BREGMAN, ASTROS HAVE A BLAST
Bregman’s two-run homer produces walkoff victory
The kid is so clutch. With the Astros having trailed all game and down one run in the bottom of the ninth, Alex Bregman laid into an 0-2 fastball so confidently that he offered his walkoff homer a glance and quickly turned to see his teammates pouring out of the home dugout.
The Astros knew the two-run blast was destined for the train tracks, and their 7-6 comeback win over the Blue Jays on Wednesday was assured.
The triumphant finish capped a series victory over Toronto and marked Bregman’s third walkoff hit this season.
Bookending Wednesday’s game-winning hit, Bregman had a walkoff double on June 18 in the first game of the ninegame homestand. In his last two games, the 24year-old third baseman has two home runs and five doubles.
“We’ve seen this,” Astros manager A.J. Hinch said. “Alex Bregman, game on the line, ice in his
veins. Whatever quote you want, put my name by it.”
The Blue Jays jumped to a quick 5-0 lead in the first inning. The Astros responded with four unanswered runs. Bregman and Evan Gattis each doubled twice. Gattis drove in three runs, setting a franchise record with 30 RBIs in June.
An error by Jose Altuve let the Blue Jays extend their lead to 6-4, but Marwin Gonzalez snapped an 0-for-23 slump with a home run in the eighth.
The Astros began the ninth 3for-13 with runners in scoring position. Then Tony Kemp singled, and Bregman did the rest to complete the Astros’ largest comeback win of the season.
The Astros have given few reasons to question their resiliency this season, but starting the game with a five-run deficit made a comeback seem improbable.
Starter Dallas Keuchel pinpointed a sinker on the inside edge of the zone to the first batter of the game, Blue Jays left fielder Randal Grichuk.
It was the type of pitch Keuchel has used for years to induce grounders. But in 2018, Keuchel looks more vulnerable than the southpaw who won the 2015 American League Cy Young Award, and that pitch has been clobbered more than half the time he has thrown it.
Grichuk returned the pitch at 109.4 mph for a screaming leadoff double.
Keuchel (4-8 , 4.22 ERA) has gotten off to several rough starts this season. No lineup battered him worse to open a game than the all-righthanded one the Blue Jays used Wednesday. Each hitter got a crack at Keuchel in the first inning.
Including Toronto’s five runs, Keuchel has allowed 18 earned runs in the first innings of his 17 starts for a 9.53 ERA.
Keuchel has not only been hit early, he has been hit hard. Before Wednesday, he had given up an average exit velocity of 89.3 mph in first innings, the seventh highest in baseball. The Blue Jays raised that average. They launched four of their first-inning hits at 101.5 mph or higher.
The bearded lefthander entered the dugout and excused himself for a walk through the tunnel. He emerged for the second inning restored.
Keuchel allowed one hit to the next 14 batters he faced. He found his changeup, which he spun with so much movement that it more closely resembled a rapidly tailing two-seam fastball.
Soon after the Astros shrunk the Blue Jays’ lead to 5-4, Keuchel’s resurgence fizzled out.
With one out in the sixth, Keuchel allowed two singles and a walk to load the bases. Then he induced an ideal groundball to turn a double play. Jose Altuve bobbled it, sank to the dirt and came up empty-handed.
Altuve lobbed the ball back to Keuchel but quickly turned away, seemingly disgusted with himself for the error. It let the Blue Jays extend their lead to 6-4 and cost Keuchel a chance to keep pitching.
Hinch immediately marched to the mound and brought in Brad Peacock, who struck out consecutive hitters to strand the three runners.
After Gonzalez’s home run, Will Harris (3-3) pitched a scoreless ninth to set up Bregman’s heroics.
Bregman later would say he was trying to hit a single, but he took two mighty hacks at high, inside fastballs from Ryan Tepera (5-3). Bregman realized the pitcher’s approach. His third swing connected smoothly, and teammates unloaded their water bottles on Bregman for a victory shower at home plate.
Bregman hit two walkoff home runs in the minors, but Wednesday was his first in the majors. Add it to his collection of clutch hits, including his walkoff single at the same ballpark in Game 5 of the 2017 World Series.
In the last two seasons, when the tying or go-ahead run is onbase or represented by him at the plate, Bregman has a .285 batting average (106-for-372). Only Altuve’s .347 average is higher on the Astros.
Outside the clubhouse doors, Josh Reddick shook his head. The 10-year veteran never had a young teammate so prone to coming through in big moments before Bregman. “Zero,” Reddick said. Bregman’s recent tear makes it easy to forget his three-week struggle to keep his batting average above .260. He looked lost and searched for answers. On Sunday, he started a game with a mustache and later reappeared from the dugout without it.
As the Astros packed up for a six-game road trip that starts in Tampa, Fla., and the high of the walkoff faded, Bregman rubbed his stubbly upper lip.
“I miss it,” Bregman said of the mustache.
His facial hair did not correlate to hits, but the way the Astros are winning these days, Bregman pretty much can get away with anything.