BULLPEN EDGE BUOYS ROYALS
Astros relievers’ failure to close deal results in winner-take-all Game 5
“A ground ball one way or the other ... you’re at the whim of the angles.”
Astros pitching coach Brent Strom
Players, managers and other observers marveled at the quality of the Kansas City Royals’ at-bats during their stunning eighth-inning comeback Monday, a fiverun rally that propelled them to a 9-6 victory and forced Wednesday’s Game 5 of their American League Division Series.
The Royals sent 11 batters to the plate in that inning, and they made Houston Astros relievers work for 53 pitches, including 24 to get two outs by closer Luke Gregerson.
The grinding was indeed commendable, but it also exposed a flaw in the Astros bullpen that is especially costly in October: the inability to put away hitters.
Houston relievers for the most part pitch to contact, and they got plenty of that in that fateful eighth, when Will Harris and Tony Sipp combined to yield five singles in a row to start the inning. What seemed like a secure 6-2 lead was suddenly jeopardized, and shortstop Carlos Correa’s error on a bouncer deflected by Sipp allowed the tying run to score. The go-ahead run came in on a groundout off Gregerson.
Such results are the chance a team takes with a bullpen lacking overpowering arms, and the last two innings of Game 4 presented a study in contrasts.
Moments after Houston’s three top relievers were blowing the four-run lead, Royals closer Wade Davis was blowing away the Astros. He needed seven pitches to throw a critical shutdown inning in the bottom half of the eighth and struck out three in a six-out save.
Astros relievers averaged slightly more strikeouts per inning than Royals relievers, 1.01 to 0.931. In the postseason, when hitters bear down and don’t give away at-bats, the value of highoctane gas increases.
Among AL relievers with at least 50 innings pitched, the Royals’ Kelvin Herrera ranked No. 1 with an average fastball velocity of 97.2 mph, while Davis was two spots back at 95.8. Ryan Madson also checked in among the top 15 at 94.3.
Harris (92.2 mph), Sipp (90.9) and Gregerson (89.1) lagged quite a bit behind.
“If you have strikeout pitchers, it’s a little bit different,” Astros pitching coach Brent Strom told the Houston Chronicle in September, when the club’s bullpen had the worst ERA in the league. “We strike out our share. But when you’ve got these guys that have good contact skills, a ground ball one way or the other, anytime a ball is hit, you’re at the whim of the angles.”
The inability to get a key strikeout was exemplified by Drew Butera’s at-bat against Gregerson, a sinker-slider specialist. Butera, who came in as a late-inning substitute for catcher Salvador Perez, had never before stepped up to the plate in the postseason, and he has a career .185 average in six seasons.
With runners on second and third and one out, the situation called for a strikeout, or at least a pop-up, but Butera coaxed a 10pitch walk out of Gregerson. Alex Gordon followed with a grounder snagged by diving second base- man Jose Altuve, who got the out at first as the go-ahead run scored. Had Gregerson retired Butera without the runners advancing, Gordon’s groundout would have ended the inning.
“I’ll take my chances with six outs left with Harris, Sipp and Gregerson,” Astros manager A.J. Hinch said. “It just didn’t work out today.”
Hinch has no choice but to take his chances with them. The Astros pursued free agent lefty Andrew Miller in the offseason, but he opted for the New York Yankees and had an outstanding season as their closer. Houston also looked into acquiring established closers Aroldis Chapman and Craig Kimbrel at the trade deadline, but nothing panned out.
The Astros bullpen did make major headway this season, a prime reason for their turnaround from being a 92-loss club in 2014 to a playoff participant this season. The relievers’ ERA, a major league-worst 4.80 in 2014, improved to 3.27, fourth best in the AL, while the number of saves jumped from 31 to 39. The free agent additions of Gregerson and submariner Pat Neshek, along with Harris’ breakout season at 30, factored heavily in the improvement.
But the Royals remain the standard for how dominant bullpens operate, to the point other clubs have begun imitating them. Kansas City rode the game-shortening trio of Herrera, Davis and closer Greg Holland into last year’s World Series, shutting down teams with such effectiveness that opponents had virtually no chance if they weren’t ahead after five or six innings.
In the offseason, the Royals built on their primary strength by finding a hidden jewel in former Philadelphia Phillies closer Ryan Madson — who had not pitched in three years after failing to regain his form following Tommy John elbow surgery — and welcoming back Luke Hochevar in May once he recovered from the same procedure.
The result was again the league’s top bullpen, with a 2.72 ERA and 56 saves despite Holland struggling with an elbow injury that eventually required surgery. Davis converted 17 of 18 save chances in his absence and finished with a 0.94 ERA and 78 strikeouts in 671⁄3 innings.
Herrera and Madson were not sharp Monday, combining to give up three runs in two innings, but then Davis shut the door.
“Having Wade come out and get a six-out save gave us the best opportunity to win that game,” Royals manager Ned Yost said, “and that’s exactly what we meant to do.”
He’d love to do it all over again Wednesday.