World Series run full of redemption
With fans booing and taunting on the road, team responds with dominant play into October
If a tumultuous 2020 did not illustrate it, 2021 afforded the Astros a more visceral view of the foreseeable future. Fans returned to visiting ballparks and brought continuous booing: a reckoning for Houston’s sign-stealing scheme at Minute Maid Park during the 2017 and 2018 seasons. Baseball’s most hated team bore the brunt of its 5-year-old crime.
Players and coaches chose not to answer the abuse publicly. The Astros’ response arrived in their performance. They spent seven months silencing rancorous road venues and reshifting the sport’s focus onto the field, however impossible it sometimes felt.
Houston won 95 regular-season games and took its fourth American League West championship in five years. Four players earned All-Star appearances, though none attended the game at Coors Field. Three claimed injury while closer Ryan Pressly remained home with his pregnant wife.
A redemptive October run ended two wins shy of a World Series title, but the Astros did claim their third American League pennant in five years. They became the third team in major league history to play in a League Championship Series during five consecutive seasons.
Houston did it while dodging coronavirus concerns during the first half and masterfully combating the innings increase from a truncated 60-game season in 2020. Seven pitchers threw at least 100 innings, including American League Rookie of the Year runner-up Luis Garcia.
Lance McCullers Jr. blossomed into the sort of front-line starter worthy of the five-year, $85 million contract extension he signed in spring training. McCullers’ 3.16 ERA trailed only Cy Young winner Robbie Ray for the lowest among qualified American League starters.
McCullers set career highs with 1621⁄3 innings pitched and 185 strikeouts. His forearm strain prior to the ALCS struck a devastating blow to Houston’s title hopes.
The lineup should have overcome it. The Astros led the sport in batting average (.267), on-base percentage (.339) and weighted runs created plus (116). Bounceback seasons from Jose Altuve and Yuli Gurriel coupled with the best campaign of Carlos Correa’s career and Kyle Tucker’s breakout. Yordan Alvarez added 69 extra-base hits in the first healthy 162-game season of his burgeoning career.
Alvarez finished 12-for-23 during a six-game American League Championship Series win against the Red Sox, earning Most Valuable Player honors. His dominance disappeared in the World Series. No one around him could compensate.
The Astros slashed .224/.298/ .299 against Atlanta. Four Braves pitchers fell six outs shy of a nohitter in Game 3. They settled for a shutout. Houston scored four runs during its four losses. Altuve struck the team’s only two home runs in the six-game series loss. Houston had just eight other extra-base hits and, for the second time in three seasons, watched a National League opponent celebrate a championship inside Minute Maid Park.
While they did, the Astros seemed to accept the end of an era. Venerated pitching coach Brent Strom announced his departure outside the clubhouse after an excellent eight-year run. Arizona hired him in the same capacity in November.
Correa, the team’s unquestioned leader and a face of this franchise’s renaissance, spoke in the past tense of his time in Houston during what felt like a farewell speech. Correa remains the most coveted free agent on the market and will command the type of long, lucrative contract that owner Jim Crane has never authorized.
Correa declined Houston’s fiveyear, $160 million contract offer shortly after the World Series. The team brought back ace Justin Verlander on a one-year, $25 million contract that contains a player option for 2023. General manager James Click signed veteran reliever Héctor Neris to lengthen his bullpen.