Back again
The Astros return to the ALCS for the third straight year.
A.J. Hinch called it. Home field.
José Altuve kept saying it. Home field.
As soon as Game 4 was complete and Tampa Bay had tied the American League Division Series at 2-2, suddenly pushing the best regular-season team in Astros history to the possibility of early playoff elimination.
We’ll go home, the Astros said. We’ll be ourselves again — trust us. And, oh yeah, we’re throwing Gerrit Cole in Game 5.
My lord, was the home team right Thursday night.
It was 1-0 while Minute Maid Park was still filling in.
It was 3-0 when a supremely confident Alex Bregman lined an 85-mph curveball to right field. There were four consecutive hits off an instantly shaky Tyler Glasnow in a roaring first inning. And it was 4-0 Astros before Cole was handed the ball for the second time in Game 5.
Which meant that it was already over and 6-1 Astros was simply a formality. And that a 107-win baseball team now has an AL Championship Series rematch with the New York Yankees.
“I’ll tell you this. I love Minute Maid Park when it’s like this,” Bregman said. “It’s incredible, from the first pitch to the last. I know my mom was standing the entire game. I loved it.”
Winning the World Series again is still a serious possibility, primarily thanks to Cole. He went 2-0 in the ALDS with 25 strikeouts and allowed just one earned run in 15⅔ innings while throwing 225 pitches, again owning the October mound and
deepening his bond with this baseball town.
“If one guy goes off we’re probably going to win,” Bregman said. “Gerrit went off twice this series.”
An electric first said it all. Immediate energy. Noise, noise and more noise. The Astros hammering Tampa Bay and an adoring home crowd proudly feeding off the barrage.
The bottom of the eighth was even louder than the first. Michael Brantley homered. Altuve homered in the next at-bat. It was the loudest Minute Maid Park had been since the historic Game 5 of the 2017 World Series. And if you looked close enough after Altuve went deep, you could see the stadium’s roof beginning to open up.
“This is why we fought all year for 162 games,” Cole said. “They come out in droves all year to support us. They’re a baseball-savvy town. They understand big pitches. They understand big plays. And they love to bring the energy. Our job is — I mean, we’re baseball players, we have to go to work. But when it all boils down, we’re just
a bunch of kids out there having fun, trying to entertain people.”
With the first, eighth and Cole, the Astros finally finished off Kevin Cash’s Rays, who proved their worth in Games 3 and 4, then fell back to reality. They were good. They were not these Astros.
This was the season of 100win teams. This has been the Astros vs. the Yankees in the American League since the summer. Now, Hinch’s club is in the ALCS for the third consecutive year, and the Astros’ reward for winning Game 5 is hosting Game 1 of the ALCS.
Challenge them in Houston, and the Astros almost always win the big fight.
Hinch’s club won two Game 7s in 2017, downing the Yankees at home and Los Angeles Dodgers on the road, and also overcame the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park.
A season later, the Astros won 103 games but didn’t have enough against a stronger Boston squad.
This year, the franchise-record for regular-season wins was extended to 107. And when the
Astros took a 2-0 lead against the small-market Rays, advancing to again face the Yanks felt like a near certainty.
Then Zack Greinke was blasted out of Game 3 after only 3⅔ innings. Then Justin Verlander, on short rest, lasted as long as Greinke in Game 4.
“The Rays’ pitching staff was unbelievable to face,” Bregman said. “I think the only time the ball looked that small was opening weekend of the year when we faced them. So they were really, really good. It was a really good test.”
Home vs. road defined the ALDS.
The Astros took Games 1 and 2 by a combined 9-3, powered by Verlander and Cole. The Rays took Games 3 and 4 by a combined 14-4, powered by line-drive home runs and a lockdown bullpen.
The series became a tight 2-2, Hinch’s club temporarily lost its swagger inside Tropicana Field, and the Astros needed another October-worthy outing from their No. 2 ace just to stay alive in 2019.
The clear upside hours away
from a potential season-ending Game 5: Cole, Part II and all that local orange.
“We worked all season to get home field. We have it for a reason,” said Hinch, minutes after the sting of Game 4 inside the cursed Trop. “It will be nice to get home. I love the series. I love the opportunity we have.”
“It will be nice to get home” is one of the greatest understatements of Hinch’s Astros career.
The 106-win Dodgers are done. Los Angeles won’t even make the World Series this year. The National League is wide open, and neither remaining team, on paper, is as strong as your local nine.
Credit the Rays. They pushed, threatened and, for two road games, outsmarted the Astros.
But Game 5 was over in the first, and the powerful Yankees now must fly south.
If the Astros take down New York — they should — you already know what’s next.
Game 1 of the World Series. On the Astros’ home field.