If Verlander falters and bats keep still, season will leave a nasty taste
Oversized American League Championship Series logos on both sides of home plate were being touched up with new paint.
World Series tickets went on sale two hours before Justin Verlander returned to the podium, where he previously glowed about 124 pitches, 13 strikeouts and the 2-0 Astros.
And I was on my way back to the press box at Minute Maid Park — playoffs, mid-October baseball, another nationally televised game — when a familiar face yanked me back to reality.
“They should be embarrassed if they lose four straight games,” said the man, who then returned to his normal working life.
I couldn’t say it better myself. Astros 2-0 and two wins away from the Fall Classic has turned into Yankees 3-2 and A.J. Hinch’s club one loss away from being finished in 2017. The best-hitting team in baseball has forgotten how to hit. And the Astros’ hideous .147 batting average in the ALCS only captures part of a stunning slide.
A blowout. A collapse. A shutout.
A starting arm pulled too soon, postseason-proven veterans constantly whiffing at air and the legendary Yankees again looking every bit the part as this ALCS returns to our city for Game 6.
Is this really going to happen? Is Hinch’s club actually going to blow it?
Are we going to instantly forget about the 101 wins and cruelly lump the team you fell in love with in with the letdowns from 1980, ’86, 2004, ’05 and ’15?
And is the initial defining trait of Jeff Luhnow’s massive rebuild really going to be two postseason collapses in three years?
McCullers’ lament
The 2017 Astros swore they exorcised the disaster of their meltdown during Game 4 of the 2015 ALDS when earlier this month Alex Bregman went over the Green Monster, Josh Reddick fought off pitch after pitch and Carlos Beltran sealed another trip to the ALCS.
“There are a lot of the same guys here that experienced that day,” said Lance McCullers Jr., after the Astros rallied from a 3-2 eighth-inning deficit in Game 4 to silence the Red Sox in the Fenway Park rain. “And I tell you, it was the most gut-wrenching, depressing month I’ve ever had happen in my life. I couldn’t watch baseball. I didn’t want to talk about baseball or the World Series. … The fans that were there that have stuck with us and have ridden this wave out with us, they deserve to celebrate like we do.” Gut wrenching? Depressing? Can’t even acknowledge the World Series being played?
Sounds like all the Astros fans watching Games 3-5 against the Yankees in pure disbelief. And everyone who believed in April, June and September will soon be reliving 2015 all over again (but far worse) if these Astros turn a 2-0 ALCS lead into another New York World Series.
The last time we saw the orange and blue at Minute Maid, Jose Altuve was sprinting from first to home, Carlos Correa was about to be mobbed near second base and the ballpark became a united scream.
Just three games later — Maybe they’d drop one, you told yourself. But a Yankee Stadium sweep? No way, Jose. — Hinch was solemnly being asked about picking up the pieces and moving forward, while Verlander was again reminded that this is why he came to Houston on Aug. 31.
“It can happen in a hurry. It’s crazy. And that’s why we love this,” said Verlander, referring to the sweeping highs and lows of the playoffs. “Obviously, I don’t necessarily love coming back down a game. I would have liked it to be the other way around, at least. Hey, that’s the game.
“This is an exciting series with two great teams kind of going at it. … You talk about momentum: If we’re able to win (Game 6), I think that switches back to our side where we’re having a Game 7 in our park.”
Curses, foiled again?
I don’t believe in curses. Cleveland came back from down 3-1 against Golden State (in case you haven’t heard) to win the NBA Finals in 2016.
The once-forsaken Chicago Cubs won it all a few months later, ending 108 years of annual defeat in one of the greatest World Series played.
Altuve wasn’t alive in 1980 and ’86. Correa didn’t arrive until ’94, and didn’t play his first minor league game until five years after Craig Biggio’s last in MLB.
But you fell for the 2015 Astros because you saw the old unmistakable spark, and you went all in for ’17 because you knew this team was special.
The second-best regular season in franchise history. Loaded, tested and driven.
Then they added Verlander just in time, and 2-0 Astros in the ALCS made perfect sense.
Altuve sliding and leaping. Correa opening his chest. Minute Maid crazed.
Just two more victories from the Astros’ second World Series since 1962.
“This is a random three-game stretch,” Hinch said. “It doesn’t have to define the rest of our year. It just defined the series while in New York. We can set a new trend for us beginning (Friday).”
Then prove it, Astros. Rediscover the team you were. Win the next two.
Or all the 2017 team will be remembered for is blowing it against the Yankees.