Having a blast
Cole’s gem, home runs by Brantley and Altuve power series-clinching victory
The baseball disappeared into a blur of orange in the right field stands and bedlam began. Several teammates spilled from the firstbase dugout, awaiting the arrival of the most austere Astro. Michael Brantley bounded to first base and headed for second. Tension departed the building that housed an unforeseen do-or-die game.
The Astros absorbed Tampa Bay’s most menacing blow. A plucky team with a paltry payroll pushed this juggernaut to the brink of elimination after an Astros regular season that established expectations of nothing less than a World Series title.
“Really, honestly, now that we won it,” Gerrit Cole said, “it was good to get hit in the mouth twice.”
The Rays are a reliever-reliant team, tailored around a burgeoning bullpen that tore Houston apart for two games. The Astros offense, baseball’s best through six regular-season months, entered Thursday’s American League Division Series Game 5 with 12 extra-base hits in four games. Tampa allowed it just a .685 OPS. Houston's starting outfield was just 4-for-40 in four games.
“In a short series,” Astros manager A.J. Hinch said, “it’s scary as hell.”
Desperate for a detonation for four and a half games, the Astros — at long last — supplied one. They struck for four first-inning runs against starter Tyler Glasnow, giving Cole the early advantage he craved.
Brantley banged the first home run of his postseason career to deliver a death knell with no outs in the eighth inning. Five Emilio Pagan pitches later, Jose Altuve added another. His solo home run set a postseason record for second basemen and removed the persistent pangs of terror that accompanied each inning of this five-game chess match.
Houston won 6-1, solving the Rays bullpen-buoyed gameplan to create a Championship Series against the Yankees so many have anticipated since April. The Astros and New York will begin the American League Championship Series on Saturday at 7:07 p.m. at Minute Maid Park.
“I just would never count the offense out,” George Springer said. “When you’re facing a quality pitching staff like the Rays, it’s never easy and it’s always a grind. They deserve every bit of credit and respect they get.”
Springer so often starts any Astros ambush. His 12 leadoff home runs during the regular season led the major leagues and were one shy of tying an all-time record. On Thursday, mired in a 3for-17 skid in this series, he sought not a solo home run but a single. Glasnow gave him a four-seam fastball. Springer sent it to left field.
“I was a little worried we may go into an extended slump there,” Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow said. “But when George got that hit and we followed, kept the line moving, I felty good that the guys were focused and we were going to get to him.”
Houston struck five first-inning hits against Glasnow, falling one shy of matching its Game 4 total. Rays manager Kevin Cash activated his bullpen after two batters.
Glasnow got through 13 hitters. The Astros ambushed his fourseam fastball early in counts, conducting a clear plan against the Rays’ hard-throwing righty.
“(The plan) was to be aggressive,” Springer said. “Just be aggressive and try not to let him get settled in. I think we did a good job.”
Glasnow tossed only 26 pitches to the first nine Astros hitters. Five reached base. Four scored.Springer, Brantley and Altuve each saw fewer than three pitches during their first plate appearance. All struck singles against fastballs thrown harder than 98 mph.
Altuve stroked an oppositefield line drive that scored Springer, giving the Astros a feeling that was so foreign throughout this series. In three of its first four games, Houston did not score until the fourth inning.
During Game 2, Cole threw with a miniscule margin for mistakes. The Astros offered two runs of support during seven innings. Still, Cole crafted a masterpiece. The 15 strikeouts he amassed were more than any Astros pitcher in postseason history.
Cole craved an advantage. At long last, his team afforded it.
“To jump on Glasnow was big,” Cole said. “It gave us a little bit of cushion, a little bit of area to breathe and be creative. Allowed us to go deeper in the game. The offense came out swinging. They were so tough all series. “
Cole delivered another awe-inspiring effort, continuing to craft his candidacy as the best starting pitcher during this postseason. He could not precisely match his historic Game 2 line, but authoring such a display of dominance wasn’t necessarily required. Houston needed only what it’s come to expect — a workmanlike display of overpowering offerings.
They have not lost a game he’s started since May 22. Cole threw eight excellent innings. He yielded one run and struck out 10. His 25 strikeouts are the most by any Astros pitcher in a playoff series and the most ever in a Division Series.
“It’s one of the best pitching performances in the postseason that I’ve ever seen,” Luhnow said. “and I think anybody has ever seen.”
Of the 107 pitches he threw, 19 were swung upon and missed. Twenty others were called strikes. Dating to the regular season, Cole has struck out doubledigit batters in 11 straight outings. He finished the third inning on Thursday without a strikeout, snapping a streak of 73 consecutive innings in which he’d recorded one.
“It’s standard,” said Cole’s personal catcher, Martin Maldonado. “He did what he’s done for five months. He has done that pretty much all year. He’s been as consistent as anyone in the league.”
To combat Cole, Cash concocted an evening so emblematic of his bullpen-buoyed team. He used nine pitchers. Starting in the seventh inning, boos greeted his every emergence from the thirdbase dugout.
Each Astros plate appearance was tailored to a specific matchup, slowing the game’s pace and stagnating any momentum Houston felt from its early eruption. Houston went hitless from the second through seventh inning.
Cash called upon Pagan, his closer, to keep the game close in the eighth. Brantley arrived in an anemic slump. He, Springer and Josh Reddick were 4-for-40 in the first four games. Pagan misfired a first-pitch fastball and elevated a second too high. Brantley bashed it for a breathing-room bomb.
“Something I can tell my kids about one day,” Brantley said with glee, “Look what Daddy did.”
Cole stalked in the dugout. His day was done, ended by Hinch’s handshake after the eighth. Roberto Osuna took the baseball for the ninth. Ten pitches later, finally with a comfortable cushion, the closer concluded the game. First to greet him was Cole, who wrapped him in a bear hug as the celebration commenced.