Yuli does it again in 10
For the second game in a row, infielder delivers the telling blow in 10th inning to trigger winning celebration
Yuli Gurriel delivers gamewinner in 10th for second straight night.
Yuli Gurriel’s right ankle ached and his manager considered removing him from the game. A limp was pronounced, but Gurriel pleaded his case.
He was injured during the seventh inning, the same frame featuring Seattle’s game-tying home run. A.J. Hinch considered his options. On Friday, Gurriel tattooed a 10th-inning, walkoff home run into the Crawford Boxes.
“We wanted his at-bat, obviously,” Hinch said. “Their closer is a lefthanded pitcher, and that’s obviously an advantage for us to keep him in the game if he could hit.”
Gurriel craves the late-game atbats. The 34-year-old Cuban infielder usually does not strike out, rarely walks and sees few pitches during plate appearances. Quick outs are common. He produces putrid stretches for just long enough to elicit worry.
“But there’s at-bats where he’s in complete control and he’s going to hit it really hard,” Hinch said. “When the game is on the line, he just has that hitterish vibe to him that he’s going to get a good pitch to hit and hit it hard.”
Against Roenie Elias — that same southpaw closer Hinch had a feeling his first baseman would face — Gurriel bludgeoned a 2-0 changeup. It sailed into the gap in right-center field. Michael Brantley rounded the bases without any danger of a throw in. Gurriel gimped around first base and headed for second, bracing himself for another Astros celebration.
Gurriel’s second consecutive walkoff hit gave the Astros another 10-inning victory at Minute Maid Park. Saturday night’s 6-5 win secured a sorely needed series victory. Gurriel became the first Astro in 28 years to strike walkoff hits in extra innings on consecutive nights.
“I like them,” Gurriel said through an interpreter. “I like being in these tense situations, and I feel like I focus even more and I’m able to get big hits during those times.”
“I’m not scared to fail and always have a positive mindset.”
Getting hot at last
On June 9, Gurriel carried a .283 on-base percentage. His OPS was .665. Among American League first baseman, he resided at the bottom of almost all offensive categories.
In 16 games since, Gurriel is hitting .318. His OPS has risen to .726. He is a hot hitter in a reeling Houston lineup that needs all the help it can find.
“He’s got great bat-to-ball skills, he can cover the whole plate,” starter Justin Verlander said. “To be here and play with him the last few years, it’s incredible to see what he can do. There’s so many guys you want up there in those big spots, but I think Yuli gets overlooked a little bit in this lineup. And he shouldn’t. I think on a lot of other teams he wouldn’t be. But we’ve got so much talent here.”
Across this suspect stretch of baseball, the Astros could count on Verlander.
The ace is the one constant when all else seems awry, often asked to assume all responsibility for stopping a subpar stretch or singlehandedly return the Astros to their dominant form. Rarely does he receive help.
Verlander is almost unassailable when handed a lead. Handed five runs of support and a threerun advantage after the second inning, the righthander was anything but.
“It’s good for this team to pick him up,” Hinch said. “We gave him a five-spot and he just had to battle through five innings.”
Verlander spun one of his worst starts as an Astro but still left in line for a win.
He threw just five innings and yielded four earned runs. The four walks he permitted were his most in a regular-season start since he was traded to the Astros.
Only nine of Verlander’s pitches were swung upon and missed, fewer than any other start this year. Command of both breaking pitches was nearly nonexistent. Neither his curveball nor his slider received a swing and miss. Feel for Verlander’s curveball returned fleetingly in the fourth and departed shortly thereafter.
Tough outing for Verlander
A Mariner reached base in every frame he worked, inflating the major league-low 0.75 WHIP with which the ace entered the evening.
“That was a tough one,” Verlander said. “Guys did a good job not swinging at offspeed, not chasing the offspeed. They put good swings on it in the zone and didn’t chase out of the zone. They fouled off a lot of fastballs and were working me into tough counts.
“I tip my cap. They did a great job.”
Ryan Pressly, the Astros’ best reliever, allowed a game-tying home run to Daniel Vogelbach in the seventh, requiring another comeback Gurriel orchestrated through tremendous pain.
During the seventh inning, Gurriel bounced a soft ground ball to the left side. While running
out the play, Gurriel reached for the first-base bag, missed it and felt pain in his right ankle. Gurriel was initially ruled safe. A replay review overturned that declaration. He limped to the dugout badly, with many wondering whether he’d emerge to play defense.
Hinch allowed it.
Two scoreless innings brought the game to the 10th. Gurriel was due second. Brantley struck a single up the middle to begin.
Elias flung a fastball far too inside and sailed a changeup too high. Ahead 2-0, Gurriel got another changeup. He hit it 97.7 mph off the bat.
Center fielder Mallex Smith was shaded to pull. Gurriel sent it the opposite way, rendering no chance for a catch and another much-needed win.
“(It’s) incredible for me just to be in those situations,” Gurriel said. “And to get the big hit in those situations, it’s something incredible for me.”
Sunday, Hinch said, Gurriel will get a deserved day off.