Pujols remains mighty at Minute Maid
With first base open, nemesis smashes 3-run homer, 29th in park, onto train tracks
The uniform and league have changed, but 12 seasons later, Albert Pujols still tortures the Astros.
The 37-year-old Los Angeles Angels designated hitter sunk his favorite opponent Tuesday night with a towering threerun shot onto the Minute Maid Park train tracks reminiscent of Game 5 of the 2005 National League Championship Series. On this occasion, the role of Brad Lidge was played by second-year Astros starter Joe Musgrove, who completed only five innings in a 5-2 loss.
The result snapped two early-season streaks. The Astros (9-5) lost for the first time in six games, while the Angels (7-8) won for the first time in seven. Pujols’ home run, the 593rd of his illustrious career, broke a 2-2 tie
in the fifth, a four-run frame for the visitors.
With 54 career regular-season homers against the Astros, Pujols has eight more than Hank
Aaron, the player with the next-highest total against the team. The former longtime St. Louis Cardinals slugger has 29 regularseason homers at Minute Maid Park, six more than the visitor with the next most at the venue, Aramis Ramirez.
Musgrove victimized
Pujols’ latest damage came on an inside fastball from Musgrove on an 0-1 count. As soon as he connected, the only uncertainty was whether it would stay fair down the left-field line. The moonshot traveled an estimated 405 feet and reached a height of 137 feet, according to MLB’s Statcast.
First base was open, prompting the question of whether Astros manager A.J. Hinch should have signaled for an intentional walk. An argument against it might center on Pujols’ decline in production in recent seasons, though that doesn’t seem to apply against his favorite American League West punching bag.
“(C.J.) Cron’s pretty good behind him,” Hinch said. “I want to give Joe a little bit of leeway to make some careful pitches. … He had handled Pujols pretty well. He had broken his bat on the popup to himself (in the first inning) and then the little chopper to third (in the third).
“So if he makes his pitch, I think we have a little bit of a different outcome. But obviously, he left a ball up, and Pujols put a good swing on it.”
Musgrove actually felt it was a good pitch and said the location was where he and catcher Brian McCann targeted. The 24-year-old righthander also conceded “maybe I’ve got to go a little more in off the plate.”
“But we had gotten in on his hands earlier in the game (with) some sinkers heavy in, so I thought it was a good pitch,” Musgrove said. “I’m more concerned with the stuff that happened before that.”
Musgrove cited the Angels’ seventh-, eighthand ninth-place hitters reaching base in five of six at-bats as the bigger issue. No. 7 batter Andrelton Simmons homered in the second inning to open the scoring. Ninth-hole hitter Martin Maldonado had an infield single to kick-start the fifth.
“Those are the guys I need to get out,” Musgrove said, “especially when you’ve got a top of the lineup coming up like theirs.”
The extra pitches piled up for Musgrove, who reached a count of 100 over his five innings. Moments before Pujols’ blast, Mike Trout ripped a run-scoring double on a laser that bounced off the top of the glove of center fielder George Springer.
“If I had taken maybe a little bit of a different angle, I might’ve gotten to it,” Springer said. “But you never know.”
Musgrove threw 73 of his pitches for strikes but had trouble finishing at-bats. He induced only five swings-and-misses as the Angels ran up his pitch count with a bevy of foul balls. Only the third inning was a 1-2-3 frame for the young starter.
Through three starts, Musgrove (1-1) has yet to complete more than 51⁄3 innings. He has a 5.87 ERA with 20 hits allowed, including three home runs, in his 151⁄3 frames.
“They did a good job of battling him,” Hinch said, “and putting him in sort of difficult situations to have to pitch out of most of the night.”
Both of the Astros’ runs came on third-inning homers. Yuli Gurriel ambushed a first-pitch fastball from righthander Ricky Nolasco and sent it onto the train tracks, a couple sections toward center field from where Pujols’ fifth-inning long ball would land.
Springer hits No. 7
Two batters later, Springer launched a fastball 441 feet to straightaway center field and off the new batter’s eye that replaced Tal’s Hill. Springer is only the second player in Astros history with seven home runs in the team’s first 14 games of a season. Lance Berkman had eight in the first 14 games of the 2002 season en route to a 42-homer campaign.
“I think that’s probably as best as I can hit a ball, especially to that part of the park,” Springer said. “I’m just happy I was able to help in that instance, and hopefully I can hit a few more over there.”