Hits keep coming
Outburst fuels 7th straight, but Bregman suffers injury
DENVER —The shortened season is sparing few, not an ace or a closer or, now, a franchise cornerstone. Alex Bregman’s departure from Wednesday night’s 13-6 victory against the Rockies could have removed any momentum the Astros gained during their most recent homestand.
A moment after Bregman exited, Josh Reddick was robbed of extra bases by Ryan McMahon. The Rockies first baseman leapt for a brilliant grab and doubled off Abraham Toro at first base. Perhaps no sequence was a more perfect encapsulation of the Astros’ 2020 season, one beset by equal parts bad luck, bad play and an almost insurmountable amount of injuries.
Now another Astro is hurt, placing more tension on a team already stretched so thin. The team greeted the development with destruction in mind. After Bregman departed, the lineup unloaded, unleashing a catharsis against a reeling Rockies club.
“I don’t lose hope,” Astros manager Dusty Baker. “You get down for a moment then you have to find a way to respond. The guys responded with big nights.”
They scored 12 times in the final five innings. Nineteen of their season-high 20 hits arrived after Bregman departed in the fourth. Carlos Correa hammered a solo home run to start the fifth, affording the Astros a lead that only grew. Houston stretched its winning streak to seven and is a season-high four games above .500.
“We have a lot of depth in our lineup and a lot of guys that can keep the job done," Correa said. "Obviously you want Yordan and Breggy in the lineup every single day … but we have to step up and keep playing good baseball like we’re doing right now.”
Kyle Tucker had four hits and Correa totalled three. Tucker, Correa, Martin Maldonado and George Springer all struck home runs. Buoyed by the offensive outburst, starter Framber Valdez threw 7⅔ innings while allowing one earned run. His ERA now sits at 1.72.
Two of Tucker’s hits were triples — just the fifth time since 1989 an Astros player struck two triples in the same game. He added a two-run home run in the ninth as lagniappe.
“We got to keep moving forward and putting up good (atbats), putting the ball in play and getting wins,” Tucker said.
Seven Houston hitters had multi-hit games. Even Jose Altuve, mired in the worst slump of his major league career, collected two singles to perhaps begin a resurgence.
Every Astros starter had a hit. Toro, Bregman’s replacement, finished 2-for-3. The setting for such a display was fitting — Coors Field is a cavernous, hitters haven — but Houston’s lineup did not appear primed to deliver it. It scored nine runs in the past four games and averaged 7.2 hits per game in the last 13.
“You have to have huge offensive nights in this ballpark, because you’re never comfortable,” Baker said.
News of Yordan Alvarez’s season-ending knee surgery further dampened the pregame mood. Michael Brantley remains on the injured list. Springer’s wrist remained sore.
Then Bregman hobbled off the field in disgust after a fourthinning double. Bregman came up lame about halfway through his run to first base. He limped all the way to second base, where manager Dusty Baker and athletic trainer Jeremiah Randall greeted him.
Bregman did not petition to stay in the game, concerning for a man who wants more than anything to play baseball. Bregman walked with a noticeable limp and slammed his helmet in the dugout. Bregman strained the same hamstring during his rookie season in 2016.
Bregman sounded ominous in a postgame interview, reiterating how “disappointed” he was to suffer the injury just as he started feeling “pretty damn good.”
“It’s just disappointing because I put so much work into this offseason and this quarantine period specifically on my hamstrings,” Bregman said. “It’s frustrating but we’ve got a great medical team here, great trainers and I’m going to do everything I can to be playing as soon as I possibly can.”
As it often does, the team described his injury as right hamstring “discomfort.” Any injury is magnified in a 60-game season — especially now when just 36 remain. At the absolute least, the team must prepare for a day or two without its MVP candidate.
Preparations started for the final five innings of Wednesday’s farce. Correa came up to begin the fifth. Rockies starter Ryan Castellini threw the shortstop three straight curveballs. The last did not break.
Correa crushed it into the left field seats 436 feet away. The solo home run started a string of four consecutive hits. Newcomer Taylor Jones deposited a runscoring single into center field for his first major league hit, learning how contagious this carousel can be.