Tough day at the office
Another hurt hamstring, slew of mishaps doom sweep bid Sold-out park forced to watch as Murphy’s Law takes effect
Carlos Correa rose from the dirt with caution, perhaps cognizant of the terrible truth soon to be revealed. Baserunners were rare beneath this sold-out Sunday crowd craving something to celebrate and a series sweep.
Correa coaxed a sixth-inning walk. One was out. The tying run stood at home plate. Correa crouched into his secondary lead and leaned too far off first base.
Boston catcher Christian Vazquez fired a pickoff throw. Correa slid headfirst back to the bag. First-base umpire Jansen Visconti signaled safe, a ruling reviewed by a boisterous Boston dugout.
Fifty seconds elapsed before the call was overturned. Correa collected himself and trudged to the dugout. His was the final indignity on an atypical, abysmal afternoon for the Astros. Weary and without many household names,
It has become easy to praise the Astros.
Annual contender. Nationally respected. World Series winner and, again, one of the premier clubs in baseball in 2019.
Sunday inside sold-out Minute Maid Park — with the club eager for another victory and a series sweep of the Boston Red Sox — was not a day worthy of praise.
Outside gates were packed as Justin Verlander’s first pitch waited. With Boston’s starting arm entering with a 5.43 ERA and A.J. Hinch’s club having technically won the series via back-to-back victories, the day before Memorial Day was set up as a local baseball celebration.
the Astros could not complete a series sweep, losing 4-1 to the Red Sox.
“We allowed ourselves to play a little mentally tired, a little physically tired,” manager A.J. Hinch said. “We’re beat up a little bit. It wasn’t our day.”
The Astros committed two errors, threw two wild pitches and had a passed ball. The Red Sox stole three bases — two off Astros ace Justin Verlander — and advanced another 90 feet on Framber Valdez’s ninthinning balk.
Correa’s pickoff extinguished one of their only threats after the third inning. The Astros accumulated four hits. None arrived after the third, an unsightly performance by a lineup littered with backups and bruised again by another injury.
Diaz leaves with injury
After scoring his team’s only run, second baseman Aledmys Diaz strained his left hamstring, adding his name to the growing contingent of crippled contributors. Though no move was made official after the game, the utilityman is probably bound for the injured list, joining Jose Altuve and George Springer.
“We have a great ballclub and we have great guys waiting to step up,” Verlander said. “We just played the World Series champs last year and won two out of three and didn’t have a lot of our guys in our lineup. I think that’s just a testament to the talent we have here.”
With a haphazard infield, Verlander endured an inefficient afternoon. He struck out six in seven innings with little luck.
Rafael Devers demolished a fourth-inning solo home run and Eduardo Nunez rifled a fifth-inning double that represented almost all of Boston’s hard contact. The Red Sox entered the game determined to run against Verlander, who rarely pitches from the stretch, and fouled off 22 offerings.
“He’s the best pitcher in the big leagues right now,” Sox manager Alex Cora said. “I know how he prepares. I know how he goes about his business. He works. He gets ready. Although he went seven, we accomplished what we wanted, making him uncomfortable on the mound.”
Dismal defense betrayed Verlander. Errors on consecutive fifth-inning ground balls prolonged a 21-pitch frame and allowed an insurance run to cross.
Yuli Gurriel, a backup’s backup at second base, booted an Andrew Benintendi bouncer. Nunez scored from second base while the baseball lingered behind Gurriel’s back and short right field. Alex Bregman airmailed Mookie Betts’ ensuing grounder.
Verlander stranded runners at the corners to make it moot. Still, it added to his pitch count.
Sixty-six of Verlander’s 103 pitches came during the third, fourth and fifth innings, erasing the efficiency with which the righthander started his afternoon.
“He was a little bit, or a lot bit, unlucky,” Hinch said. “A couple plays that were weird. He continues to battle. It was a weird game.”
After striking out four of the first six Sox he saw, Verlander ceded two infield singles in the third, both slow grounders up the third-base line Bregman fielded a fraction late.
Verlander’s miscues
Two wild pitches permitted each runner an extra base, a rare sight while Verlander works. He had not thrown a wild pitch all season. Threw only five in 214 innings last season, too.
Here, catcher Robinson Chirinos could not corral two curveballs, permitting Steve Pearce and Nunez extra bases. Benintendi skyed a sacrifice fly that scored Nunez, tying a game Boston starter Eduardo Rodriguez overtook.
Rodriguez’s last 11 innings inspired little confidence. Opponents scored 11 earned runs and had 15 hits. The 5.43 ERA with which he entered was the fifth highest of any qualified American League starter. Against him, the Astros accrued nothing.
The Astros’ four hits were the fewest allowed by Rodriguez since April 24. The 26-year-old southpaw mixed an assortment of three fastballs — two-seam, four-seam and cutter — with a changeup.
Rodriguez impresses
“He looks like he’s maturing,” Hinch said. “He’s changing speeds. He has a good arm and the ball moves. He threw a really good cutter, mixed in a few changeups. His fastball was solid and he got outs.”
The Astros swung and missed eight times against him, but took 21 called strikes.
Two of the four hits Rodriguez yielded were in the first inning. Diaz dribbled a single against the shift to open the game. Correa crushed a grounder Nunez could only knock down at shortstop.
Diaz raced home from second base. When he saw Vazquez blocking the plate, Diaz thought to slide. He moved his body left. His hamstring barked, far too common a complaint this month.
“It sucks. It sucks to see guys going down like that,” Verlander said. “It’s just kind of a punch in the gut every time another guy goes down.
“But we have to keep it going. It’s baseball. No one is going to feel sorry for us, not in that other dugout anyway. We have to find ways to win ballgames.”