Astros offense a big hit
ALDS matchup all about bats, not arms
HOUSTON — We are conditioned to think of October baseball as a special subset of games determined by what happens on the mound. On a long list of baseball cliches, “pitching wins championships” is right up there with “keep your eye on the ball.”
And if your eye was on the ball at Minute Maid Park yesterday, it became clear just how the Astros are going to win this Division Series.
They’re going to pummel the Red Sox into submission.
Forget all the talk about the Sox’ late-inning relievers, or the potential to exploit the Astros defensive shortcomings on the bases. Forget Chris Sale against Justin Verlander, or Drew Pomeranz vs. Dallas Keuchel.
What the Red Sox cannot match is the Astros’ offensive firepower.
Jose Altuve’s three home runs in Houston’s 8-2 win in Game 1 put him among the all-time great postseason performances. But it wasn’t just Altuve.
The Nos. 8 and 9 hitters for the Astros had two RBI apiece. Josh Reddick returned from a back injury to contribute two hits. Evan Gattis doubled twice. Alex Bregman went deep.
While the Red Sox were trying to manufacture runs and take the extra base, the Astros were hitting three doubles and four homers, and they were doing it in a game started by Sale.
Where, oh where, have you gone, David Ortiz?
“I mean, we make it hard for the starting pitcher,” said Brian McCann, the Astros’ No. 9 hitter. “We really do. We swing inside the strike zone, and we’ve got lefty, righty, lefty, righty, (plus) switch hitters. We’ve got Marwin Gonzalez hitting eighth. If you really take a step back and think about that, he’s got a .900-something OPS, so he’s having a remarkable season, and for him to be hitting eighth, it just tells you what kind of offense we have.”
It did seem that the Red Sox had a game plan against Altuve. They wanted to expand the strike zone and get the ball where the little guy couldn’t reach it. But there just aren’t many spots Altuve can’t hit.
And when pitchers miss their spots and leave a ball over the plate, Altuve becomes a batting champ who also sends balls flying over the left field wall.
“That’s kind of a buzz saw right there,” Sale said. “We’ve seen all year what he can do. He had a pretty historic night, so tip your cap to him. Like I said, just got to be better. No excuses. Bad time to suck.”
Blame this one on bad Sox pitching if you’d like, but a lesser offense wouldn’t have put it out of reach the way the Astros did. They are the seventh team in history to have the league’s fewest strikeouts and still have highest slugging percentage.
The previous team to do it? The 1995 Cleveland Indians, who went to the World Series behind Jim Thome, Albert Belle and a young kid named Manny Ramirez.
The Red Sox had offensive chances of their own. They got Verlander’s pitch count up to 46 after two innings. They pulled even in the fourth.
But when the Astros offense galloped through the middle innings with tworun doubles and more Altuve homers, the Sox had no answers.
The Red Sox scored eight runs just once in their final 10 games of the regular season. The Astros did it four times in their last seven. Game 1 was not a fluke. This is what the Astros do.
“We had four two-out runs that we scored after some good at-bats,” Houston manager A.J. Hinch said. “We didn’t have a guy in the lineup that didn’t have good at-bats today, and I think that speaks to why we’re a good offensive club. And we need those big hits, especially in the big moments, and putting up good at-bats is one of the themes on our team. It’s a staple for up and down the order.”
And it’s not going away. The Astros are going to have a different starter on the mound for Game 2, and so will the Red Sox, but that Houston lineup is going to be the same with a .906 OPS batting eighth, a Silver Slugger batting ninth and Altuve hearing MVP chants every time he steps to the plate.
“I’m a big believer in pitching wins championships,” McCann said. “And we’ve got that. But we’ve also got a lineup that can matchup with anybody.”
That’s where this Division Series matchup is most lopsided. Pitching might win championships, but offense is going to win this series.