Astros repeat the script with late HR heroics
Emulating Gonzalez, White turns tide with 2-run homer in 8th
SAN FRANCISCO — The baseball flew high into the air while deflating a packed ballpark. With one swing against the Giants, another improbable streak was ruined, and a game was won from an unexpected contributor in the Astros’ make-do lineup.
A day after Marwin Gonzalez beat San Francisco with a ninth inning home run, Tyler White hit an eighth-inning blast off the Giants’ bullpen to give the Astros a 2-1 win at AT&T Park on Tuesday.
Gonzalez’s go-ahead three-run homer in the ninth inning of Monday’s 3-1 win was the first allowed by Giants closer Will Smith in 542⁄3 innings.
One day later, another save situation festered. The Astros were listless for seven innings against Madison Bumgarner. He exited the game with a one-run lead.
Smith’s setup man, Ray Black, entered. He failed to allow Smith an attempt at atonement. White struck a 99.1 mph, 1-2 fastball over
the left-field wall. The ball crept 128 feet into the air with a 40 degree launch angle.
“I really didn’t know (if the ball would get out). I was just trying to
put a good swing on that guy. He’s a good arm who throws really hard,” White said. “I saw that it went up in the air to left field, and I was rooting for it to go out — I hoped it would. That was a good moment.”
Black had not allowed a hit in 101⁄3 innings. Gonzalez laced a double to the warning track in left field on Black’s fifth pitch — a 100.1 mph fastball — to extinguish that streak.
Yuli Gurriel punched out, and White strode to the plate. Facing Bumgarner, a lefthanded starter, thrust White — he of 66 previous plate appearances this season — into the cleanup spot.
Against Black, he fell behind 0-2, swinging through two fastballs eclipsing 100 mph. A third brushed White back, traveling dangerously close to his head. “Kinda scary,” White said. Black returned with a fourth and fatal fastball.
“Not easy to win games in the eighth and ninth — we kind of make a habit of it every now and then — but different guy every day,” Astros manager A.J. Hinch said.
The victory capped a 6-2 journey across three cities, a winding road trip that featured two worrisome injuries and the debatable trade-deadline acquisition of Roberto Osuna, which required three closed-door team meetings. He happened to arrive in the midst of a World Series rematch against the Dodgers.
All three teams the Astros played (they opened the trip at Seattle) possessed records above .500. They played their final 26 innings without Jose Altuve, Carlos Correa, Brian McCann and George Springer.
“Our guys are hanging in there,” Hinch said. “We’ve got a closeknit group. We stay together; we will stay together. There’s nothing that’s going to break this apart or create any tension. We love playing together.”
Before White’s home run, the Astros had 10 at-bats with runners in scoring position. None ended in a hit. They squandered innumerable opportunities against Bumgarner, the intimidating four-time All-Star who — even after spending the first 60 days of the season on the disabled list — remains among the game’s elite lefthanded pitchers.
Flailing away
Bumgarner’s ERA is under three and his four-pitch mix is menacing. The Astros swung and missed nine times against 43 cutters — biting, hard pitches that dove in on the righthanded-heavy lineup. Seven of the 25 curveballs he threw were called strikes. Four others were swung on and missed.
Bumgarner tossed seven scoreless innings. He struck out seven and yielded just five hits. Three were extra-base knocks.
Twice the Astros started an inning with an extra-base hit off Bumgarner. Josh Reddick pulled a triple down the first-base line in the second. Jake Marisnick popped a double in the fifth. Neither man advanced past the base he reached on his hit.
Wasting the fortune allowed starter Dallas Keuchel to exit in line for a loss he did not warrant and, fittingly, did not receive. Keuchel threw six sparkling innings and allowed only four hits.
His only glaring miscue was a second-inning fastball that did not travel far enough inside. Brandon Crawford struck it to the opposite field for a leadoff double. Three batters later, Chase d’Arnaud pushed a seeing-eye single through the right side to chase him home.
After the second, the Giants mustered only a single against Keuchel. He allowed one man into scoring position.
Keuchel threw only 87 pitches but was lifted for Evan Gattis’ pinch-hit opportunity in the seventh inning inside this National League ballpark. Keuchel rued his two poor plate appearances in the second and fifth. Laying down a bunt in the fifth to advance Marisnick’s leadoff double could have afforded him another inning.
Rondon on a roll
Keuchel’s burgeoning bullpen accepted the challenge of the final three innings. It threw 201⁄3 scoreless innings during this trip. Hector Rondon collected four saves in as many opportunities. His 19pitch effort on Tuesday arrived hours after a 22-pitch save on Monday.
“We know it’s not going to be easy with our MVP (Altuve) out, our Rookie of the Year (Correa) and our World Series MVP (Springer). Those are some pretty big accolades for a reason,” Keuchel said. “You don’t make up production for those guys. You just kind of piece everything together, and we’re doing a good job right now.”