L.A. erupts for five runs in ninth inning
Bullpen squanders Morton’s effort; bats produce only 2 HRs
The Astros’ clubhouse had all but cleared out by the time Ken Giles arrived to his locker shortly after 11 p.m. Saturday at Minute Maid Park. The beleaguered closer folded his arms and began to field questions after his worst outing in his miserable postseason.
“I didn’t do my job. Plain and simple,” Giles said. “I let the team down.”
The refrain was similar to those Giles had offered after blown saves all year. But during the regular season, those instances were few. The flamethrowing righthander converted 34 of his 38 opportunities and had a 2.30 ERA in 622⁄3 innings. In October, a month in which every pitch is magnified, he picked the worst time possible for his struggles to mount.
The three runs with which he was charged in the ninth inning of Game 4 of the World Series doomed the Astros in their 6-2 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers. Giles faced three batters. Each reached base.
After the defeat, the Astros find themselves back at square one. The series is tied at two games. A best-of-three will determine this year’s champion. Dodgers lefthander Clayton Kershaw, the best pitcher of his generation, looms in Game 5 Sunday night. The Astros will counter with Dallas Keuchel in their final home game of 2017.
“This is the World Series. It’s going to be a dogfight,” Astros third baseman Alex Bregman said. “The two best teams are the two teams left standing. It’s been that way since day one, since the season started, and I know we’re not going to back down.” Wood sails early
Though the bullpen remains the Astros’ glaring weakness, their offense managed only two hits Saturday against Alex Wood and three of the Dodgers’ best relievers. Both of their hits left the yard. It wasn’t nearly enough.
Wood had a no-hitter with two outs in the fifth inning before George Springer gave the Astros a 1-0 lead with a solo home run into the Crawford Boxes. The Astros didn’t collect their other hit until they were down to their final out, when Bregman went deep off Dodgers closer Kenley Jansen.
But Giles’ continued issues instilled by far the most concern. In seven postseason outings, he has allowed a run or more in six of them. Summoned to face the heart of the Dodgers’ order in the top of the ninth of a 1-1 game Saturday, he allowed a single to Corey Seager, a walk to Justin Turner and a run-scoring double to Cody Bellinger. He walked off the mound to boos.
Although Astros manager A.J. Hinch didn’t say as much, Giles’ eight pitches Saturday would seem to be the last he will throw in high-leverage situations in this World Series.
“They were all crappy pitches. Not where I want them,” Giles said. “I need to do better. I need to pick up this team. I need to carry my weight. I need to do better for these guys.”
Giles was charged with three runs and didn’t record an out. Two of the runs charged to Giles scored with Joe Musgrove on the mound. Musgrove was responsible for two runs of his own when he served up a game-breaking, three-run homer to Joc Pederson with two outs in the inning. Hitting a mistake pitch
“The Pederson pitch was right where I wanted, a fastball up out of the zone, and he just beat me to it,” Musgrove said. “That’s baseball. You get away with plenty of fastballs right down the middle that guys foul off or swing through, and you throw one up out of the zone where you want and they beat you on it. That’s just baseball.”
The bullpen meltdown and offensive futility wasted a stellar start from Charlie Morton, who along with the Dodgers’ Wood made for the first World Series game ever in which both starting pitchers allowed four baserunners or fewer.
Morton, a hero in the Astros’ Game 7 win in the AL Championship Series, gave his team another dominant outing. In 61⁄3 innings, he allowed only four baserunners. He struck out seven without issuing a walk. Only after he exited was he charged with a run.
Will Harris was on the mound when Logan Forsythe lined a game-tying single to center field with two outs in the seventh. Moments earlier, after allowing a one-out double to Bellinger, Morton had walked off to a standing ovation, which he acknowledged with a tip of his cap. But once Bellinger scored on Forsythe’s hit, Morton was ensured a nodecision.
“I think (catcher Brian McCann) did a good job, were on the same page and we had a good game plan going in,” Morton said. “I thought we did a pretty good job with the righties working them in, getting the sinker in on their hands. The curveball was doing all right. I made some good pitches and got some plays behind me. But yeah, I wish we could’ve pulled it out.”
Wood’s no-hit bid was the longest by a Dodgers pitcher in World Series history. The 3-1 knuckle-curveball Springer punished was Wood’s 84th pitch of the night. It was also his last. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts pulled his starter in favor of Brandon Morrow, who gave Los Angeles four outs. Tony Watson handled the next three outs. Offenses struggle
Both teams struggled offensively from the start. After Chris Taylor led off the game with a single up the middle against Morton, neither team managed even a hit until Kike Hernandez sliced a single to center field in the sixth.
Between the first-inning single by Taylor and an errant 0-1 fastball that hit Barnes in the right forearm to begin the sixth, Morton retired 14 consecutive batters. Barnes advanced to third on Hernandez’s single, which he hit on a full-count fastball.
The first-and-third jam with one out represented either team’s first offensive threat, especially considering that the Dodgers had the top of their order rolling around. But Morton induced a grounder to the third baseman Bregman, who cut down Barnes at home. A fly out by Seager stranded runners on first and second.
As he was in the Astros’ pennant clincher seven nights earlier, Morton was efficient Saturday. He threw only 76 pitches to record his 19 outs. Harris was left in only for the final two outs of the seventh.
Hinch tabbed Chris Devenski for the eighth.
Devenski needed only 12 pitches to complete a perfect inning. He froze Pederson on a 2-2 changeup high in the zone, induced a fly out from Hernandez and a groundout from Taylor.
But despite his excellence, he was not afforded another inning. In the middle of the eighth, Giles began to warm in the Astros’ bullpen. Disaster loomed. “I just need to make better pitches,” Giles said. “I need to be ready. I need to go out there with a vengeance and be ready to go tomorrow. I’m going to pound that zone tomorrow. If it’s just one out, I’m going to get that one out to get me on track.”