ALL IS AMISS
What was a 2-0 advantage has become a 3-2 deficit, and after back-to-back-to back losses in the Bronx, the bats had better get booming at home ... or else Subpar Keuchel gets no backing; series batting average falls to .147
NEW YORK — If the Astros fail to win the two consecutive games they require to advance to the World Series, their American League Championship Series against the New York Yankees will be remembered for the mystifying disappearing act of their major league-best offense.
Their offensive struggles in the ALCS reached a nadir in a 5-0 loss in Game 5 on Wednesday night at Yankee Stadium. Shut out for the first time in the playoffs since the final game of the 2005 World Series, the Astros managed only four hits a day after mustering three.
A third straight defeat in the Bronx left them headed home on the brink of elimination. The Yankees lead the best-of-seven series three games to two. Game 6 is Friday at Minute Maid Park. The Astros will start their best pitcher in Justin Verlander. But his performance will go only so far if their bats can’t hit the Yankees’ best, Luis Severino.
On Wednesday night, Yankees starter Masahiro Tanaka shut
down the Astros for the first seven innings before handing the baton to reliever Tommy Kahnle. The Astros were 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position, dropping their series mark to 4-for-27.
The offensive regression from the regular season has been staggering. A group that produced 5.5 runs per game has scored only nine times in five ALCS games. The Astros batted a sensational .282 with a .346 on-base percentage and .478 slugging percentage in the regular season. They are slashing a putrid .147/.234/.213 in this series.
Carlos Correa’s solo home run in Game 2 at Minute Maid Park signifies the Astros’ only long ball of this series. They hit 1.47 homers per game during the regular season.
Ugly list
A sampling of the individual numbers looks just as ugly. Josh Reddick is 0-for-17. George Springer is 2-for18.
Alex Bregman is 2-for17.
Marwin Gonzalez is 2-for-15.
Carlos Beltran is 1-for12.
Brian McCann is 0-for10.
Collectively, the Astros have a mere 22 hits in 150 at-bats.
“From what I see, it seems like we’re trying to do way too much in the box,” said Reddick, who in the regular season never went more than two consecutive games without a hit. “Everybody’s trying to be the one guy who can put the team on their back with one swing, and I think that’s one thing that we can’t really get too focused on.
“We’ve got to keep the line moving. We’ve been so great all year chaining together hits one after another. We’ve just got to get back to that.”
The anemic Astros offense left ace lefthander Dallas Keuchel little margin for error Wednesday. And for the first time in nine career starts against these Yankees, he was knocked around some.
Keuchel, who had allowed seven earned runs in his 572⁄3 previous in- nings against the Yankees, allowed four in 42⁄3 frames Wednesday. The Yankees tagged him for seven hits, including two doubles. Three singles in a five-batter span in the fifth chased Keuchel from the game.
The outing inflated Keuchel’s career ERA against the Yankees a halfrun, from his incredible 1.09 to 1.59. He had allowed more than two earned runs in a start against them only once, on Aug. 21, 2014, when he gave up three in eight innings.
“I knew I had my hands full today with the way their starters have been throwing against us,” he said. “But at the same time, I thought coming into it we had a great game plan and, with the pitches we’ve been throwing and strategy and the counts, that it was going to be another pitchers’ duel. It just didn’t go our way, and we’ll look to regroup and get back to Houston.”
Squandered chances
The second inning contrasted the states of these two offenses. In the top of the frame, the Astros squandered a leadoff double by Yuli Gurriel. In the bottom, the Yankees capitalized on a two-out double by Starlin Castro when Greg Bird ripped a single to the right-field corner.
Gonzalez provided another prime scoring opportunity for the Astros in the fifth. After ripping a single to right field off Tanaka, he advanced to second on a wild pitch. McCann worked a walk to bring up the top of the order, which during most of the regular season would have meant doom for the pitcher.
But Springer and Reddick struck out against Tanaka. Springer was caught looking at a fastball at the knees on the outside corner. Reddick chased a splitter outside.
Tanaka struck out eight and issued only one walk in his seven innings. The Astros, according to Hinch, got “pull happy” against the Japanese righthander. He induced 10 outs on the ground and four in the air.
“He was pitching on the edges. That’s what he does. That’s his MO,” Bregman said. “He’s going to throw fastballs on the edges to both sides of the plate. He’s going to throw splitters down in the zone, and his slider was good tonight. It was on the edges.
“He’s a good pitcher, and we didn’t capitalize when we needed to. We just need one big swing — one big swing to get us going — and the offense will be back.”
Keuchel struck out eight in his 42⁄3 innings and walked only one, but his outing was doomed by the Yankees’ two-run fifth.
Chase Headley began the Yanks’ biggest rally with a one-out single on which he reached second after Bregman’s throw skipped past Gurriel at first base. A groundout by Brett Gardner left Keuchel one out away from escaping unscathed.
With Aaron Judge due up next, Hinch jogged to the mound, and the infield convened around Keuchel. The meeting was brief. Keuchel pitched to Judge, but carefully. A walk set the stage for Gary Sanchez, one of the Yankees’ Game 4 heroes.
Sanchez ripped a single down the left-field line to score Headley. Didi Gregorius ran his count full before singling up the middle just past diving second baseman Jose Altuve. The three consecutive New York baserunners prompted the end of Keuchel’s outing. As he walked toward the dugout, the Yankees fans sitting behind the Astros’ dugout waved him goodbye.
Team meeting
In the visitors’ clubhouse after the game, before the Astros packed their bags and boarded a flight for Houston, veterans Beltran and McCann led a team meeting.
“The message was that we cannot feel sorry about ourselves. We won the first two games, we lost the three games here, and now we’re going to have the opportunity to go home and try to do what they did here,” Beltran said. “Win the next two games and try to move on to the next round. That’s the mentality.
“I told them that it wasn’t going to be easy. Even though you win the first two games, we have to understand that we’re coming here to their home. They’ve been able to play good games here, so that’s what they did. … You have to give them credit, but at the end of the day, we have to be able to as a team turn the page and move on and look to what is ahead of us.”