How’s that for crazy?
Bregman’s 8-foot dribbler in 11th just as big as his two home runs
With his hat off and the weirdest win of this baseball season in his pocket, a 6-5, 11inning triumph over the Oakland A’s, Astros manager A.J. Hinch interlocked his fingers and placed them behind his head.
He welcomed a group of scurrying reporters to the news conference room inside the bowels of Minute Maid Park on Tuesday night. A wry smile accompanied his relaxed demeanor, a mess at home plate the most welcome sight on a night his bullpen imploded against the division’s streakiest team.
This was the zaniest of the Astros’ six walkoff wins during their stupendous first half, one created by a terrible swing, two bonehead plays by a veteran catcher and a most unusual conquering of this division’s hottest reliever.
Against A’s All-Star closer Blake Treinen, saddled with his first blown save in 21 opportunities, Alex Bregman dribbled a 98.3 mph sinker 8 feet in front of home plate. The game was tied at 5. One was out.
“I swung at a horrible pitch,” Bregman said. “I missed a pitch down the middle the first time. That’s what happens when you get down against a guy like Treinen, he’s so dirty that you can’t miss. I was fortunate enough
to dink it into play, try to just not punch out I guess.”
It first rolled foul, but began to trail back fair. Kyle Tucker broke from second base.
“I saw it foul at first,” said Tucker, the 21-year-old wunderkind playing his fourth major league game. “Then I saw (Jonathan) Lucroy waiting to see it go fair and I saw it kind of creeping back, so I just took off.”
A’s catcher Lucroy picked up the dribbler. He went at Bregman for a tag. Bregman bent his hips and gyrated away. Lucroy lost control of the baseball and Bregman motored past him up the first-base line.
Lucroy fired a throw. It hit Bregman and careened into the outfield, allowing Tucker to score the winning run.
“I definitely screwed that one up,” Lucroy said. “The guys battled back, .and I let them down behind the plate. That one’s on me.”
Bregman hit two home runs in Tuesday’s win. It was the first multi-home run game of his major league career — one few will remember for that distinction.
“That was definitely very weird,” Bregman said.
A’s bench coach Ryan Christenson, managing after Bob Melvin was ejected in the fourth inning, chased the umpires off the field, forcing them to a review. They did and, after 2½ minutes, upheld the play, sending the Astros to an improbable win.
Treinen allowed two hits in the ninth inning of Monday’s 2-0 loss. Two strikeouts rendered them harmless.
One day later, no such luck existed. He walked Josh Reddick on six pitches to begin the 11th before Tucker willed a single through the right side. Reddick motored from first to third, allowing Tony Kemp to bat with runners at the corners.
“That completely changes the inning: first and second versus first and third,” Hinch said. “Both quality at-bats, Josh Reddick's baserunning and aggressiveness right from the minute that Tucker made contact made that inning completely different for them on how they had to defend us.”
Oakland brought the infield in. Kemp grounded a 98.5 mph sinker to Marcus Semien at shortstop. Reddick broke for home. Semien fired to Lucroy. The baseball arrived in ample time to nab Reddick and Lucroy dropped it. The game was tied and Treinen blew his first save in 21 opportunities.
“I whiffed on him,” Lucroy said. “I tried to do a quick tag, it was a one-hop, and I couldn’t get the ball in the glove. Even if I did, I don’t think I’d get him, he had a pretty good slide.”
This gaffe was not Lucroy’s most glaring. That came later, creating the mess from which Houston escaped.