LOSING THEIR WAY
Last year’s champs couldn’t find the magic to hang with the powerhouse from Boston
A.J. Hinch addressed a nearempty room.
Justin Verlander, backed up against a huge Astros “H” inside a quiet clubhouse, answered question after question until the final reporter walked away.
Dallas Keuchel remembered the pain when it all suddenly ended for the first time in 2015, then acknowledged he doesn’t know which team he’ll play for in 2019.
The best Astros team in regular-season history dropped three consecutive games at Minute Maid Park in the American League Championship Series. And just like that, it was done. The 103-win campaign. The self-proclaimed back-toback tour.
The rapidly fleeting idea that Hinch’s 2018 Astros were better than Alex Cora’s 108-win Red Sox.
It was 4-1 Boston in Game 5 on Thursday night. The score matched and captured the series in the Astros’ final game of 2018.
“It sucks. This is a press conference you never really prepare for,” said Hinch, after David Price outpitched Verlander and the Astros fell to a better, stronger team. “I don’t know the right words, the right tone, the right content. I mean, it’s an extremely disappointed clubhouse because we want to keep playing.” It all ended with a letdown. This year’s Astros failed to match last season’s world championship club when it truly mattered.
But to drop three ALCS games at home after taking a 1-0 series lead at Fenway Park?
There wasn’t a soul in the world who predicted that.
“It was a quick death, man,” pitcher Gerrit Cole said. “It was a quick death. We were close in that Fenway game. And then they just had some explosive innings we just weren’t able to control, and from the offensive side we just weren’t able to answer.”
Hinch’s club — sloppy, off rhythm, energy-less — fell facefirst after the pure confidence of Game 1 in Boston, which had followed a clean sweep of Cleveland in the AL Division Series.
There was controversy in this ALCS.
Hinch’s team was beat up. But the Astros simply lost, finishing seven playoff wins away from becoming MLB’s first repeat champs since the 19982000 New York Yankees.
“They beat us. We ran out of wins,” Hinch said. “We had a tough-fought series. You can break down the series however you want, whether it’s their two-out hitting or … they took it to us. And they won games. … They did a really good job of having an excellent game plan and going and executing it, and they were extremely tough.”
The Astros talked and talked, printing up cool T-shirts and acting like they ran the league. The Red Sox just won. “It’s either you’re standing on top or you’re down below,” Keuchel said. “It’s never easy in these situations, especially with a talented group like we had. … In this case, they just outplayed the crap out of us.”
Even with Verlander on the mound, Price (nine strikeouts, three hits, no runs in six smooth innings) outdueled the Astros’ ace. Ex-Astro J.D. Martinez scorched a home run to deep left field. Alex Bregman was charged with a throwing error, as Hinch’s club again failed to excel at the small things that had defined its first four postseason games. And on a night when the Astros were simply trying to stay alive in 2018, the Red Sox carried a 1-0 lead into the fourth inning.
Minute Maid lost its Game 4 roar. The Astros only had two early hits and already had been forced to survive Mookie Betts with the bases loaded. And the team’s sharpest crack had been delivered by injured Jose Altuve, who entered the elimination game playing on “one leg” and was forced to remain as the Astros’ designated hitter.
“Tremendous heart. It’s all about heart with him,” Hinch said. “He is such a great example of what’s right. And I’ve said that over and over again. I wish you guys knew what he had to go through to play every day and get himself prepared and then contribute and do well.”
Game 4 came down to inches and always will be remembered for the home run that wasn’t.
Thursday at Minute Maid was all about survival. By losing it, MLB’s 2017 champions won’t play another home game until 2019.
Price had seven vintage strikeouts by the time the fifth inning arrived. The Astros couldn’t figure out his smooth, deceptive changeup. The swagger increasingly belonged to the Red Sox.
“One of the most special days I’ve ever had on the baseball field,” Price said.
It never felt like these Astros believed in themselves in Game 5 and they lost their way in the ALCS.
While Price kept aiming true, Verlander was shelled in a gamechanging sixth. A leadoff double by Mitch Moreland — bouncing off the left-field wall, just out of Tony Kemp’s leaping grasp — turned into a three-run inning when No. 7 hitter Rafael Devers lifted a first-pitch, 98-mph fastball into the left center-field stands.
It was suddenly 4-0 Boston and the Astros’ season was down to 12 outs.
Nine.
Seven.
Marwin Gonzalez finally gave the Astros life, hammering a solo shot to left field. Three.
The Red Sox just kept rolling and Cora, Hinch’s former bench coach, kept winning the dugout chess match.
Boston, with all its history and recent rings, is returning to the World Series.
The best regular-season team in Astros history couldn’t live up to last year’s championship club.
When they fell, they just quietly faded away in Houston.