Walkoff plunking perfect end to ‘funky’ game

HOUSTON — Chas McCormick’s first plate appearance of the night was a fluke in more ways than one.

The outfielder did not start Friday night’s game. He entered in the bottom of the ninth inning as a pinch runner representing the game-winning run and was left stranded on third base as the Astros failed to capitalize on an opportunity to clinch victory, instead sending the game to extra innings.

The Diamondbacks took a 3-2 lead in the top of the 10th inning. When McCormick came up to bat in the bottom of the inning (more on that later), Jake Meyers had tied the game on a one-out RBI single and the Astros had loaded the bases.

Tyler Clippard’s 0-2 pitch sailed out of his hand and made contact with McCormick’s shoulder. The outfielder looked stunned for a moment, then dropped his bat and raised his hand in the air as he followed the home plate umpire’s pointed finger down the firstbase line. Yordan Alvarez raised his fist as well as he jogged home to anoint the Astros victors.

The Astros pitched the entire game with their bullpen, were no-hit by Madison Bumgarner through five innings, ended the night with four hits to the Diamondback’s 10 — and won in extra innings on a walkoff hit by pitch.

“It was a weird game,” manager Dusty Baker said. “Funky,” Meyers offered. “It’s just one of those crazy games we had to grind through,” McCormick said. “At this point in the season it doesn’t matter who we play. Every game, every team’s going to be tough. So it was huge for us to come back.”

As the Astros inch closer to the playoffs, series wins become more paramount. Wins like Friday, albeit a close call against a Diamondbacks team with the worst road record in MLB, are wins nonetheless.

Friday’s victory reduced the Astros’ magic number in the AL West to nine.

“It doesn’t matter how you do it — for me, they all mean the same,” Jose Altuve said. “In the end, we’re just trying to win the game, and I’m very happy for Chas that he came up in that situation and got the RBI.”

It was Altuve who spoiled Bumgarner’s nohitter and gave the Astros their first lead of the night with a two-run homer in the sixth inning, a bomb that tied Altuve with Lance Berkman for most career hits in Minute Maid Park (849). A walk to Jose Siri preceded it, and Baker credited the rookie’s presence on the base paths with distracting Bumgarner.

“That’s what speed does to you, takes you out of your rhythm,” Baker said. “You have to split your concentration between the baserunner and the hitter.”

The energy in the ballpark skyrocketed after Altuve’s home run.

In the seventh inning, Baker successfully challenged a close play at first base. In the eighth, shortstop Carlos Correa fielded a hopper and turned a double play to wipe out all but one Arizona runner. That run scored to tie the game, but catcher Jason Castro threw out the would-be go-ahead run at second base.

Once Bumgarner exited after seven innings, Houston’s offense showed a spark. The Astros put three runners on base in the eighth and ninth innings, momentum that carried over to the 10th.

Baker played lineup jenga and decided to remove power hitter Kyle Tucker (who was 0 for 4 on the night) from the game, inserting Martín Maldonado as the Astros’ ghost runner on second base to begin the inning. The switch allowed McCormick to stay in the game and come up to bat in a gamewinning situation.

“Would you rather take a chance of (Maldonado) batting fifth with the runners in possible scoring position to win or tie the game or would you rather have him running at second? That’s what we took into account,” Baker said. “I didn’t like taking Tucker out of the game and I didn’t want to burn (Aledmys) Díaz — which I ended up having to use him in that game-winning situation because I was down to my last man. So you start weighing all this stuff and you say well, I’d rather take a chance on Maldy being a baserunner than Maldy hitting in that situation.” The gamble paid off. It was the third walkoff win via hit by pitch in the majors this season as well as the third in Astros history. Houston’s last was on Aug. 8, 1998, when Richard Hidalgo was hit by Philadelphia righthander Mark Leiter.

McCormick believes it was his first career walkoff. His batting stance keeps him far enough off the plate that he doesn’t get hit by many pitches. Needless to say, he was surprised.

“That was a good time to get hit by a pitch,” he said. “I was just happy it hit me.”

Karen Warren / Staff photographer Chas McCormick celebrates with Jose Siri after being hit by a pitch to bring in the winning run Friday.