FINDING RELIEF
Astros staff finds ways to get job done, including ALCS Game 1 starter Framber Valdez.
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 tobe found. The Astros are without their workhorse. They need no reminder, but moments like this make many wonder what may have been.
Verlander tried through out 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 St rom acknowledged 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 Strom and the franchise’s cuttingedge player development team.
They decided not to throw any reliever three days in a row during the regular season, saving bullets from young pitchers while preserving their health. Credit blissful ignorance from that bunch of rookies just happy to now be big leaguers. Credit the empty stadiums that allow these youngsters a more serene welcome to a major league mound.
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 sure we 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. “It’s a privilege to be at this level and to be able to help the starting staff and help the team. I’m just focused on doing everything I can to help the team out.”
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 four men meshed 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.
October provides a more distinct challenge. It’s mandatory that Baker avoid the murky middle of his bullpen. A Game 3 loss during the American League Division Series illustrates why. Baker turned to Josh James and Brooks Raley during the seventh and eighth innings. They teamed to blow a three-run lead.
Baker gave both men the baseball without any other options. His two most trusted relievers — Enoli Paredes and Ryan Pressly — were unavailable after throwing the first two games. Blake Taylor had to bail the team out of the fifth inning of Game 3 after Urquidy could not finish it.
Urquidy threw 4⅓ innings against the A’s. Greinke lasted 4⅔. McCullers went four exactly. The Astros got only 17 innings pitched from their four starters, leaving a bullpen without much depth to cover 19 others.
The relievers allowed just seven earned runs — an obvious boon — but also were buoyed by the Astros’ offensive explosion. Houston hit a Division Series-record 12 home runs and scored 33 runs. The sort of run support was welcomed, but can not be counted on against a Rays pitching staff with the third-lowest ERA in baseball.
Houston’s starters must eat up more innings. Valdez threw seven 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-turned-reliever. 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 threw25 pitches in Game 1 of the ALDS andwas 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.