One hit, loads of frustration
Altuve’s double stands alone as fan interference takes triple away from Bregman
DENVER — Fifteen hours away from Houston, the game unfolded beneath a surprisingly pro-Astros crowd that gravely harmed its best hitter. The threat of thunderstorms lingered throughout the night, finally materializing in the seventh inning of a stupendously surreal 3-2, walkoff Astros loss.
Charlie Blackmon crushed a gamewinning home run against Collin McHugh in the bottom of the ninth, making the Astros pay for an offensively inept showing. They mustered one hit against the Rockies’ pitching trio of Jon Gray, Adam Ottavino and Wade Davis.
A second was taken away in the sixth inning, leaving the affected party fuming at his locker in full uniform and a manager wondering how an out can be arbitrarily determined.
“It was a … joke,” Alex Bregman said. “And they should be … ashamed of themselves.”
Bregman struck Gray’s fifth pitch of the sixth inning to left field. Gerardo Parra retreated toward the warning track. He leaped back, reached his glove above the wall and over the yellow line.
At the same time, a man donning Justin Verlander’s No. 35 orange jersey looked down and did the same. The fan’s baseball glove nicked the fly ball, which landed on the dirt and rolled away from Parra. Bregman sped to third base without a throw.
Rockies manager Bud Black raced from the dugout as Bregman celebrated a triple. The Astros’ offense muster-
ed one hit against Gray in the five innings preceding this one. A tenuous 2-1 lead was prime for inflation.
Black requested a replay review. Crew chief Jerry Lane wore the headset. Replay officials in New York definitively determined the Astros fan prevented Parra from making a catch. Bregman was ruled out, a conclusion that left Houston’s excitable third baseman incredulous and flinging his helmet toward the dugout.
The anger boiled over afterward.
“Obviously the guy has never played … baseball before in his life, the guy in charge of whoever made that decision,” Bregman said. “There is no possible way you can say a left fielder jumping backwards into a wall is guaranteed to make a catch. It changed the whole … game. We’re up 2-1 at the time, I’m at third base. We need a fly ball to the outfield to get me in and it’s 3-1. It’s … horrible.” Not risking ejection
Hinch argued the call briefly. Any prolonged protest of a replay decision warrants an automatic ejection. Hinch opted to remain in this game, a second straight night where his potent lineup was suffocated inside baseball’s most hitter-friendly ballpark.
“It’s brutal and that play has happened a number of times and it gives all benefit to the fielder,” Hinch said. “Whether it’s in foul territory or fair territory, I still don’t understand when guys are colliding into walls or they’re running all the way down the thirdbase line or first-base line how they can assume a catch.”
After the hoopla, the Astros produced two baserunners. None reached scoring position.
Still, they maintained a onerun lead in the seventh inning. Starter Charlie Morton exited. Joe Smith ceded a leadoff single — a blooped fly ball that Tom Murphy fisted to right field while rain began to fall.
Hinch lifted Smith for lefthander Tony Sipp, who induced a poor bunt from pinch hitter Raimel Tapia. Murphy was forced out at second base by J.D. Davis — in this game due to Jose Altuve’s fifth-inning exit with right knee discomfort.
Sipp walked Blackmon on five pitches. McHugh entered and ceded a single to Ian Desmond. The bases were loaded for Nolan Arenado, the only player in Colorado’s lineup with a batting average exceeding .300.
Down in the count 0-2, Arenado popped a slider into foul territory between third base and home. Davis sprinted toward his dugout, where the wind shifted the baseball.
“I’m begging for the ball to stay in play because I knew J.D. had a chance for it,” Hinch said. “There’s a collision with the fence, you want to make sure he doesn’t fall into the dugout. If he can keep his feet in play, then I thought play would stop. I didn’t expect him to tag up.”
Davis reached over the railing and caught it, falling head over heels into the arms of teammates, who rushed to cushion his fall. Tapia took off from third base. “I started hearing everyone say ‘4’ and Tapia’s already halfway down (the line),” Davis said. “I tried to just get a good grip on it and tried to play catch with Stassi and it was too high.”
Davis was pushed back into play by his teammates. He hurried a throw that went errant of catcher Max Stassi, allowing the tying run to score during a night where offense was scarce. Hittable pitcher gets stingy
Gray threw seven innings of one-hit baseball. The Rockies chose him third overall in the 2013 draft. Two selections earlier, the Astros picked the now-retired Mark Appel.
A floppy-haired righthander who just three months ago started on opening day, Gray’s start was his second since a demotion to Class AAA prior to the All-Star break. He carried a 5.44 ERA into it. The Astros could not worsen it.
“Threw a phenomenal game,” Morton said. “He was really tough, especially to do that here against this team.”
Gray retired the first 10 men he saw. Bregman’s one-out walk in the fourth inning afforded the Astros their first baserunner. Altuve followed with the first — and only — hit Gray yielded. Altuve socked a knee-high, two-strike fastball into left center field.
Bregman scored without a slide. Even after hobbling on his run into second base, Altuve scored a second run on Marwin Gonzalez’s RBI groundout and exited an inning later with right knee discomfort.
No other offense arrived. When it did, a man on hand to cheer on the Astros snatched it away.
“Does Parra really catch that ball as he’s backpedaling and colliding with the wall,” Hinch said. “The rule states that if he’s in the position that it’s possible that he makes a catch that they’re going to call him out, and they did. Most home fans in a situation like that are going to start to interfere because what’s the down side?”
Davis, who the Astros crushed for five runs in Tuesday’s win, tossed a clean top of the ninth. It began with a strikeout of Bregman on a questionable checkswing.
When first-base umpire Jordan Baker rung him up, Bregman unleashed a torrent toward him, the outward expression of the frustration this night cultivated.
“I was frustrated, obviously, due to what happened in the game,” Bregman said. “But that’s a tough call. It could have gone either way. Those guys do a great job.”
“But whoever’s in charge of the replay is horse(bleep).”