According to plan
Taking turns: Correa picks up on offense where Altuve leaves off
Solid start: Keuchel allows one run on three hits in 52⁄3 innings No drama: One-sided series now shifts locations for Game 3
A.J. Hinch hasn’t had to tax his bullpen, make a tough substitution or really render any difficult in-game decisions 18 innings into this American League Division Series. Through the first two games, it has been all Astros. A second consecutive 8-2 victory in Friday’s Game 2 leaves the Astros needing to win only one of three games against the Boston Red Sox to advance to the AL Championship Series. Their first chance to clinch their first postseason series since 2005 will come Sunday afternoon, when Brad Peacock will start opposite ex-Astro Doug Fister at Fenway Park.
Charlie Morton would start for the Astros in Game 4 on Monday if one is necessary. It won’t be if Game 3 follows a script anything close to that of Games 1 and 2.
“We won’t take anything for granted,” said Hinch, the third-year Astros manager, whose team flew to Boston on Friday night and will work out there Saturday afternoon. “This is a team that’s very, very laser focused on winning
the series. You don’t win the series with two wins, you win it with three.”
The same offense that led the majors in slugging percentage while being the hardest to strike out has been on display in full force in the first two games. In addition to outscoring the Red Sox 16-4, the Astros have outhomered them 6-0. They are batting a collective .343 and slugging .686.
“It shows the depth of our team,” said outfielder George Springer, who led off the bottom of the third inning with a home run. “It’s not the same guy every day. Except it’s always ( Jose) Altuve day.”
Altuve, the AL’s threetime batting champ and potentially its 2017 MVP, had two more hits Friday, only this time both were singles. The first, with two outs in the first inning, set the table for a two-run shot over the Crawford Boxes by Carlos Correa. The second, in the third inning, drove in Alex Bregman and put the Astros up 4-1.
The Red Sox chose to not pitch to Altuve in his third and fourth plate appearances, intentionally walking the second baseman each time to instead face Correa. Altuve has reached base in seven of his nine plate appearances in the series, which he kick-started with his epic three home runs in Thursday’s Game 1.
“To be honest with you, I came to the ballpark mentally prepared for that situation,” Correa said of Boston intentionally walking Altuve. “He hit three homers (Thursday). He’s the best hitter in the game right now, so I was expecting when first base was open, there were guys on base and in an important situation, he was going to get walked.”
Starts with the starters
Fittingly, Correa delivered the biggest swings of the afternoon for the Astros in Game 2.
After his first-inning homer off starter Drew Pomeranz, he gave the team some breathing room with a two-run double off reliever Addison Reed in the sixth. It was the 23-year-old shortstop’s second career four-RBI postseason game after Game 4 of the 2015 ALDS.
“I think it all starts with the starting rotation. When you have two Cy Young winners in the front of your rotation, it gives you a lot of confidence, and we in the lineup know that a couple runs will be enough,” Correa said. “So it’s good to start with an early lead, and then (Justin) Verlander and (Dallas) Keuchel are going to do the rest. … We know that if we can go out there and score early, we’re giving them a good chance to feel comfortable out there on the mound.”
In a postseason of short outings, the Astros have had each of their top two starters pitch into the sixth. A day after Verlander tossed six innings of two-run ball, Keuchel completed 52⁄3 and allowed only one run.
Keuchel recovered from a rocky start to retire 13 consecutive batters between the second and sixth innings before a walk to Hanley Ramirez spelled the end of his day. The former Cy Young Award winner surrendered only three hits.
“They had a good game plan early on, and that was to look over the plate and raise their eyesight, and I wasn’t able to pull up the two-seam,” Keuchel said. “So, I just went to plan B and that was go extreme, extreme in with the cutter and slider and was able to get some early strikes, get ahead in the count, attack them and kind of put them back on their heels. (I) was fortunate enough to make an adjustment early enough before it was too late.”
Following the script
The Astros knocked out Pomeranz in the third inning. Their performance marked the first time in Astros history they scored eight runs or more in consecutive postseason games. No team had scored eight runs or more in multiple games in the same Division Series since the 2012 St. Louis Cardinals did it three times in five games against the Washington Nationals.
“We couldn’t really script it any better,” Keuchel said.