WHAT A BLAST!
ALTUVE’S WALKOFF HOMER SENDS ASTROS BACK TO WORLD SERIES
In the final moment of white-knuckle tension of a night that rattled the ears and frazzled the senses for anyone fortunate enough to witness it, it was Jose Altuve, the alpha and omega of this remarkable era of Houston baseball history, who launched the Astros into their second World Series in three years.
Altuve, the last man standing from an Astros team that endured three consecutive 100-loss seasons followed by three hundred-win seasons, delivered a two-run home run in the bottom half of the ninth inning Saturday night to give the Astros a 6-4 win over the New York Yankees.
Altuve’s blast clinched the best-of-seven American League Championship Series, four games to two, and secured a spot for the Astros in the 2019 World Series beginning Tuesday against the Washington Nationals.
“Look at this team. Unbelievable group of play
ers,” said manager A.J. Hinch as the team accepted the ALCS trophy. “Look at this unbelievable group of fans. … We hung a (World Series) banner two years ago, and we want to hang another for these fans.”
Of the man of the moment, Hinch said, “I get asked to describe Altuve all the time, and the MVP is what he is.”
On a night that the Astros used a patchwork pitching rotation to keep the series from going to a deciding Game 7, Altuve’s homer erased the only significant blip on the bullpen’s résumé, a two-run homer by D.J. LeMahieu in the top of the ninth that tied the game at 4-4.
But in the bottom of the inning, facing Yankees closer Aroldis Chapman, George Springer worked a two-out walk to bring Altuve to the plate, and Altuve delivered with a 407-foot blast that sent Astros players streaming onto the field to celebrate.
“The only thing I remember (while rounding the bases) is that I was just thanking God for the opportunity to go to the World Series,” Altuve said.
“And thank everybody here,” Altuve said, referring to the crowd of 43,357 as he accepted the ALCS most valuable player award on the field. “You guys are a big reason (for this). I can’t wait for the World Series.”
Game 6 was played before a crowd that pumped up the volume to 115 decibels and beyond, roughly the noise level of a riveting machine or a chain saw, appropriate metaphors for a game that was played with unbearable intensity.
Contributing to the madness were Yuli Gurriel, with his threerun home run in the first inning; outfielders Josh Reddick and Michael Brantley, with diving catches to keep the Yankees off the board in the sixth and seventh innings; and Alex Bregman, whose sixth-inning grounder brought home Jose Altuve with Houston’s fourth run.
With both teams lacking a dependable fourth starting pitcher, it was a bullpen day, an increasingly common sight during the regular season but a rarity in the pressurized playoff atmosphere.
With Justin Verlander having pitched Friday and Gerrit Cole in reserve for a possible Game 7, the Astros’ pitching line was a patchwork quilt of Brad Peacock for five outs, Josh James for three, Ryan Pressly for one, rookie Jose Urquidy for eight, Will Harris for four, Joe Smith for three and closer Roberto Osuna for three.
That adds up to 27 outs, and 27 outs — plus one final blow by Altuve — add up to a win and a pennant. Harris, James and Pressly all entered with at least two runners on base and two outs, and each escaped without allowing a run in that situation. Urquidy, in only his 10th major league appearance, got the Astros from the fourth into the sixth, allowing a Gio Urshela home run in the fourth but striking out five in the signature performance of his young career.
After allowing runs in the second and fourth innings, the bullpen kept the Yankees off the board until the top of the ninth, when Osuna allowed a game-tying two-run homer to D.J. LeMahieu that sent the game to the bottom of the ninth.
That blast brought back memories of 2005, when Albert Pujols’ ninth-inning home run for the St. Louis Cardinals kept the Astros from clinching the National League Championship Series.
But the Astros won a night later that year to reach their first World Series, and they won Saturday on Altuve’s blast.
And now, with scarcely a break to recover from the madness, comes the World Series.
In the Nationals, the Astros face an opponent that in many ways reflects Houston’s first World Series contenders, the 2005 team that lost in four games to the Chicago White Sox.
Founded in 1969 as the Montreal Expos, the franchise moved in 2005 to Washington, D.C., which has not hosted a World Series game since the Senators, now the Minnesota Twins, lost to the New York Giants in five games in 1933.
As with the 2005 Astros, the 2019 Nationals are the first team in franchise history to reach the World Series, and they will do so as the National League wild card winners. Washington won the wild card game at home over Milwaukee, beat the Dodgers in five games in the Division Series and swept the Cardinals in four in the NL Championship Series.
Like the Astros, Washington has superlative front-line starters in Max Scherzer and Steven Strasburg. Their leading hitter and putative NL Most Valuable Player candidate, third baseman Anthony Rendon, is a graduate of Lamar High School who played at Rice University before turning pro.
Unlike 2017, when the Astros had to go on the road to beat the Dodgers in seven games, Houston this time has home field advantage by virtue of winning a franchise-record 107 games this season to Washington’s 93.
With the Nationals having polished off St. Louis in four games and the Astros disposing of the Yankees in six, both teams now have a day off before Monday’s workout day at Minute Maid Park and Tuesday’s Game 1.
Game 2 is Wednesday, followed by a day off and three weekend games at Nationals Park in Washington. Game 6 and 7, if necessary, will be Oct. 29-30 at Minute Maid Park.