San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
‘Small stuff ’ a big problem in loss
HOUSTON — Joe Espada emphasized fundamentals as soon as he assumed the Astros managerial position. This spring brought a focus on defense and baserunning. Espada espoused the importance of the Astros “doing the small stuff ” well, underlining the attention a talented team must pay to details.
The second game of Espada's tenure then spiraled into an antithesis of that vision. Astros hitters failed to capitalize on a series of chances with runners in scoring position. Walks by their pitchers proved costly. A defensive lapse in the eighth inning turned a close game lopsided.
Houston's 7-1 loss to the Yankees is one game in a long season. More concerning, perhaps, is the state of a bullpen that appears tenuous aside from a high-leverage trio, two of whom were unavailable Friday. Other issues that arose are variable and, the Astros must hope, uncharacteristic.
The Yankees built their initial rally Friday on walks. Houston led 1-0 entering the seventh. Reliever Tayler Scott, who had worked a scoreless eighth in Thursday's series opener, drew the bottom half of the New York lineup. He procured one out, then walked Anthony Volpe and Austin Wells, the No. 7 and 8 hitters.
“Definitely, the walks always seem to kill,” Scott said. “Just one of those nights where you can't execute pitches and throw strikes as usual.”
Oswaldo Cabrera lined what Scott termed “kind of a hanging slider” into left field for a game-tying single. A fastball ran inside and struck Gleyber Torres. Rafael Montero replaced Scott to face Juan Soto with the bases loaded. Soto took several close pitches in a five-pitch walk that forced in the go-ahead run.
Astros pitchers have issued 14 walks in their first two games. Espada acknowledged it is “an area (where) we've been better in the past” but noted it is “just game two of the season.”
It remained a 2-1 game into the eighth. Astros reliever Parker Mushinski walked Alex Verdugo on a close full-count pitch to put men on first and second with one out. He then bored a cutter in to Volpe that induced a slow chopper to shortstop.
Volpe has good speed. Jeremy Peña fielded the ball near second base with a chance to get one out there. But Peña's flip to Jose Altuve sailed wide. Anthony Rizzo scored from second base. Yankees remained on first and third, still with one out.
“Just an error, it happens,” Altuve said. “He's a Gold Glover. If he's going to play 20 years in the big leagues, he's going to make more of those, like I'm going to make and everybody here.”
Another error compounded the inning. Mushinski fielded Wells' safety squeeze bunt and glanced toward third, where Verdugo was holding, before wheeling to first. His throw went into right field. Verdugo scored. Espada deemed it a “tough play to defend” but said “we just didn't execute.”
“We are a really good defensive team and we didn't play good defense there at the end,” Espada said. “It starts with we've got to get ahead of hitters and keep our defense on our toes and stuff like that. When we get long innings like that, usually defense tends to kind of get on their heels. But again, we play good defense and that was just one of those nights that didn't go our way.”
A frustrating night for Houston's lineup left little room for error. Astros hitters were a combined 1for-12 with runners in scoring position. They forged determined at-bats against Yankees starter Carlos Rodón, who needed 87 pitches to navigate 41⁄3 innings. Rodón,
though, stranded seven baserunners and held the Astros to one hit, Alex Bregman's RBI single in the first, in nine at-bats with men in scoring position.
Rodón made timely pitches to escape trouble. Other mistakes that sunk the Astros were self-inflicted. The last arrived with the result all but sealed. Altuve led off the ninth with a single. Yordan Alvarez hit a bouncer to the left side. Volpe, the shortstop covering second base, gloved Cabrera's throw and unleashed a high throw to first that ricocheted off the Astros' dugout.
Alvarez took a jab-step toward second base, then thought better of trying. But the move carried him into fair territory. Alvarez tried to return casually to first. Rizzo tagged him to record the inning's second out.
“We're going to have these types of games,” Altuve said. “The key is just to come back tomorrow and get things together and win the game.”