Crazy eighth
After L.A. scores 5 in top half, hosts get 9 to put game away
A conversation between two bearded men occurred somewhere inside a downtrodden dugout staggered by the continued unraveling of a once-trusted reliever.
“I looked over at Dallas (Keuchel) and said, ‘They could easily just hand us this game,’ ” Evan Gattis said. “And I think everybody on this team believes that.”
After the most preposterous inning of the Astros’ World Series title defense, a farcical frame which lasted one hour and five minutes, others do, too.
Fourteen runs were scored between two teams — one vying to keep pace in a contentious division race against another playing for nothing but self-esteem and its lame-duck manager.
Against three Los Angeles Angels relievers in the eighth inning, the Astros scored nine times. The four-run deficit the Astros’ bullpen created in the top-half became a 10-5 win after the bottom at Minute Maid Park.
“We know what time of year it is,” said manager A.J. Hinch, whose team kept pace while the Oakland Athletics continue to stick in the American League West race. “We see the scoreboard and we know every game is worth a ton right now. I’ve watched a lot of innings this year, but my recent memory will tell you that’s the best inning we’ve had.”
Rondon’s woes continue
Thirteen Astros came to the plate. Justin Anderson, the St Pius X graduate in his first major league season, walked the first two — Jose Altuve and Marwin Gonzalez. Alex Bregman popped out for the first out.
The next nine hitters reached. Anderson was replaced by Ty Buttery, who walked Josh Reddick and allowed an RBI single to Yuli Gurriel.
Consecutive bases-loaded singles by Brian McCann and Gattis pared the Astros’ deficit to one.
Tyler White, without a basesloaded hit in his major league career, pinch hit and bounced a ground ball to Taylor Ward.
Ward corralled the tailor-made double-play ball, and tossed it into right field. Two runs scored and the Astros spilled from the dugout, holding the lead struggling reliever Hector Rondon had given away.
“I’m just trying to get to first base as fast as possible,” White said. “I know we needed that run. It’s not really how you draw it up, but we got the job done, got the runs in. I was just trying to get to first base as fast as possible.”
Once a closer who invited confidence amid Ken Giles’ emotional instability, Rondon is a shell of his former self. His performance this month is galling, prompting pressing questions of an Astros bullpen which, for weeks, had operated so seamlessly.
Rondon’s September slide reached its nadir. He began the eighth inning of Saturday’s game with a 1-0 lead. Justin Verlander threw six scoreless innings of onehit ball, striking out 11during his scoreless stint. Ryan Pressly escaped a hairy seventh to preserve the lead.
Rondon started to return it. His latest combustion leaves wretched numbers. He has yielded nine earned runs in his last 4⅓ innings. He faced three hitters Saturday. Two reached base, awakening an otherwise anemic Angels lineup.
“Obviously, it hasn’t been a great stretch for him,” Hinch said. “My level of concern is more for him to stay confident and focused that his best pitches are good enough. It feels like everything happening for him right now is negative. I take him out of the game and his runs get cashed in. He’ll be back out there in a couple days.”
Joe Smith, handed the mess Rondon constructed, could not save it. Mike Trout obliterated a three-run homer against the sidearmer, scoring the go-ahead run which Rondon placed aboard.
Easy come, easy go
Thirteen strikeouts in their first seven innings led the Angels to their bench.
To start the eighth, they summoned two pinch hitters to face Rondon, who was unavailable for comment after the game.
Eric Young Jr. saw six pitches to coax a leadoff walk. When he stole second base, Smith began to warm in the bullpen. Lefthanded hitter Francisco Arcia loomed.
Rondon raced ahead 1-2. The righthander placed a fastball on the outer half. Arcia poked it the other way, inside the left-field line for a game-tying double. Trout’s tattooed home run silenced a crowd of 41,822. Gattis found Keuchel in the dugout.
“I know it’s a four-run deficit,” Hinch added, “but with this team and the top of the order.”
White’s fortune allowed it one last chance to shine. Leadoff hitter George Springer shot an RBI single past a drawn-in infield, adding a tack-on run.
Altuve arrived, bringing this insanity to a fitting conclusion. He got ahead of Blake Parker 2-0. Parker, the latest poor soul summoned from a combustible bullpen, piped a fastball. Altuve offered a mighty hack.
When it left the bat there was no doubt. The baseball landed 429 feet away atop the train tracks. The locomotive, under repair for most of this homestand and rendered immobile, began its slow acceleration across the leftfield line.
“(We) know that we’re never out of it,” Gattis said. “Especially the timing, late in the year, postseason approaching, Saturday night, good energy. It’s important for this team to know we can do that, kind of like a postseason feel.”