Great article by Speier looking at the Red Sox strategy in attacking the Astros starters.
And they've been using advance scouting and video work all year long to game-plan their attack:
"All season, the Red Sox have been a team whose talented hitters featured a detail-oriented commitment to game planning to to identify both what their opponents would try to do and where they are most vulnerable.
The Red Sox, with information from the team’s advance scouting team and analytics staff, have had a year-long conversation about what pitches opponents use in specific counts, locations where they work, locations where they miss and are vulnerable, and the visual appearance and action of pitches that might represent the margin between a strikeout and a two-strike foul-ball."
"The Red Sox had a feel for how the Astros would attack – helped not just by ample video and heatmap data but also by input from Cora (last year’s Astros bench coach) and bullpen coach Craig Bjornson, who had worked in the same role with Houston in 2017 and thus had a feel for what Houston’s pitchers would try to do in their own advance planning... “It was a vertical attack – fastballs up, breaking balls down, stay on the edges,” he added. “We did an outstanding job [against that pattern]. We sustained it. We stayed very humble. We didn’t try to hit home runs. We stayed with the program, and in the end, it paid off.”
The plan included staying patient and not chasing pitches on the edges or outside the zone:
"The Sox swung at 23 percent of pitchers that were on the edges of the strike zone or outside of it – easily the lowest rate of the four LCS teams. The Astros swung at 28.4 percent, the highest rate of the LCS teams. The Sox were even more disciplined in two-strike counts, swinging at just 9.7 percent of pitches on the edges or outside the zone.
The team was particularly aware of the Astros’ aggressive usage of off-speed and breaking pitches. Someone like Lance McCullers, for instance, is willing to throw literally nothing but curveballs in an at-bat."
On Devers hitting the key HR against Verlander in Game 5:
"he remained mindful of the report on Verlander: He won’t shy from his fastball in key moments, typically at the top of the zone, where his high spin rate creates ridiculous ride on the pitch that often takes it over bats for either a pop-up or swing-and-miss.
Devers got a first-pitch, 98-m.p.h. fastball at the top of the strike zone and ambushed it. He set his sight at the top of the ball and, rather than trying to pull it, drove it out to the opposite field for the decisive three-run homer in Game 5."
Such a difference from 15 years ago when the dunce manager ignored all the scouting work that the team provided.