The Boston Red Sox Tuesday, October 16, 2018 * The Boston Globe Dallas Keuchel, Nathan Eovoldi are opposites with same goal in Game 3 Nick Cafardo HOUSTON — The two teams have beaten each other’s elite pitchers — the Astros beat Chris Sale and the Red Sox beat Gerrit Cole — so now it’s down to the third and fourth starters. Whose will be better? Whose will do the better job of keeping his team in the game? This is where it gets interesting as the ALCS moves to Minute Maid Park for the next three games starting Tuesday afternoon. (First pitch, 5:09 p.m.) The Astros will start Dallas Keuchel, while the Red Sox will go with Nathan Eovoldi in Game 3, and we saw what Eovoldi did in Game 3 vs. the Yankees in that amazing 16-1 win. Eovoldi gave Alex Cora seven full innings of excellent work. Imagine a starter lasting seven innings and pitching lights out in a postseason game? Now the trick is for Eovaldi to repeat that against the Astros. You see, Eovaldi’s DNA is opposite of David Price’s. Eovaldi loves pitching against the Yankees and now he must love pitching against the Astros, his hometown team. Eovaldi grew up in Alvin, a Houston suburb. If that town sounds familiar, it’s where Nolan Ryan is from. And there are times Eovaldi’s velocity gets up there in Ryan Express territory. “Yeah, it definitely is very special to me,” said Eovaldi about pitching near his hometown. “Growing up we watched a lot of baseball games here, and then travel ball and stuff we got to play a couple times. It’s real special to me.” Eovaldi said he got to meet Ryan a few years back when he played for the Yankees. “I had an opportunity to meet him. And words can’t really describe what it’s like. But he’s done a lot for us and in the community of Alvin. I mean it’s hard shoes to fill, but it’s definitely special to me.” Eovaldi said he’s a “completely different pitcher” than the one who faced the Astros back on June 20 when he gave up four solo homers while pitching six innings. Alex Bregman posted a video of homering off Eovaldi, which appeared to be a shot at Eovaldi and kind of a cocky move by Bregman. Eovaldi said he throws a lot more cutters now than he did early on. “I definitely feel it’s gotten the hitters off my fastball and then it’s allowed me to get some earlier contact and go deeper into the games and not have to be so perfect with my fastball,” Eovaldi said about reliance on the cutter. “And I’m able to mix in other pitches along with that and kind of go from there. “I feel like if I go out there and do my job, attack the zone, get that first-pitch strike, not give up any free bases, no walks, things like that, I feel like that will keep the crowd out of it a little bit. But I know they’re going to be loud here and I feel like with the roof closed and stuff it gets even louder.” Keuchel, the 2015 American League Cy Young winner, is not a hard thrower but a crafty lefty who has had mixed results against the Red Sox. The Red Sox touched him up for five runs over six innings back on Sept. 9, including a three-run homer by J.D. Martinez. But if Keuchel gets into a rhythm, forget it, the Sox won’t touch him, which is why hitters have to disrupt him and make him feel uncomfortable from the first inning. Keuchel beat the Sox in last year’s ALDS with a strong 5⅔ innings (three hits, seven strikesouts). The Astros have won six of his eight postseason starts. Keuchel is probably the anti-Eovaldi in terms of velocity. Eovaldi can throw up to 102 miles per hour, and Keuchel? “That’s a good question,” he said. “I think I’m throwing harder this year than I’ve thrown in a while. So I don’t know, maybe 93.” And after Eovaldi-Keuchel, we’ll likely get Charlie Morton vs. Rick Porcello in Game 4. What I’ve liked about Porcello is that he looks so confident with a killer instinct on the mound. He’s shown that not only in two eighth-inning relief appearances this postseason, but in his five-inning starting stint in Game 4, the ALDS clincher at Yankee Stadium. If it wasn’t for losing a bit of that mojo in the fifth inning and allowing a run, I’m convinced Porcello could have gone seven outstanding innings in that outing. Porcello has a bit of Derek Lowe in him in that he has a rubber arm and capable of making these occasional drop-ins in the bullpen. Given Boston’s bullpen status, that’s been a good thing and given how shaky Craig Kimbrel has been, some have credibly wondered aloud whether Porcello should close games. Porcello has been terrific both in stuff and attitude. Morton, the Connecticut native, is a hard thrower who at age 34 has found himself as one of the better righthanded starters in the league (15-3, 3.13 ERA). Morton, like Eovaldi, will be one of the coveted pitchers in the free agent market, so there’s lots of incentive. This is where the big money is made. Red Sox hitters also need to be aggressive against Morton and get him into hitter’s counts so they can tee off on his fastball. Morton, who did not get to pitch in the ALDS against Cleveland because the Astros swept the Indians in three games, was a Cora favorite in his year as the Astros bench coach and once said about Morton, “He’s got the best stuff of anyone on our pitching staff.” Morton was effective in the World Series last season, winning Game 7 by closing out the Dodgers with four innings of two-hit relief. The elites — Sale, Cole, Justin Verlander, and David Price — will again be in play, but the series will have changed greatly by then, depending on the Nos. 3 and 4 starters. Chris Sale released from hospital, expected to join Red Sox in Houston Peter Abraham HOUSTON — Red Sox ace Chris Sale, who was hospitalized early Sunday morning with a stomach ailment, was discharged on Monday is expected to rejoin the team in Houston on Tuesday. His status for the remainder of the American League Championship Series is uncertain. “We’ll see how he feels physically, and then after that we’ll decide what we’re going to do,” manager Alex Cora said. Sale started Game 1 of the ALCS on Saturday, an erratic performance that lasted four innings. Cora said Sale was taken to Massachusetts General Hospital after the game, at approximately 2 a.m. “He felt ill right after the game, started throwing up,” Cora said. “And then he decided to go to the hospital, and that was it.” Cora said the illness was not related to baseball or any medication Sale may have taken related to the shoulder inflammation that twice landed him on the disabled list this season. “No, not that I know,” Cora said. Cora said that he was told that it was nothing serious, and that Sale went through a battery of tests. “He’ll be here [Tuesday], and hopefully physically he’s ready to go, and we’ll decide when he pitches,” Cora said. All business The Red Sox split a four-game series against the Astros at Minute Maid Park May 30-June 3. It was then when Cora, Houston’s former bench coach, received his World Series ring. There were mixed emotions at the time. But those have vanished. “Not anymore,” Cora said. “That was in the regular season. It’s a great place. It’s a great organization. I have a lot of friends over there. But what they want is what I want. This is different; this is playoffs. “And for how much they quote unquote like me and they care about me, right now it’s the Red Sox against the Astros. “We will always be linked together because it was a special year last year. Not only on the field but off the field. But now it’s a little bit different. We have a job to do, and they do, too.” Lineup changes With Houston starting lefthander Dallas Keuchel in Game 3, Cora plans to return Eduardo Nunez to the lineup at third base despite Rafael Devers going 2 for 3 with a walk in Game 3. Nunez is 2 for 14 in the postseason. Lefthanded hitters have a .707 OPS against Keuchel, four points higher than righthanded hitters. “Although the numbers look like he’s been getting hit by lefties, you start looking at damage and what we can do offensively, and I think it’s a better matchup for us,” Cora said. Cora also indicated he planned to start Ian Kinsler at second base and Christian Vazquez behind the plate. “We’ve got a few matchups that probably late in the game tomorrow we can take advantage of it if they bring the [righthanded relievers] in,” Cora said. Power outage Andrew Benintendi has not hit a home run since Aug. 31, a span of 27 games and 110 at-bats counting the postseason. He has only two since the All-Star break and 16 overall.