Rasmus’ hot bat makes it a grand afternoon
Outfielder’s slam lights up offense, helps put an end to 4-game skid
In a hitter’s count, two balls to no strikes, Colby Rasmus offered at a Clay Buchholz curveball but whiffed. Faced with another curveball, he swung through that one, too.
Buchholz followed with a fastball he left over the middle of the plate.
Rasmus didn’t miss that one
The shaggy-haired left fielder marveled for a couple seconds as the ball traveled 414 feet into the rightcenter field seats at Minute Maid Park. The most pivotal plate appearance of the Astros’ 8-3 victory over Boston on Saturday andthe biggest swing of their season to date ended, fittingly, with a giant bat flip.
“That was the game,” Astros right fielder George Springer said.
Rasmus’ fifth career grand slam, his first in two seasons with the Astros, came at an opportune time for a team that has struggled for most of the season’s first three weeks. It sparked the Astros’ first win in six days, snapping a four-game losing streak, and put them in position to claim Sunday night only their second series victory in six chances.
“I feel everybody was kind of loose,” Rasmussaid, “and it felt like the feeling we had last year.”
Before Saturday, the Astros had rarely this season capitalized on Rasmus’ bat, but through 18 games his stats stack up with the league’s best. His 1.147 OPS ranked second in the American League behind only Baltimore’s Manny Machado (1.254) at the end of Saturday’s game. Entering Saturday evening, only reigning MVP Josh Donaldson of the Toronto Blue Jays (seven) had more home runs among AL players than Rasmus’ six.
After Saturday’s five-RBI performance, Rasmusleads the Astros in homers, RBIs (16) and is second in batting average (.302) to only Jose Altuve (.314). Rasmus has balanced 17 strikeouts with a team-leading 15 walks, a mark he didn’t reach last season until the team’s 57th game.
Of Rasmus’ 69 plate appearances on the young season, none was bigger than in Saturday’s fifth inning, which came with two outs in a 1-1 game. After Luis Valbuena walked and George Springer singled, Carlos Correa reached to load the bases when a Buchholz changeup plunked the Astros’ shortstop. The matinee crowd of 40,232 cheered as Rasmus stepped to the plate. Moments later, the fans would be in a frenzy.
Merely adding to the drama, Rasmus came into the game with an uninspiring .125 batting average in 24 career at-bats against Buch- holz. In his first two at-bats Saturday, he popped up to first base and struck out swinging. Of the 11 pitches he had seen, only three were fastballs. Buchholz had induced a full-count whiff on a changeup.
After starting the fifthinning at-bat with a fastball, a changeup and the two whiff-inducing curveballs, Buchholz went to his two-seam fastball. Astros manager A.J. Hinch surmised Buchholz was trying to trick Rasmus. Rasmus said he wasn’t necessarily surprised by the 2-2 fastball but noted the pitcher’s changeup was “as good as I’ve seen.”
“(In) hindsight, I could probably throw a changeup right there,” Buchholz said. “I think if I execute the (twoseam fastball), it’s either a take, or, in the worst case, I walk him and walk in a run rather than give up four. Sometimes, you’ve got to tip your cap. He put a good swing on it.”
Strong pitching, which eluded the Astros in many of their first 17 games, buoyed Rasmus’ big swing. Mike Fiers bounced back from a one-run first to finish with the best of his four starts, logging 51⁄ innings of 3 two-run ball. Reliever Will Harris escaped a basesloaded jam in the sixth. The Astros’ bats didn’t cease producing after Rasmus’ game-breaking grand slam.
Eight runs matched the Astros’ season high in runs and six doubles marked their most in 12 months. Altuve and Valbuena each doubled twice. Marwin Gonzalez and Rasmus accounted for the others, the latter scoring a run.
If the Astros rid themselves of their early-season woes, Rasmus’ slam might be looked back upon as a turning point. The blast, Hinch said, resulted in “a little bit of an exhale.” It’s still merely April, but Colby’s latest jack provided the Astros a spark rarely seen so far in an otherwise underwhelming first 18 games.