Fight to the end
Astros battled back, showed toughness in 7-game ALCS loss
SAN DIEGO — The Astros spent this odyssey of a season as baseball’s biggest villains.
When Aledmys Diaz flied out with a runner on first to endGame 7 of the AL Championship Series, the bad guys finally lost.
Ridiculed, roasted and ripped all year long after the revelation of the franchise’s sign-stealing tactics in previous seasons, the Astros still summoned enough October heart and poise to reach the brink of anotherWorld Series. Manager Dusty Baker’s club even came agonizingly close to matching the biggest playoff comeback in baseball history in a wild ALCS.
“The legacy of this group is that these guys are ballplayers, and these guys are men,” said Baker, who took over the team in January. “They’ve been through a whole bunch other than on the ballfield, and these guys can forget whatever problems that they’ve had that’s out there and come together as a group.”
TheAstros fell behind early and never caught up in a 4-2 loss to Rays in Game 7 on Saturday night, coming up short of an astonishing series comeback after three consecutive victories.
Although they couldn’t quite conjure onemore incredible postseason feat, thisplayoff runshould be a source of pride for these Astros long after the boos stop.
If fans are allowed back inmost stadiums in 2021, this tarnished franchise probably won’t hear the end of 2020 anytime soon — but theAstros who return next season plan to greet the condemnation with the same mental toughness they demonstrated this month.
“I think we showed the kind of team we are,” said Lance McCullers Jr., who pitched four-hit ball into the fourth inning as the Game 7 starter.
“Weweren’t on a revenge tour,” McCullers added. “That’s not what this was. This was just a bunch of guys coming together and wanting to play damn good baseball and wanting to go to anotherWorld Series. That’swhat this was. We fell short of our goal, but a lot of growth and a lot of impressive people stepped up.”
After winning two of the previous three AL pennants and the 2017 World Series championship, the Astros played the entire season under a large, dark cloud after the revelations of the scope of the team’s scheme to steal opponents’ signs.
Despite that ominous beginning to an already weird season, the Astros’ veteran core never stopped fighting— and in October, the Astros demonstrated the proudest reasons for their impressive postseason success.
“I’ve never had so much fun playing baseball as I did with this group of guys,” shortstop Carlos Correa said. “Everything — the pandemic hit, spring training 2.0, everything, we didn’t fold. We kept battling.”
Some Astros ignored the hate, while others like Correa reveled in it. The beloved Baker provided a level of respectability, but the Astros were set to face a long regular season as the most reviled team in the majors — until the coronavirus pandemic upended everything.
The Astros lost the first three games of the ALCS by a combined 11-5 to theRays. Rather than giving up, the Astros became the second team in baseball history to win three straight after being down 0-3 in a playoff series.
“This team is a bunch of fighters with a tremendous amount of perseverance and fortitude,” Baker said. “... We’ll be back in this position next year.”