» Brian T. Smith: Astros must find a way to win at home.
Astros must find a way to stop the road team winning streak to avoid never-ending pain
They have been here before and won a world championship this way.
The 2019 Astros also did not want to be here this way.
Home-field advantage has been completely overrated through six games of the World Series. To capture their second title in three years, the Astros must finally win a Fall Classic game inside Minute Maid Park this season.
Game 6 was another local bust: 7-2 Washington Nationals on Tuesday night.
The Astros’ next chance to win it all in front of all their loud, loyal, orange-and-blue believers: Game 7 on Wednesday night.
The season/career/franchise/ life-changing importance of Game 7 is self explanatory, as the Astros’ 2017 world title still shows.
“I don’t know that there’s a lot of explanation or any fancy quote that you’ve got to give you guys or them,” Astros manager A.J. Hinch said. “We’ve got a great opportunity (Wednesday) to play a home game, Game 7 of the World Series.”
It will be Zack Greinke versus the Washington Nationals and a suddenly healthy Max Scherzer against the home team. Maybe Gerrit Cole after Greinke, as a weird, wild, unpredictable World Series reaches the final possible baseball game of this season.
Win it and win a glorious title. Lose it — at home — and the pain will never fully go away.
Especially after the Astros turned an 0-2 series hole into a 3-2 series lead, following three brilliant road wins at Nationals Park.
“Maybe not how we drew it up, in terms of how we got there,” Hinch said. “But it doesn’t take away the opportunity we have to win the World Series.”
Justin Verlander wasn’t good enough in Game 6. The road team won for the sixth consecutive game, which meant that it was another World Series disappointment for Verlander, who entered Tuesday with an 0-5 record and 5.73 ERA during six Fall Classic starts.
The Astros’ regular-season ace gave up a run in the first, fought through trouble in the third and fourth, then watched two solo home runs wreck his night in the fifth. The second saw Juan Soto tease/troll Alex Bregman by carrying a bat all the way to first base. The blast changed the game and captured Verlander’s October, which has had little to do with one of the finest regular seasons of his career.
Verlander was 1-3 with a 4.15 ERA this postseason. Then he gave up five hits, three runs and three walks in five innings (93 pitches), exiting with a 3-2 deficit and a season-defining Game 7 staring a 107-win team in the face.
The last time the Astros were here: Dodger Stadium. Los Angeles was still the favorite. Game 7 was in pulsing, flashy La La
Land. Hinch exuded pregame confidence and his club never backed down. George Springer started the fire, Charlie Morton finished it and the resilient, endlessly energetic Astros took down L.A. for a shining trophy in a glowing, historic night.
The 2019 Astros are going to have to lean on that resiliency again. They must tap into whatever energy that still remains. They’re also going to have to start playing better, sharper baseball inside their ballpark.
They look like the amazing Astros in Washington but fade in downtown Houston?
What gives?
“If I would have told you this series would be 3-3 going to a Game 7, I don’t think there’s a person in the building that would have assumed that all road teams were going to win,” Hinch said. “We’ve just got to make sure that last one is not the same.”
The Astros were an MLB-best 60-21 at home during the 162game season. They won all three home contests against Tampa Bay in the American League Division Series. They finished off the New York Yankees inside Minute Maid Park when Jose Altuve cracked a walkoff home run that sent the home team to the World Series.
Since then in our city? Nationals 5-4. Nationals 12-3. Nationals 7-2.
Nats, Nats, Nats.
“It’s weird,” Washington manager Dave Martinez said. “You can’t explain it. I know we were trying to win games at home and just couldn’t do it. We came here (Tuesday) and behind Stephen Strasburg we played really well.”
The losing arms: Cole, Verlander and Verlander.
Washington beat the Astros’ co-aces, including Verlander twice, in Houston.
That’s why this is going the full seven. That’s why the Astros will have to do something real in the ballpark they normally own to make this special season pay off.
Best regular-season team in franchise history.
The year of Yordan Alvarez as the likely AL Rookie of the Year, Verlander or Cole as the Cy Young and Bregman as a serious MVP candidate.
Winning more games than anyone else in MLB guaranteed the Astros home-field advantage through the final game of the year.
Now, reward all the cheering and screaming and roaring with one more W.
“It doesn’t look like there is (a home-field advantage) right now,” Hinch said. “I hope there is one (Wednesday). I think we’re waiting to the last game to have it on our side. We worked really hard to get home field and we’re happy to play at home. We have no problem playing at home. This place will be rocking.”
Whatever it takes. Anything that is necessary. Find some way to claim one last victory, then hang another golden banner on the left-field light pole and start planning the replica rings.
This team is too good to drop all four Fall Classic games in Houston.
If this really is the greatest team in Astros history, they will find a way inside Minute Maid Park in Game 7.
The 2019 season will end like it began.
World championship. Or bust.