‘It just didn’t work’
Astros manager says strategy was sound, but the execution was flawed.
NEW YORK — When he sent starter Lance McCullers Jr. back out at only 80 pitches for the seventh inning of the Astros’ 6-4 loss in Tuesday’s ALCS Game 4, manager A.J. Hinch hadn’t made a permanent decision on whether Aaron Judge would be the pitcher’s final batter.
It was likely to be, though, Hinch acknowledged Wednesday. The Astros had targeted the Nos. 3 through 5 hitters in the Yankees’ lineup as the ideal pocket for Chris Devenski because the threehole-hitting Didi Gregorius and five-hole-hitting
Greg Bird both bat from the left side. Devenski held lefties to a minuscule .111 batting average and .414 OPS during the regular season.
“That pocket was exactly what we wanted Devenski in,” Hinch said before Wednesday’s Game 5 at Yankee Stadium. “It just didn’t work.”
The decision to pull McCullers after the righthander allowed a firstpitch home run to Judge became maybe Hinch’s most controversial of the season when Devenski failed to get the job done. The All-Star reliever allowed a triple on a fastball to Gregorius, a sacrifice fly to Gary Sanchez, and a six-pitch walk to Greg Bird to force Hinch to summon Joe Musgrove to finish the seventh.
Musgrove retired Starlin Castro and Aaron Hicks to limit the damage in that inning. In deciding who would begin the eighth, the Astros also liked Musgrove against the batters due up next: Todd Frazier and Chase Headley, who as expected pinch hit for Austin Romine. And for good reason. Musgrove finished the season as one of their best relievers, posting a 1.44 ERA in 311⁄3 innings after he was jettisoned from the rotation.
But like Devenski in the seventh, Musgrove in the eighth failed to execute against the batters the Astros felt were favorable matchups. Frazier and Headley each singled. Ken Giles relieved him, and the rest is history.
“It’s all result-based. If I leave (McCullers) in and he gives up another double and a homer and they tie the game, then I left him in too long. And that can be the span of five pitches,” Hinch said.
“We criticize results. (McCullers) hadn’t pitched at that volume in a couple months.”
Hinch was also questioned about not using Brad Peacock, who through four games has yet to pitch in the series. Peacock warmed up briefly Tuesday, while McCullers was still in the game, as a potential option to face Judge at the start of the seventh. But Hinch gave Judge to McCullers, who had allowed only one hit and no runs to that point.
“I think Brad is a great weapon, and in hindsight it’s always easy to reflect back on that,” Hinch said of not pitching Peacock in Game 4. “I think where we were in the moment and the hitters that we had matched up, we were comfortable with what we had.
“When it doesn’t work, of course you look at the alternatives of what could have happened. But I think in baseball we always assume the other one would’ve worked out. We always do. A hundred percent of the time we think that it would have worked out. We just don’t know. But certainly Brad’s a weapon that can and will be utilized.”
Odds and ends
As expected, the pitching matchup for Game 6 will be a rematch of Game 2: the Astros’ Justin Verlander against the Yankees’ Luis Severino. Verlander pitched a complete game in his Game 2 start, which resulted in a 2-1 Astros win. Severino allowed only one run and two hits but was pulled after just four innings. …
Speaking on reliever Chris Devenski’s struggles, which continued in Game 4 when he replaced Lance McCullers Jr. and immediately gave up a triple to Didi Gregorius and a sacrifice fly, Astros manager A.J. Hinch said, “I know he was pretty amped up. The first-pitch fastball to Didi, like down at his foot, just shows an extra adrenaline level that’s hard to govern. And he’s generally always a strike thrower, so I think he’s just had a hard time controlling the zone.” …
When Hinch took the field in the eighth inning of Game 4 to speak with the umpire after a fan touched Aaron Judge’s double off the wall, it wasn’t to argue fan interference. It was to complain about fans throwing things on the field. “I told him, ‘If we don’t get a hold of this, I’ll pull my team off this field, and we’ll make a big spectacle of it,’ ” Hinch recounted Wednesday. Hinch also said his family was doused with beer in the stands during Game 3.