ALCS: Red Sox take 2-1 lead after 8-2 win over Astros

Steve Pearce homer, Jackie Bradley grand slam and Nathan Eovaldi's strong outing add up to victory in Game 3.

HOUSTON -- There were some corners of Red Sox Nation left disappointed at the July trade deadline by the failure to pick up an extra piece for the bullpen.

Steve Pearce and Nathan Eovaldi were brought in to somewhat lukewarm fanfare, a journeyman first baseman and rather nondescript starting pitcher bolstering the club with the best record in baseball. Pearce and Eovaldi were solid major leaguers, certainly, but their impact was perceived to be less immediate or required than another setup man for closer Craig Kimbrel.

Where would Boston be this October without those two players? Certainly not sitting with the lead after three games in the American League Championship Series, as the Red Sox reclaimed home field advantage deep in the heart of Texas on Tuesday evening.

Pearce crushed the go-ahead home run in the top of the sixth inning, Eovaldi was strong again on the mound and Jackie Bradley Jr. added the killer blow with a grand slam in the eighth as Boston pulled away for an 8-2 victory over the Astros at Minute Maid Park.

The Red Sox guaranteed at least one more game will be played at Fenway Park this season – Game 6 of this series on Saturday night or Game 1 of the World Series exactly one week from Tuesday. That was the primary goal Boston carried on its charter flight here late Sunday, and now the Red Sox can afford to be somewhat greedy while attempting to strengthen their hold over the defending world champions.

Pearce put Boston on top to stay by snapping a 2-2 tie. He ran into a tailing fastball from Joe Smith back toward the inner half and annihilated it 456 feet down the line in left. The ball crashed into the train tracks high above the wall and came down inside the Crawford Boxes, stunning the sellout crowd of 43,102 fans on hand into silence.

There was much more to come from the Red Sox in the eighth, as Boston punished one of the headline acquisitions of the deadline. Houston controversially moved for Blue Jays closer Roberto Osuna despite his domestic violence arrest and subsequent administrative suspension imposed by Major League Baseball. Osuna retired just two of the seven men he faced, with Bradley notching just the sixth playoff grand slam in Boston history on a majestic drive to the boxes in right field.

Two pinch hitters extended the inning for the Red Sox. Both Brock Holt and Mitch Moreland were hit by pitches with two strikes, as Holt asked for and was granted a video review after being caught off the left shoe. Moreland took a fastball off the right shoulder to set up Bradley, and he cleared out another fastball that Osuna left up and in.

Eovaldi picked up his second playoff victory in as many starts, following up the seven strong innings he turned in against the Yankees in the AL Division Series with six more. The Texas native scattered six hits and struck out four in front of childhood idol Nolan Ryan, who hails from the same town of Alvin just south of the Houston area.

Ryan Brasier, Matt Barnes, Joe Kelly and Eduardo Rodriguez combined on the last nine outs, as the Boston bullpen continues to perform well in October. Brasier got Alex Bregman on a liner to center that stranded a man in the seventh and Kelly wrapped up for Barnes by inducing Carlos Correa’s bouncer to short in the eighth.

The Red Sox couldn’t have asked for a better start. Mookie Betts singled to center, Andrew Benintendi singled to left and J.D. Martinez grounded an RBI double inside the bag at first base, making it 1-0. The Astros elected to keep the infield back and Xander Bogaerts added to the lead with a routine RBI grounder to shortstop.

Boston’s offense managed just one more hit against Houston starter Dallas Keuchel, who lasted through the fifth inning despite not recording a strikeout in an outing for the first time this season. His only other real scrape came on back-to-back, two-out walks in the third, but Tony Kemp raced to the Crawford Boxes in left and made a spectacular leaping grab to rob Pearce of extra bases on a towering fly.

The Astros steadily chipped away at the deficit, applying pressure to Eovaldi in the first, third and fifth. Marwin Gonzalez sawed off an RBI single to right center in the first, making it 2-1, and Eovaldi only escaped the third when Gonzalez lined sharply to left with two men on. Jose Altuve’s two-out walk and Bregman’s chopper to the left side tied the game, with Rafael Devers failing to make a backhanded play on what was generously scored an RBI double.