Walking a fine line Astros’ rare intentional pass ‘poured gasoline on a fire’ in Nationals’ huge seventh
It was the greatest compliment the Astros could give Juan Soto.
Unwilling in their previous 221 games to give in and issue an intentional walk, they flinched at the sight of Soto in the seventh inning Wednesday night. They preferred to put him on first, loading the bases, rather than pitch to him with two outs and the Nationals leading 3-2.
“I thought it was our best chance to limit their scoring,” Astros manager A.J. Hinch said. “Instead it poured gasoline on a fire that was already burning.”
Soto, the Nationals’ 20-year-old phenom, has cast a Babe Ruthian specter over two games of the World Series. He delivered three RBIs needed for Washington to mount a win in Game 1. He symbolized the undoing of Houston in Game 2, which the Nationals won 12-3 to take a 2-0 lead in the series that picks up Friday in Washington.
Soto had doubled in his second plate appearance, and the Astros did not want to challenge him a fourth time around. They issued their first intentional walk since the summer of 2018.
“Clearly I think there’s a lot of downside given that I haven’t done it all year,” Hinch said.
The Astros intentionally walked only four batters in 2018, the final of which was with Héctor Rondón bypassing Oakland’s Jed Lowrie on Aug. 17. Houston set a record (Major League Baseball started recording the statistic in 1955) that cut the previous mark by half.
A combination of league trends (declining rates of contact, diminishing sacrifice bunts and skyrocketing strikeouts) and their own excellent pitching had inspired the Astros to think that intentional walks were dumb.
Astros pitchers are attackers, first-pitch strike throwers, neverquitters. Their elite stuff justifies their moxie. Even when a double play dangles with ground-ball temptation or a superstar like Mike Trout threatens from the batter’s box, the mentality of Houston’s staff got stronger each time it declined to give an intentional walk: Why put a hitter on base when a large sample size suggests you have a very good chance of beating him?
Following the intentional pass to Lowrie, the Astros did not issue another one in the next 179 chances with first base open and a runner in scoring position, included three at-bats against Trout. The strategy worked: The Astros gave up only 34 hits for an 81 percent success rate.
Then Soto changed everything. Houston’s track record of success mattered less than Soto’s immediate outburst at Minute Maid Park, where he had four hits in his first six at-bats of the World Series.
“I’ve watched Soto just like you have,” Hinch said after Wednesday’s loss.
Soto forced the Astros to back down from their mano-y-mano style of combat. He made them recoil from an aggressive approach built on indomitable self-belief. He snapped an ideology that had fortified over the last 14 months.
“Postseason baseball is about who’s hot at the right time,” Astros shortstop Carlos Correa said. “I guess he’s hot right now.”
Soto’s impact has come after he went 3-for-19 with one extra-base hit against the St. Louis Cardinals in the National League Championship Series.
“I guess they found some holes we haven’t been able to find,” Correa said. “Or he was not feeling good at the plate, and now he is. He’s been pretty impressive these two games.”
Nationals catcher Kurt Suzuki broke a 2-2 tie with a home run off Justin Verlander to start the seventh. When Soto came up with runners in scoring position, Hinch might’ve had to crack his knuckles because it’d been so long, but the manager raised four fingers to signal the walk. Soto skipped to first.
The Astros changed their identity in that moment. Houston never looked the same the rest of the night. The Astros went on to allow nine runs and record just two more hits, including a meaningless homer.
Despite the walk to Soto, Astros reliever Ryan Pressly was in a position to look like a hero. He was on the verge on bailing out Verlander and had gotten the first two outs of the inning. Pressly had ended a bases-loaded jam in the previous round against the New York Yankees.
Pressly deployed a low slider that got Nationals infielder Howie Kendrick to pull a harmless-looking ground ball toward the left side. Then Astros third baseman Alex Bregman bobbled the grounder. A run scored and the bases stayed loaded.
“Was kind of falling over a bit,” Bregman said of the play. “Should’ve come up with it.”
When approached for comment after the game, Pressly said, “No,” and left the clubhouse.
“The inning spiraled out of control,” Hinch said.
After Bregman’s bobble, another single scored two more runs. On a third consecutive weakly hit ball, Bregman could not redeem himself or keep the game from getting out of hand. He fumbled again. On three walks (one intentional) and three soft singles (struck with exit velocities of 83, 76 and 63 mph), the Nationals batted around in the six-run inning.
“We needed to stop the bleeding,” Bregman said.
They couldn’t — Washington poured on five more runs — but the off day Thursday offers a chance to suture their wounds. Down 2-0, the Astros need to win at least two of three games on the road if they are to emerge as champions. Otherwise, the 2019 Astros will be remembered for finishing the World Series as an entirely different team than the one that had gotten there.