Though villains to many, Astros are back in Series
HOUSTON
Across this great land, there were untold groans, screams and remote controls chucked at TVs late Friday night when the result of the American League Championship Series was in the books. The Houston Astros, whom everyone outside of these parts knows to be dirty, rotten cheaters, are back in the World Series — and with everything we’re dealing with these days in this twisted world, did anyone really need that?
But here, at Minute Maid Park, in the southeastern corner of downtown Houston, in the southeastern corner of Texas, if there was a hint of distaste, or even ambivalence, about the Astros’ march to a third AL pennant in five seasons, it was drowned in a sea of orange-shirted, fullthroated love.
The Astros couldn’t hear your groans and screams over the roars of 42,718 adoring fans celebrating a pennant-clinching, 5-0 win over the Boston Red Sox in Game 6 of the ALCS. They couldn’t read your angry tweets, owing to the champagne in their eyes. They don’t have time to engage in your cheating talk, because they have to get ready for another World Series.
After closer Ryan Pressly secured the final out on a flyball to left, he threw himself into the bearlike hug of catcher Martin Maldonado, while a sea of white jerseys converged from all directions toward the mound. Infielders Alex Bregman, Carlos Correa, José Altuve and Yuli Gurriel, the four remaining holdovers from 2017, shared their own mini-huddle before joining the larger one.
“It’s extra-special after everything we’ve been through as a team, as a family,” said Correa, speaking of the criticism, media scrutiny and vitriol from fans on the road. “Our motivation is to show the world how great we really are.”
In a game that could have swung one way or the other in almost every inning, series MVP Yordan Álvarez, the Astros’ designated hitter, was the game-changer, figuring prominently in each of the Astros’ first two runs. In the first, he ripped an RBI double off Red Sox starter Nathan Eovaldi — the drive to right-center nearly run down by Boston center fielder Kiké Hernandez, only to see it clank off the heel of his glove.
And leading off the sixth, he tripled to right, scoring two batters later on Kyle Tucker’s sharp double play grounder to first. Red Sox first baseman Kyle Schwarber may have had time to throw out Álvarez at the plate, but he chose the safer play of tagging the base runner and stepping on the bag for the double play.
But it was the Astros’ pitching that did the heavy lifting Friday, holding down Boston’s vaunted offense for the third consecutive game. Starter Luis Garcia carried a no-hitter into the sixth. Relief ace Kendall Graveman ended Boston’s firstand-third, one-out threat in the seventh with a strike-out/throw-out double play, with Maldonado firing a laser to second to nab Alex Verdugo.
At that point, the Red Sox were a staggering 0 for their last 19 with runners in scoring position.