San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
Houston needs all its hands on deck
With Verlander out, several pitcherswill be asked to step up
SAN DIEGO — A sound synonymous with the Astros’ three-year surge started in the top of the sixth inning Thursday.
Houston was the designated home team during Game 4 of the American League Division Series in Dodger Stadium. To make things somewhat normal, the club provided stadium workers with a playlist of music often blared at Minute Maid Park.
Whether by coincidence or choice, the selection for the sixth inning sent shivers up some Astros spines.
The bullpen door broke open and the first bars of Eminem’s “Till I Collapse” blared. It is the anthem of an ace. Justin Verlander warmed up to it for most of his Detroit Tigers tenure.
The song preceded each of his 39 regular-season starts at Minute Maid Park since 2017, affording all in attendance a brief glimpse of Verlander’s vigor on the days he pitched.
On Thursday, as Eminem began to sing, Verlander was nowhere to be found. The Astros are without their workhorse. They need no reminder, but moments like this make manywonderwhat may have been.
Verlander tried throughout August to come back from the elbow injury he suffered during his opening day start July 25.
“Asmuch as (Verlander) brings to the table on and off the field, the group that we have right now was not really planning on (him returning in 2020),” pitching coach Brent Stromacknowledged in September. “The fact thatwe finally came to a tipping point didn’t cause any alarm or consternation or anything like that.”
The club did not crater. Credit Stromand the franchise’s cuttingedge player development team.
They decided not to throw any reliever three days in a rowduring the regular season, saving bullets from young pitchers while preserving their health.
All had contributions in keeping this Astros staff afloat. Its regular season ERA was 4.31 — more than 10 points lower than the league average. But the staff enters the American League Championship Series still facing questions about depth and endurance.
There are no off days during the seven-game series, and it will test manager Dusty Baker’s bullpen management.
The piggyback starts that carried Houston past the Twins in the wild-card series are not feasible. Neither is counting on the offensive explosion that arrived against the A’s in the American League Division Series. Every hand must be on deck.
“We need tomake sure that we prioritize flexibility and being reactive to the game situations,” general manager James Click said Saturday. “We’ve done a very good job the past six games of being aggressive about putting our best pitchers in the biggest spots and making surewe line up the leverage of the situation with the guys that we want in those spots. If we continue to do that, we will have a lot of success.”
The Astros’ starting rotation covered 3122⁄ regular-season innings,
3 borderline miraculous given Verlander’s absence and Gerrit Cole’s departure during free agency.
Both men were 200-inning mainstays in a 162-game season. Without them, Houston’s starters still threw more innings than all but three big league rotations.
“It’s really important for the starting staff, and it’s something that we take a lot of pride in,” starter Framber Valdez said Saturday through an interpreter.
Valdez blossomed into a bona fide big league starter who will get the ball Sunday in Game 1. Click says Valdez can “anchor” a future rotation.
Cristian Javier made an almost seamless transition from breakout prospect to versatile big leaguer. Jose Urquidy returned from a bout with COVID-19, and Lance McCullers Jr. made a successful comeback from Tommy John surgery.
The fourmenmeshed with veteran Zack Greinke to comprise a competent regular season rotation. It could mask the deficiencies in Houston’s rookie-filled bullpen, a unit that endured 60 games of inconsistency.
Houston’s starters must eat up more innings. Valdez threwseven
innings against the A’s and has been the team’s unquestioned workhorse. Greinke hasn’t thrown more than five innings since Sept. 8. McCullers and Urquidy were undone by the home run ball against Oakland, but both have demonstrated abilities to work deeper.
The series’ most crucial player might be Javier, a starter-turnedreliever. Baker threw him for an inning in relief of McCullers during Game 1 of the ALDS. Uncertainty
from Greinke’s arm soreness made him unavailable during the Game 3 meltdown.
“Theoretically,” Baker said, “he could go a couple games in this series.”
That’s, of course, dependent on how the starters leave the game. Can Baker avoid Javier for a long stint and, therefore, preserve him for multiple games?
Javier threw 25 pitches in Game 1 of the ALDS and was unavailable until Game 4. He entered
before the sixth inning, as Verlander’s music blared. The middle of Oakland’s order loomed. Javier struck them all out.