Hinch leverages Giles for toughest outs
Reliever retires Escobar, Trout, Pujols in 8th to support latest Keuchel gem
On countless occasions dating to spring training, Astros manager A.J. Hinch has stated that more times than not, Ken Giles will pitch the ninth inning.
But seemingly every time he’s discussed his closer’s role since the beginning of last season, Hinch has made sure to point out he reserves the right to deploy the back end of his bullpen however he best sees fit in a given game. His usage will be dictated by matchups. After all, the highest-leverage spot in the game often
occurs before the ninth.
In the Astros’ 5-1 win over the Los Angeles Angels on Wednesday night at Minute Maid Park, Hinch used his bullpen in a way that will make the sabermetric community proud. With the Astros leading by two and the top of the Angels’ order due up in the eighth, the manager phoned his bullpen and asked for his closer.
If the Angels were to mount a comeback, their best chance was the eighth behind Yunel Escobar, Mike Trout and Albert Pujols.
So Hinch prepared Giles, the hard-throwing righthander with the wipeout slider. A two-run homer by Josh Reddick doubled the Astros’ lead, but Giles was warm, so he came in anyway and needed only eight pitches to retire the side. Harris finishes
In the ninth, Hinch opted for the ultra reliable Will Harris, who had first warmed up in the seventh. It’s possible Hinch might have opted for setup man Luke Gregerson in the ninth if it were a save situation. Or then again, maybe not.
“I guess we’ll never know, will we?” Hinch said. “It would have been one of Harris or (Chris) Devenski or Gregerson or maybe (Brad) Peacock.”
Hinch laughed at the end of his answer, but a bullpen devoid of hardand-fast roles is a progressive-minded manager’s dream.
“The right matchups are going to come at any given time,” he said. “I had made my mind up at 3-1 that Ken was going to pitch to the top of the order. When it got to 5-1, I had him hot, and I wasn’t going to change it. That was exactly the pocket that I wanted him to pitch. I couldn’t control the fact that it didn’t come in the ninth.”
Although Hinch’s bullpen usage was the development with the biggest long-term ramifications to the Astros’ season, the team also extracted another stellar outing from its ace. Dallas Keuchel allowed only one run in seven innings, bringing his ERA to 0.96 through his first 28 innings.
Keuchel (3-0) has completed exactly seven innings and allowed one or zero runs in each of his four starts. On Wednesday, he scattered eight hits and a walk but struck out seven and induced three double-play ground balls.
“It wasn’t the way I drew it up,” he said, “but I’ll take it.”
Reddick keyed the Astros’ offense, accounting for three of their nine hits and all but one of their four extra-base hits. His seventh-inning home run off righthander Mike Morin left him a single shy of the cycle, but it came in his final plate appearance of the evening.
“Any time you can come out here hot with a new team, it’s always special,” said Reddick, who is batting .341 with an .885 OPS through 44 at-bats. “Last year after the trade deadline (deal to the Dodgers), I really didn’t get as much as I wanted to do after it. But to come here after signing the deal (in November), it’s definitely a big pick-me-up.”
For five innings, the Astros were held mostly in check by JC Ramirez, a hard-throwing journeyman reliever the Angels are converting into a starter. This was only his second career start following last Friday in Kansas City, where he allowed five runs in five innings.
Yet for most of Wednesday night, Ramirez befuddled the Astros with a heavy dose of power sliders, on which he induced seven swings and misses. He struck out five in a row over the third and fourth innings and finished with a career-high nine K’s. George Springer struck out twice, as did the contact-oriented Nori Aoki. Quick run
The Astros did their damage against Ramirez early and late in his outing. In the first inning, Reddick took advantage of a misplayed ball by Angels left fielder Jefrey Marte to come away with a one-out triple and scored on a Jose Altuve single to right field.
Altuve stole second — he’s 6-for-6 in the early going — and advanced to third on a Brian McCann single. But the opportunity to score more was squandered when on a wild pitch the ball caromed off the backstop and back to Angels catcher Martin Maldonado in time to tag Altuve before he slid across home plate.
Ramirez retired each of the nine batters he faced in the second through fourth innings before Alex Bregman led off the fifth with a double and scored on a Yuli Gurriel single.
Reddick opened the bottom half of the sixth with a double, and after he advanced to third base on an Altuve fly out, Angels manager Mike Scioscia pulled his starter.