ALDS to the Tampa Bay Rays and then fell behind 5-2 early in Game 2, they weren't shook. They came back to win Game 2, then two more to advance to the ALCS.
"I feel like this is a team that this is our story,'' said J.D. Martinez of the team's ability to rally in the face of adversity. "We've been written off all year. Nobody, I don't think anyone in here either, thought we were going to be here. To that we know what we're capable of, and I think no one is not believing in themselves or not believing in our team that we can go out there and go off, you know?''
"We won three (consecutive) games in Houston in 2018. We need to win two, so why not this year too?'' wondered Christian Vazquez.
The postseason is full of emotional highs and lows, with the momentum changing quickly, sometimes from inning to inning. Late in Game 4, the Red Sox were six outs away from taking control of the series with a three-games-to-one edge. Instead, they now find themselves trailing and needing to win two on the road.
Vazquez exuded confidence after the Game 4 loss, even if he didn't exactly make anyone forget Joe Namath or Mark Messier.
"We're going to play two games in Houston, for a fact,'' vowed Vazquez. "For sure, yeah.''
3. Dial back on the aggressive mound approach.
It's imperative that the Sox consistently get ahead in the count and not fall into dangerous hitter's counts against a deep and dangerous Houston lineup. Falling behind to those hitters is a sure recipe for disaster.
But there's such a thing as being too aggressive. The Red Sox have done it too often with arguably the two best high-leverage hitters in the Astros batting order -- leadoff dynamo Jose Altuve and veteran slugger Yuli Gurriel.
Too often, when they haven't needed to do so, Red Sox pitchers have thrown inviting fastballs over the heart of the plate. For ultra-aggressive hitters like Altuve, that's an invitation for trouble.
When the Astros have runners on base, a more careful approach is necessary. Red Sox pitchers can try to get over-anxious Houston hitters to chase offerings outside the zone. At the very least, they can work the corners of the strike zone, careful not to throw anything over the middle.