ASTROS SPLIT SERIES WITH ANGELS
Springer, Bregman go deep, steal thunder from L.A. celebrity
One spoiled a return and the other supplied relief. Both home runs sailed onto the short porch in left field, no-doubt dingers from the top of an Astros lineup starting to gel after two months of unrest.
Each arrived against a Japanese pitcher — one who mesmerized his homeland and the sport with his ballyhooed return. Another made his Angels debut, derailed by a separating solo home run in the eighth inning of the Astros’ 4-2 win Sunday at Minute Maid Park.
With an out in the eighth inning of a game his team led by one, Alex Bregman bludgeoned Junichi Tazawa’s mislocated 1-1 fastball into the Crawford Boxes. He admired his handiwork — the 27th home run of a breakout season — flipped his bat and trotted up the first-base line.
“I think our offense did a good job of attacking pitches over the middle of the plate,” Bregman said.
The Astros maintain a 2½-game lead in the American League West. It took nearly four hours to ensure it, a wretched game where the teams combined to strand 21 baserunners. Eleven of the 14 hits they collected were singles. The Angels’ pitching staff yielded six walks. Astros hitters drew 11 full counts.
Five of the Astros’ seven hits came from the top three hitters in the order. George Springer supplied three, falling a triple shy of the cycle.
“I think with Jose (Altuve) and Bregman being the best guy ever, it’s awesome, it allows us to hit and allows us to do what we’re able to do,” Springer said. “It’s a
complete effort from top to bottom — you have guys hitting five through nine who are just as vital as one through four.”
He and Bregman supplied home runs. Springer’s was an ominous end to the anticipated return of baseball’s most polarizing player.
When he recorded his second out, Shohei Ohtani completed the 50th inning of his debut year. Only he and Babe Ruth have thrown 50 innings and hit 15 home runs in a season. Until a strain of his ulnar collateral ligament in June, the 24year-old, two-way transplant was the sport’s most awe-inspiring athlete.
“It’s remarkable for someone to be competitive on both sides of the ball on this level,” Astros manager A.J. Hinch said before the game. “To watch him as an athlete, we’ve seen him as a hitter more than a pitcher, it’s really cool. It’s just not a common thing; you don’t see this.”
Ohtani’s return to pitching after an 87-day layoff transfixed a nation. Minute Maid Park’s photo wells and press box filled with Japanese reporters to chronicle their native son. An Astros spokesman said more than 50 day credentials were issued.
Ohtani operated with pitch count, a threshold Angels manager Mike Scioscia never revealed. The 6-4 righthander operates with three pitches. His fastball averages 97 mph and can touch 100. A savage splitter often puts hitters away.
His first pitch in 87 days was 97 mph. Springer let it sail for a ball. The leadoff hitter struck the next to right field for a single.
Cleanup hitter Carlos Correa coaxed a seven-pitch, two-out walk that advanced Springer to second. Ohtani flipped a marvelous two-strike slider to five-hole hitter Tyler White. It stranded both baserunners and was Ohtani’s only strikeout of the evening.
“He came into the game pretty hot,” Hinch said. “That was some electrifying stuff early, getting closer and closer to 97, 98, 99.”
A clean second gave way to a concerning third. Ohtani’s velocity plunged. His first fastball was 88.9 mph. Scioscia activated his bullpen while Tony Kemp worked a seven-pitch walk.
Among the pitches: a 68.4 mph curveball and three fastballs that did not reach 92 mph. Scioscia and Ohtani attributed the decline to a stiff back. Ohtani deflected Marwin Gonzalez’s second-inning ground ball with his pitching hand, too, creating irritation.
“I hope he’s OK, I hope the best for him,” Springer said. “But it looked obvious.”
When Springer saw it, Kemp stood at first base after a sevenpitch walk. Ohtani reached 92 mph with a first-pitch fastball to Springer.
He did not throw another, opting for his splitter and slider. Ohtani got ahead 1-2. Finishing the job was impossible.
Ohtani spotted a slider at the bottom of the strike zone. Springer launched it 370 feet away into the Crawford Boxes.
Ohtani threw four more pitches. Altuve grounded the fourth to second base. Scioscia shuffled from the dugout. Ohtani’s return ended after 49 pitches and with a deficit his team could not overcome.
Astros starter Gerrit Cole completed one clean inning. Every frame but his first featured a baserunner, augmenting his pitch count on an arduous evening.
The 113 pitches he tossed were his most since June. Twenty-one were swung upon and missed and another 23 were called strikes.
He required 82 pitches to escape four innings of one-run ball. Infield singles began the second and third innings. Two walks complicated matters in the third. Cole stranded the bases loaded. Cole ceded just six singles. Two did not leave the infield. Bregman could not turn an inning-ending double play in the fourth, costing his starter a run.
“The bottom line is, we got the lead and we held the lead,” Cole said. “and that’s what we needed to do to win the game.”
Cole struck out nine, retaking the American League lead from teammate Justin Verlander. Cole has 243 punchouts. Verlander trails by three. They are the first pair of major league teammates to accrue at least 240 strikeouts apiece since 2003, when Cubs aces Mark Prior and Kerry Wood achieved it.