MOOD SWINGS
Astros’ offense still in funk as Swanson, Soler home runs push Braves to brink of title
ATLANTA — In a position he is still unfamiliar, in a series slipping away and after the sort of swing no one wearing an Astros uniform can produce, Yordan Alvarez found himself reeling.
He struggled to collect his breath. He bent at his waist while a stadium erupted before him. The effort to save his team exceeded all assumptions.
“Impossible,” shortstop Carlos Correa said. “It was a rocket. He had to time it perfectly and, even then, a rib might have broken trying to make that catch.”
Yet the expectation felt enormous. An inept offense has forced every other facet of this team to try to be flawless. The task impossible. October already shrinks margins for error. The Astros have created one impossible to measure.
Their offense is broken. Atlanta’s arms continue to bully it with no regard for regular-season prestige. Houston cannot score and refuses to hit in the clutch. Winter is near because of it.
History will remember the Astros’ 3-2 loss to the Braves in Game 4 of the World Series on Saturday night at Truist Park, for a staggering seventh inning. Dansby Swanson and Jorge Soler struck back-to-back home runs against Cristian Javier to afford Atlanta, now ahead 3-1 in the best-of-seven series, a lead it didn’t relinquish.
Javier had not allowed a run in any of his nine previous playoff innings. He made two mistakes. Swanson swatted a middle-middle fastball in an 0-2 count into the right-field seats.
Soler smacked a hanging slider into the Astros’ bullpen. Alvarez gave a valiant effort to catch it. He crashed into the chain-linked fence that protects the pen. He required a few minutes to regain his composure.
He had enough wherewithal to take the game’s final at-bat. Fittingly, it ended futility.
“They have good pitchers and they’ve been executing every pitch,” Jose Altuve said. “So they’re not giving us a lot of pitches to hit. We’re trying hard as hitters. We’ve got a good lineup, we
know, but sometimes you have to give credit to the other team as well.”
Houston brought a onerun advantage into the seventh. Countless chances existed to extend it. The Astros refused. One of their worst losses of the golden era arrived as a result.
“I’ve said it many times,” manager Dusty Baker said. “They say good pitching beats good hitting. And then, when you don’t hit, they say what’s wrong? And they’ve been pitching good against us. They’ve been pitching great against us.”
Houston stranded 11 baserunners. Nine came within the first five innings. The team took eight at-bats with runners in scoring position. None resulted in a hit. They are 4-for-31 with runners in
scoring position during the World Series.
Correa and Alex Bregman have combined to go 3for-28 in the series’ first five games. Alvarez is 1-for-11. Bregman is 8-for-53 in the postseason. Six of his hits are singles. He has nine extra-base hits since Sept. 1.
Baker continues to bat Bregman third for reasons that defy logic. Asked whether he would consider moving him, Baker replied: “I thought about it. I’ll let you know tomorrow when I make the lineup out.”
Baker’s options are scant. He made some curious pinch-hit decisions Saturday, but the Astros do not have a bench constructed to carry an entire team. The absence of any contributions from Houston’s core is
cratering any chance at a championship.
“We have to do a better job if we want to stay in this series,” Correa said. “It’s a combination of (things). I think their pitching staff is really good. Their bullpen guys have done a great job. We just have to go tomorrow (in Game 5) and have a better approach and put at-bats together. We’re not doing that right now.”
Nadir arrived on a night Atlanta did not even deploy a starter.
Braves manager Brian Snitker gave the baseball to a rookie opener and planned a bullpen game. Dylan Lee had never started a major league game. His big league career consisted of 41⁄3 innings. His Saturday evening involved four batters.
Lee threw five of his 15 pitches for strikes. He generated two swings and misses. Bregman accounted for both. His strikeout stalled momentum after Houston’s first two hitters reached. Lee walked two of the four hitters he saw. Altuve struck an infield single against him, too.
Snitker summoned Kyle Wright to start his carousel of relievers. Six total pitchers teamed to tame the Astros. Wright yielded a runscoring groundout to Correa in the first. Altuve annihilated a solo home run against him in the fourth. Houston mustered nothing else. The lineup wasted five walks and struck eight hits. Seven of them were singles, supplying no comfort for a pitching staff that’s carried them so far.
Starter Zack Greinke gave the Astros everything they desired. He fired four scoreless frames. Houston would have been thrilled with three. Greinke had not finished a postseason start scoreless since Game 4 of the 2014 ALDS.
Greinke did not allow a runner past first base. He yielded four balls in play struck harder than 99 mph. Atlanta did not turn any into threats. Altuve turned two terrific double plays to extinguish threats in the third and fourth. Correa’s incredible right arm assisted on both of them.
Greinke had not thrown more than 37 pitches since a Sept. 19 start against the Arizona Diamondbacks. He had 43 following the third. His spot in the batting order was six places away. Baker hit Greinke eighth. Greinke delivered a one-out single in the second. No other pitcher in Astros franchise history has a World Series hit.
After three innings, Greinke had tamed Atlanta’s two lefties twice. Two righthanded hitters awaited him in the fourth. Greinke allowed an .828 OPS to them in the regular season. Houston’s bullpen stayed quiet while Wright labored.
Wright is a 26-year-old righthander with a 6.56 ERA across 70 major league innings. He walked Alvarez with one out in the third. Correa crushed a single to follow. Kyle Tucker grounded into a fielder’s choice, freeing a base with two outs.
Snitker walked Yuli Gurriel in the seven-hole, forcing Baker into a decision.
Greinke’s hitting has morphed into something mythical. He is heralded as an actual threat. In actuality, he has a .598 OPS in 600 regular-season plate appearances. The Astros do not pay him $29 million to provide offense.
Baker trusted him to do it anyway. Greinke hit away. He smacked the first pitch he saw up the middle. The Braves’ Ozzie Albies secured it and made an accurate throw across the diamond.
“Don’t forget,” Baker said, “Greinke is an outstanding hitter at the same time and that’s why we stuck with him.”
Perhaps nothing better illustrates Houston’s hellacious offense.