Correa, Altuve return thunder to lineup
Pair go 8-for-10 as offense finds 2017 level after sputtering start
ARLINGTON — The 11th pitch of Matt Moore’s abysmal afternoon was an inside cutter Carlos Correa lined into center field.
At first after a single of his own, Jose Altuve passed second, challenging the right arm of center fielder Carlos Tocci. There was no contest. Altuve slid into third safely while Tocci’s tepid throw bounced in.
“Running into bases,” A.J. Hinch called it afterward.
Success invites impractical expectations, from which the defending World Series champions are not immune. Eleven hits in the first 18 innings of the Astros’ season seemed paltry. One with a runner in scoring position, when they were afforded 15 such opportunities, did, too.
The Astros’ offensive shortcomings were pale when compared to their World Series adversary. The Los Angeles Dodgers did not score a run in their first 18 innings of 2018.
It is not an indictment of either club. It is far too early to speak in any sort of absolutes about any of them, no matter the talent in its clubhouse or what is drawn out of these statistics in small sample sizes.
But Saturday represented a return to the standard, what has almost become expected from this Astros bunch.
“The aggressiveness on both sides,” the manager said, “inside the strike zone and also on the basepaths was key.”
The Astros bludgeoned Texas 9-3, taking free bases at will and slaughtering a carousel of six Rangers pitchers. They exceeded their hit total from the first two games of this series by the seventh inning, one Altuve led off with a double.
‘Standard operation’
Correa followed with his first home run of the season, pulling a fourseam fastball Jesse Chavez left at the belt to atop the left-field wall 383 feet away. The game became a farce, one spearheaded by the electric middle of the Astros’ order.
Correa and Altuve finished 8-for-10 and each produced four hits, tying their respective careerhighs.
Altuve’s was his 25th career four-hit effort and his first in a regular-season game since July 24, 2017. Correa accomplished the feat last Sept. 28.
“Standard operation day,” Hinch said with a wry grin.
Correa finished Saturday a triple shy of the cycle. Two of his four hits came against Moore, the woebegone Rangers starter upon whom the Astros executed their assault.
Among the 58 pitchers who qualified for the ERA title last season, Moore’s 5.52 effort ranked last. His performance Saturday did little to remove this ignominy.
The lefthander required 85 pitches to escape four innings. Only seven were swung upon and missed.
Each of the three runscoring hits he ceded came with two strikes, accentuating an inability to find any sort of putaway pitch. Take the second inning. Evan Gattis massacred a changeup to the wall for a double. Brian McCann blooped the same pitch into shallow left field to score him. All were fullcount pitches.
Then, Jake Marisnick — sidelined since September with a broken thumb — ambushed a two-strike curveball. It traveled 404 feet to center field, his second home run in three games to continue his surprising power surge from the bottom of the order.
Lineup packs punch
“We don’t need to rely on anyone in the lineup, I think we can go from any position in the order and do some damage,” Hinch said. “If we can continue to get production throughout the lineup, it will be really hard to kick us out of games.
“It keeps us in games if we’re ever trailing and also will keep us tacking on runs to separate ourselves on some tough days to play.” Sound familiar? “I have seen this a lot of times,” Altuve said. “I don’t want to say this is the team we are, because we’re going to win some games, we’re going to lose some games, we’re going to hit really good and (then) struggle sometimes.
“But I have seen this before, so it doesn’t surprise me.”