Pop go the Astros
Fluke play in 10th ends scoreless pitchers’ duel
Alex Bregman’s misplayed popup lifts the MLB champs to a 1-0 win over San Diego.
They will write it in the scorebook as Alex Bregman’s seventh hit of the season, an RBI single to score Derek Fisher from second base in a marathon game inside Minute Maid Park.
That sounds familiar doesn’t it?
“I love Fisher at second base,” said Bregman, donning a Corpus Christi Hooks hoodie, “all the way from Corpus Christi to now.”
Sequels rarely fulfill the expectations set for them. Saturday did not carry anything resembling the implications the last time this scenario unfolded, in Game 5 of the World Series.
Bregman at the plate. Fisher standing on second base. The bottom of an inning during a game started by one of the Astros’ aces.
There were fewer runs, yes. Even fewer reverberations. Few will remember this early April game when September or October rolls around. Bregman will smile slyly and take the hit, one of two on the night that “finally” — those are his words — put him over the Mendoza line.
He faced Padres reliever Phil Maton with two outs in the 10th inning of a scoreless game. Maton left a full-count cutter at the letters. Bregman swung.
“I just missed it,” he said , “and I should have crushed it.”
Instead, it lofted lazily into the sky, up against Minute Maid Park’s closed roof, a difficult overhang to play beneath for the unindoctrinated. These two teams hadn’t played since 2015 — and that series was in San Diego.
So Bregman’s skied 30 feet from pitcher's mound.
First baseman Eric Hosmer charged in. So did third baseman Charlie Villanueva. Catcher A.J. Ellis pointed to someone. Maton joined the fray, too.
None of them caught it. Fisher crossed the plate safely for the 1-0 victory, a most bizarre ending for an Astros’ offense that so desperately required something to go right.
Though he wasn’t involved in the decision, starter Gerrit Cole was sensational, allowing only five hits and striking out 11 in seven scoreless frames.
Cole did not issue any walks and lowered his ERA to 0.64 with his second straight quality start. His 22 strikeouts in his first two career starts are a franchise record. Only one Padres baserunner made it as far as third base against Cole.
"It feels good,” Cole said. “It feels good to be able to contribute, eat innings, provide some rest for the bullpen.”
Three relievers — Will Harris, Ken Giles and Chris Devenski — backed up Cole’s brilliant home debut.
Marwin Gonzalez laced a double in the second inning of Wednesday afternoon’s victory over the Baltimore Orioles. Twenty-five innings have passed. No Astro has collected another extra-base hit since.
With the club’s lineup construction, the power it possesses mixed with the speed that can turn routine hits into something more, and the gnarly slides seem implausible. Yet, the Astros arrived here Saturday, in dire need of the backbreaking base hit eluding them.
It happened in this most improbable way.
“If you watch enough games, I guess you see everything,” manager A.J. Hinch said. “They tell you that. I’ve never really seen that before.
“That wasn’t very predictable, except you could tell at the end they were having a hard time getting to the ball.”
Brian McCann pushed an infield single through a shifted infield to lead off the 10th inning.
Fisher pinch-ran for McCann and stole second base.
With two outs, he was running on contact.
“That’s been a pretty good combo for us,” said Hinch, whose offense stranded eight runners and is still in search of that long-awaited extra base hit.
“I’d rather win the game a little bit earlier and capitalize on some of those opportunities. There’s some comfort when Bregman is up to bat and Fisher is on second base. It’s a good little combo.”