Storm pushes back end of game
MINNEAPOLIS — Only Mother Nature can stop the Astros, a club at last playing to its full potential after a mediocre first month of baseball.
En route to growing their eight-game winning streak, a storm intervened.
Heavy rain suspended Wednesday’s game after three innings. The Astros led Minnesota 5-1 with Martín Maldonado coming up to bat in the top of the fourth.
The teams will play a traditional doubleheader on Thursday at Target Field beginning at 12:10 p.m. Wednesday’s suspended game will pick up from where it stopped — with Maldonado batting in the top of the fourth. The second game will be played approximately 30 minutes after the first one concludes.
Both teams will call up a 27th player for the doubleheader. Manager Dusty Baker said the Astros will likely pick a pitcher, but did not say who it will be. Luis Garcia is still scheduled to start the second game, but Baker said the team will piece together the resumption of game one with a group of relievers.
The teams invited disaster by even beginning the game. Forecasts all day called for calamitous weather starting around 8 p.m. At 8:07, the National Weather Service issued a severe thunderstorm warning for a storm system that included “destructive 80 mph winds.” Hail and tornado sirens accompanied torrential rain at Target Field.
Baker intimated that both teams believed they could play five innings — all Major League Baseball requires for an official game — before the bad weather arrived. They completed three. The Astros dominated them all.
Houston’s lineup exhausted Twins starter Chris Archer for 75 pitches across three plodding innings. Archer faced 17 Astros. Eight of them reached base. Yordan Alvarez and Yuli Gurriel struck singles on consecutive pitches in the second. Both scored to erase an early one-run deficit.
Archer issued three walks in the third inning, a frame Jose Altuve started with an opposite-field solo home run. Atuve had not hit an opposite-field home run all season. He spoke in spring training about adjusting his approach to use all fields instead of falling in love with the pull side. He awoke on Wednesday hitting 50 percent of his batted balls to the pull side.
Archer supplied Altuve an 0-1 fastball on the outerhalf. He swatted it onto a deck below some right field seats, perhaps a precursor to more contact that way.
Three of Houston’s next five hitters worked walks against Archer, who received just seven called strikes during his three-inning stint. His brutal command loaded the bases for Jeremy Peña in the third. Archer’s plan against him seemed apparent. He spun seven consecutive sliders to start the plate appearance.
Only 13 American League hitters have seen a higher percentage of sliders than Peña, according to FanGraphs. He is swinging and missing against them at a 38.6 percent clip with 11 strikeouts. For Peña to sustain his early success throughout this rookie season, adjustments are mandatory.
Peña whiffed at the first slider Archer threw and fouled off two others. He laid off three others intended to put him away, running the count full. Archer supplied another on the ninth pitch. He executed it well — down and out of the strike zone. Peña reached down and poked it into right field. Two more runs scored. Peña clapped his hands at first base and pointed toward the dugout.
The hit supplied starter José Urquidy a four-run lead he had trouble protecting. Urquidy threw 44 pitches across three innings of one-run ball. Max Kepler and Jorge Polanco struck doubles against him in the first inning. Ninehole hitter Royce Lewis laced a single to start the third and turn the lineup over.
Urquidy recorded two quick outs before disaster arrived. Gary Sanchez struck a 2-0 fastball toward the left field wall. The baseball exited his bat at 102.5 mph and traveled 380 feet. It appeared destined for at least a run-scoring double, perhaps even a home run.
Yordan Alvarez leapt at the wall and snatched the baseball out of the air. Urquidy flashed a wide smile. Alvarez, too. The dugout erupted in appreciation for Alvarez’s improved defense. He sauntered to the dugout and the lineup readied for another chance to add cushion. Weather intervened.