Season’s first hiccup doesn’t negate best record in majors
It began with the best team in baseball back in town and 104,620 fans showing up to watch it all.
It ended with a small collection of Cleveland supporters standing and shouting and the Astros being swept for the first time this season.
They’re still 29-15, hold the top record in MLB and are staring down at the rising Rangers. But A.J. Hinch’s club is dealing with a little adversity for the first time all year, and now the Astros must make it through at least the next five days without ace Dallas Keuchel and veteran leader Brian McCann.
The Indians won 8-6 on Sunday at Minute Maid Park, captured a threegame series by a total of 16-9, and reminded baseball why they were the American League’s World Series representative in 2016. The Astros’ bats are in a three-game hole, the rotation suddenly looks thin, and spot starter Brad Peacock must step up Monday to prevent a fourgame losing streak.
“The ebbs and flows of the season are difficult,” said Hinch, after Cleveland put up eight runs before the fifth inning Sunday, silencing 33,476 in the stands. “You try to stay as even-keeled as you can. But we had a rough weekend — that’s the bottom line. They did a better job of playing the game, and that’s why they’re a good team as well. We’ll bounce back from this.”
Too little too late
The best team in baseball finally showed up with two outs left in the ninth. A restless Marwin Gonzalez fouled off pitch after pitch before blasting the 13th offering for a 398-foot home run. Alex Bregman followed with a solo shot, and the Astros totaled four homers on a day they had only six hits.
“We didn’t hit like we’ve been hitting,” said Carlos Beltran, who lifted a 374-foot solo shot into the right-field stands in the second. “They came playing good baseball. They were swinging the bat well. They were putting up runs, not only one but many. We just couldn’t get back in those games.”
Joe Musgrove’s ERA ballooned to 5.63 after the second-year righthander gave up eight hits and seven runs in three-plus innings. He was at 67 pitches when the fourth began and never in command. With long ball-prone Mike Fiers (5.14 ERA) unpredictable and Charlie Morton (4.26) proving himself in 2017, questions that shadowed the Astros throughout spring training — Keuchel’s health, the overall strength of the rotation — reappeared against Cleveland (23-19).
“I haven’t been myself, and I haven’t been normal all year,” said Musgrove, who’s still trying to live up to the late-season promise he displayed in 2016.
The Astros were clearly the best team in the sport a quarter of the way through this season. They returned to Houston having taken three of four from the Yankees in New York, had won nine of 10 overall, and were set up to indulge in a 10-game homestand. But Trevor Bauer was the better pitcher Friday, Mike Clevinger flirted with a no-hitter Saturday, and Musgrove struggled to stay on the mound past the second inning Sunday.
Moving on
The Astros’ improved depth should carry them this season. But against the Indians — who fell one win shy of a World Series title last year — Hinch’s team often misfired and lacked spark. Cleveland is 5-1 against the Astros in 2017 and has done more with less.
“To be honest with you, the Indians outplayed us in just about every area,” Hinch said. “They did a really good job this series, and that’s why they came away with the wins.”
Even with his rotation receiving its first major hit this season and his hitters locking in too late, the Astros’ third-year manager balanced three consecutive losses to the Indians with the 41 games that preceded the sweep.
More than 104,000 fans showed up to watch three baseball games in mid-May for a reason. The real Astros should be back.
“We have to,” Beltran said. “That’s the mentality. You have to let go what is already in the past and move on to the next series.”