Finishing with a thud
Inept offense, subpar outing by Verlander add up to elimination
A dream died discreetly, when burgeoning bats were silenced and a heartbeat hobbled. Houston’s hoss, the graying ace on which the sport’s best pitching staff rode, could bear its weight no longer.
This iteration of the Houston Astros, a charismatic mix of homegrown superstars and acquired accessories, won more regular-season games than any team in the franchise’s 57-year existence.
“To be honest with y’all,” Alex Bregman said, “this year’s team was better than last year’s team.”
They captured the American League West title for a second straight season. A three-game dismantling of the Cleveland Indians was the most thorough skewering seen during a postseason which contained one goal this club could not fulfill.
Not since the Yankees in 2000 has a team repeated as World Series champions. The Astros extended the streak, dropping a lifeless 4-1 Game 5 decision to the Red Sox, who dogpiled and posed for photos as a dazed Minute Maid Park crowd filtered out.
“It’s a pretty hollow feeling when the season abruptly ends the way that it does and the way that it did,” manager A.J. Hinch said.
A pitching staff which established benchmarks no other American League team could approach faltered miserably. Jose Altuve played for four games on one leg, too valuable — too much the “heart and soul” of this team — to pull from a listless lineup that could not back Justin Verlander.
The Red Sox ravaged an Astros staff some surmised was infallible. In the five games which ended their season, Houston pitchers produced a 5.52 ERA. In three wins at Minute Maid Park, Boston scored 27 times.
“I don’t think anybody in here thought that we were going to lose in five games in the championship series, I think we all thought it was going to be the reverse side, but that’s just how it happens,” pitcher Dallas Keuchel said. “We got outplayed in every aspect.”
Verlander had not yielded a run during an elimination game since 2011. Twenty-six straight scoreless innings in do-or-die duels established another major league record in a career chock full of them. In five starts during elimination games, Verlander threw 37⅓ innings. Five earned runs crossed.
The final four fell on Verlander, the righthander who elevated them to a World Series upon his arrival last July. One year later, as aspirations of a title defense dimmed, he was the victim of Boston’s bludgeoning.
Verlander survived only six innings. The Red Sox shellacked him as they did the cavalcade of others Houston paraded onto the mound in this series. Three of the seven hits he ceded went for extra bases. Two left the ballpark.
“Probably one of the toughest battles, top to bottom lineup, that I’ve had all year,” Verlander said.
He yielded three hits to start the sixth. Rafael Devers deposited a three-run home run into the Crawford Boxes, chasing home Mitch Moreland and Ian Kinsler to remove any intrigue the game contained. The four-run lead Boston held felt unconquerable.
In nine innings, the Astros mustered five hits. Marwin Gonzalez’s eighth-inning solo home run was one of two extra-base hits. He and Yuli Gurriel were the lone baserunners to touch second, stifled by the left arm of David Price.
Across the eighth and ninth inning of Boston’s Game 4 win, Price labored in the bullpen while closer Craig Kimbrel toiled toward a six-out save. Price’s presence was not required.
Despite the warmup pitches he threw and the poor playoff performances permeating Price’s career, Red Sox manager Alex Cora handed him the baseball. Price had never before pitched on three days rest.
His playoff anemia is pronounced, struggles he set ablaze in six stunning innings. Price punched out nine Astros and authored his first playoff win as a starting pitcher.
In his 11 playoff starts preceding this one, the Red Sox southpaw was 0-9. Price’s postseason ERA was 5.42, whittled ever so slightly by 4⅔ innings of four-run ball against the Astros in Game 2. Price departed one out away from qualifying for the first playoff win of his career.
On that chilly night at Fenway Park, when the Astros’ collapse commenced, Price threw only nine changeups. The pitch can be paramount to his performance, a cunning complement to the cutfastballs and four-seamers he freely tosses to each side of the plate.
Thirty-nine of Price’s 93 pitches were changeups. The 42 percent usage rate was higher than any of his previous 301 major league starts. Twelve times, Houston swung through a changeup. Five of Price’s nine strikeouts concluded on it.
Price permitted three baserunners in six innings. Only Yuli Gurriel reached scoring position, punching a two-out double into left field in the fourth inning. His 13 career postseason hits are the most among Cuban-born major leaguers. Against Price, Gurriel fouled the first six pitches he saw.
The nine-pitch ordeal did not perturb Price. He flung three consecutive changeups to Gonzalez, who spoiled one and swung over another. Repeating the pitch produced a familiar finish. Gonzalez whiffed over one in the dirt.
For three of the six innings he worked, Price pitched with a lead opposite Verlander.
Two walks and Bregman’s throwing error augmented Verlander’s early inning pitch count. Bregman threw high on Kinsler’s second-inning grounder. Christian Vazquez singled and Jackie Bradley, Jr. walked, filling the bases in a scoreless game.
Verlander escaped the 25-pitch frame unscathed, elevating a 97.5 mph four-seam fastball past the barrel of Mookie Betts. Andrew Benintendi watched a curveball fall in for strike three to begin the third, ostensibly settling Verlander.
Two quick strikes to J.D. Martinez kept him in rhythm. Verlander spun an 0-2 slider to put him away. Statcast showed the pitch nestling into the low corner of Martinez’s strike zone. Home plate umpire Chris Guccione deemed it a ball, bringing Verlander to a stop as he pranced the mound. The crowd booed, still salty over the Game 4 interference brouhaha.
Verlander readied for a pitch he did not think was necessary. He spun a wretched curveball. Martinez mauled it. The solo home run landed 396 feet away atop the train tracks. Boston boasted a lead it would not blow.
“You can break down the series however you want,” Hinch said. “They took it to us. And they won games.”