Houston Chronicle

Speaking of no-hitters, Dodgers’ 2 aces up next

- By Evan Drellich evan.drellich@chron.com twitter.com/evandrelli­ch

The Astros could lose every game against every good, great and stellar pitcher they face from now until the end of the regular season, and it wouldn’t mean they automatica­lly would be KO’d by an ace in the playoffs.

Public confidence probably would be boosted with a win or two against Los Angeles Dodgers aces Zack Greinke and Clayton Kershaw on Saturday and Sunday, respective­ly. And maybe even some amount of clubhouse confidence would benefit, too, although an admission of that may be harder to find.

The Dodgers’ Adrian Gonzalez said beating the other team’s best pitcher can be a morale advantage, particular­ly early in the series, but the best pitchers aren’t exactly supposed to be beaten.

“A lot of times you don’t, because they’re good at pitching,” Gonzalez said. “They’re going to dominate most lineups.”

Either way, the any-team-can-win-any-day nature of baseball precludes the majority of those worries on the inside.

After the Astros were one-hit in an outrageous­ly good start by Tampa Bay’s Chris Archer on Thursday, catcher Jason Castro a day later went right to the heart of concern over the Astros’ recent performanc­es against pitchers of Archer’s caliber. They’ve lost to Sonny Gray, Madison Bumgarner and Justin Verlander recently.

Consistenc­y the key

“I don’t think there’s an added emphasis to beat good pitching,” Castro said. “You always want to beat good pitching, regardless of what your record (is) or regardless of what point in the year it is. I think it’s made more aware, like just in general in the media and stuff, because the playoffs are kind of looming and we’re in first place.

“Speaking for everyone in here, I don’t think there’s more of an emphasis put on it now that all of a sudden it’s the end of August, we’re facing good pitching, we need to beat those guys because that’s who we’re going to see in the postseason. I don’t think that’s the feeling at all. I think it’s still the same approach.”

Consistenc­y, it turns out, is something baseball players like to preach in a 162-game season. And then when the playoffs come, anything can happen. Castro said the Astros aren’t looking at Kershaw or Greinke as tests.

In last year’s National League Division Series, which the Dodgers lost three games to one to Pat Neshek’s St. Louis Cardinals, Kershaw allowed the unlikelies­t of home runs to Matt Adams in the fourth and deciding game. Adams, a lefty hitter, is poor against southpaw pitching. Kershaw dominates lefties.

For the first time in his major league career, Kershaw allowed a homer to a lefthanded batter on a curveball. The three-run shot in the seventh inning turned a 2-0 Dodgers lead into a 3-2 deficit.

“On any given night, any lineup can beat any pitcher,” Castro said. “That’s just the reality of it. You know, it’s really a caseby-case basis. It doesn’t matter. You could struggle against No. 1s all year and see one in the playoffs and go off.”

Players do know and appreciate when they’ve beaten the best. Rookie Preston Tucker really wants a chance to face White Sox ace Chris Sale but hasn’t had it yet, for example. The novelty of facing a big name has worn off, Tucker said, but the competitiv­eness still exists.

“Probably everyone who plays major league baseball, and especially younger guys, they really want to face these guys that had some success and have been around for a long time,” Tucker said, naming former Cy Young Award winners R.A. Dickey and Corey Kluber. “Just for the sake of competing and the sake of possibly helping a team win a game against one of those guys.”

Two teams alike

But Tucker also made the point that against the best pitching, the most one can reasonably hope for is a close game. The Astros had that against Archer.

“We’re not expecting to score 10 runs of the best guy in the league,” Tucker said. “We’re expecting to win the ballgame.”

Astros manager A.J. Hinch said the offense was going through a little bit of a roller-coaster ride, and that the offense has felt “fairly streaky the entire year.” But as for what the team needs more of, his answer was simple: hits. If a guy is pounding the strike zone, disrupt his rhythm, but there’s not much more to it.

“I think they’re a little bit like our team,” Kershaw said of his take on the Astros. “They’re hitting some homers … basically, they’re a mistake-hitting team. They crush mistakes, and so just try to limit those.”

 ??  ?? Dodgers aces Zack Greinke, left, and Clayton Kershaw will give Astros hitters a lot to consider in the next two games.
Dodgers aces Zack Greinke, left, and Clayton Kershaw will give Astros hitters a lot to consider in the next two games.
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