Astros to take swing at series lead
Getting even vital as series shifts to three in the Bronx
NEW YORK — Few who watched can relate, but Gerrit Cole felt it coming.
The innings dragged on. Sunday night was getting close to Monday morning. Engaged in an absolute must-win game, the Astros appeared at an impasse. The Yankees bullpen bullied them in the seventh, eighth and ninth, prolonging a putrid offensive postseason by baseball’s most balanced lineup.
“I thought we were slowly building momentum throughout the game,” Cole said Monday. “I mean, I don’t know if you could really see it in the score, obviously, because we’re not scoring. And it maybe was a little bit disappointing how many runners we left in scoring position. But the at-bats were getting better, and especially for the type of arms that were being thrown at us.”
So count Cole among those who expected what hap
pened during the 11th. Carlos Correa cranked the fourth walk-off home run in Astros postseason history, sending his dugout into delirium and this American League Championship Series back to New York with an entirely different feel.
Quantifying the enormity of the win in the series’ grand scheme is almost impossible. Cole called it “quite exhilarating.” Third baseman Alex Bregman bragged it was “unbelievable.”
“Before the game, we were thinking about ‘We have to win this game. We have to go to New York 1-1,’ ” catcher Robinson Chirinos said. “Everybody was talking about that.
“Thank God we split the series here at home. We’re going to go to New York and take care of business over there.”
Envisioning a way for the Astros to come out of a twogame deficit in Yankee Stadium is not easy.
Correa’s home run was a watershed moment, but it only momentarily masked the continued inconsistency of the Astros’ lineup. In Minute Maid Park, where they mashed all season, they went silent against the Yankees. Houston had an .878 home OPS during the regular season. It was .516 in two ALCS games.
The Astros have scored three runs in the ALCS and managed just 22 in seven postseason games. In 45 atbats with runners in scoring position, they have 10 hits.
“I’ll reiterate again to anybody that wants to listen, you don’t have a lot of time for frustration,” manager A.J. Hinch said after Sunday’s win. “It means the world to these guys. They want to do well. We want to win. We want to get to the World Series. But the mood and the vibe in there is exactly how it is when we’re putting up 10 runs. We’re just going to keep getting to the next at-bat, keep letting the next hitter do his job.”
Starting Cole in Game 3 is a luxury any of the four remaining postseason teams would love to have. He is baseball’s best pitcher since the All-Star break, a man with more strikeouts this season than anyone in Astros history had in any previous season.
“They’re as advertised,” Cole said of the Yankees’ lineup. “They’re extremely talented. They are extremely tough in the box. They play every pitch hard. They’re always trying to put pressure on you, trying to control counts. I think that it’s inevitable that guys are going to have good at-bats against you, and a lot of times the test is going to be how you respond.”
What looms beyond Cole in Game 4 is mostly unsettled. Assuming weather does not postpone it until Thursday, the Astros will make Wednesday a bullpen game, with Jose Urquidy factoring heavily into the plans. Hinch intimated Urquidy could start the game normally or be brought in after a veteran reliever opens.
Impressive as his September was, Urquidy is still a rookie with nine major league appearances. Asking him to deliver a suitable start in Yankee Stadium against this booming lineup is a tall order. Zack Greinke, he of a 5.91 ERA in his last six postseason starts, is lined up for Game 5.
The Yankees will start Luis Severino in Game 3 before throwing a bullpen game of their own the next night. If Game 4 is played as scheduled, they would ostensibly bring back Masahiro Tanaka, who spun six one-hit innings in New York’s Game 1 domination at Minute Maid Park, for Game 5. Facing him with elimination on the line is an endeavor the Astros are not interested in entertaining.
It could still happen, of course. Losses on Tuesday and Wednesday would again put Houston’s 107-win season on the brink — but couldn’t end it.
Correa’s home run ensured that.