Congratulations to both the Astros and the Rockets - I literally didn't think you had it in you. The Astros beat the Rangers 2-1 to move to 20-15, and get to 2.5 back of Oakland. The rubber match is today at 1:10pm Central. After getting swept by San Diego, Houston has won five of seven.
*The Astros got three hits...and won. It's the first time since July 8, 2018 that the Astros have had that happen. The 2-1 win means the Astros are 6-7 in 1-run games in 2020, after starting the season 1-5 in 1-run games.
*Michael Brantley hit a 2-run home run in the 1st inning. That's homers in back-to-back games for the firs time since May 4-5, 2019.
*In seven games since enjoying a five-game hit streak, George Springer is 3x25, .120/.241/.280 with a .118 BABIP. Jose Altuve has five hits in his last three games.
*Cristian Javier threw 6.2IP, 2H/1ER, 3K:2BB. It was the best start of his young career. He has thrown at least five innings with four or fewer hits allowed in five of his eight appearances in 2020. Dusty, on Javier:
This was an opportunity that he has seized. We're proud of him. We need him and he's come through when we needed him.
It felt really good to have the confidence in my manager like that and all my teammates, too. All the guys were there telling me, 'We got this,' and, 'You can get this guy out.' It feels really good to have everybody behind you like that in that situation.
More Baker, from Chandler Rome, who notes that Javier's BABIP-allowed is .167, the lowest among all qualified starters.
That's kind of the maturity of a young pitcher. You're watching them grow up and you can't always rescue them...sometimes you have to let them (recover) on their own. That's what he did today.
*Brian McTaggart says we could see the season debut of Game 4 Hero Jose Urquidy as early as Saturday against the Angels.
*RIP Tom Seaver. Seaver is 6th all-time on the MLB leaderboard for strikeouts, with 3,640. To put that in perspective, Justin Verlander is 37 years old and is 627 strikeouts behind Seaver. Max Scherzer is 35 and is 887 strikeouts behind Seaver.
This week was really stupid and I, for one, am extremely happy that it's over. I hope everybody got to exorcise their demons from the offseason this week. Two nights ago I kicked over a glass of water I had idiotically put next to the couch, then immediately slipped in the water on the downstep, sending me flying to a point where I kicked the back door and hit my head on the side of the couch. Thus, no Hot Links yesterday. I do not regret skipping a day.
The Astros beat the Angels 9-6. The bats returned from their quarantine with 12 hits and seven walks. Every Astro had a hit, except for Altuve and Maldonado. Altuve is hitless in his last 13 ABs. Maldonado drew three walks in a game for the 4th time in his career and the first time since September 2016.
Kyle Tucker was 3x5 with 4RBI, a career-high. George Springer showed signs of life with a 2x4, 1BB, 2RBI night. Carlos Correa has a hit in all seven Astros games played.
The Astros' pitching staff walked 12 Angels batters. It's the 5th time in franchise history the Astros have walked 11+ batters and still won the game - the last time the Astros walked 12 and won was June 11, 1994. Dusty: You walk 12, you don't usually win that game. But these guys battled.
Angels 1-3 in the lineup: 5x9, 1K:6BB, 5RBI
Angels 4-9 in the lineup: 3x24, 8K:6BB, 1RBI
*Chandler Rome: How families are coping with being Anywhere But The Stadium for all these MLB debuts.
*Urquidy may be further ahead in the comeback timeline than Yordan, who is apparently up to 30 swings. Ryan Pressly's elbow is improving.
*Jim Crane reallllllly needs to stop talking out loud to people with recorders and platforms. Crane, for some unknown unGodly reason decided to sit down and talk with Bob Nightengale. Read it, it's not paywalled. Some notes:
-Crane got death threats in January. That's...something else entirely.
-We broke the rules. We got penalized. We were punished. There's no doubt it weighs on all of us every single day. -On the infamous February Press Conference: We didn't come off like I wanted to. If I had to do it over again, I'd do it differently. The press conference didn't go well at all. I didn't handle it as well as I should have.
-On the sign-stealing [waves hands] thing: I think [MLB] had a bigger problem than everybody realized. Two other teams were doing things and got caught, but we're the ones who took the bullet. That's the way it works. I'm not trying to blame anyone else. It was our problem. We dealt with it.
Okay, so far...it's okay. Then:
-On Brandon Taubman: Brandon Taubman didn't commit domestic violence. He just made a comment. It's nothing you can defend. He had a few cocktails. He was happy. There were people constantly coming at him over [Osuna], and he overreacted. Did he do the right thing? No. Everybody makes mistakes. But is he a good, genuine decent person and smart kid? Absolutely. I hated to see him lose his job, but we had no choice.
Oh no. Brandon Taubman is 35 years old.
-On trading for Osuna: We didn't anticipate the Osuna thing would catch that much heat. But when it did, the players were concerned. I told the guys on our team, 'Listen, we made the decision. He paid his price. We think he deserves a second chance. If he screws up, he's out of here. You don't have to worry about it.
-On the Astros "front-office culture:" We didn't have a culture problem. They're isolated incidents that are unrelated.
Except they're not! The Astros traded for Osuna, a year and a half later Taubman does His Thing, which blows up literally on the eve of the World Series. The Astros lose the World Series, and two weeks later The Athletic drops their bombshell. MLB had no choice but to investigate the Astros. They were isolated incidents over the course of 18 months, but they are not unrelated.
He did say one thing about Verlander, though: He's hopeful, so we'll see. But you never know with these elbows. It could be a slight tear. It could be a strain. But if he had to have Tommy John, and I don't think that's anywhere near clear yet, he wouldn't be back until 2022.
*Fernando Rodney has apparently passed his physical and is headed to satellite camp in Corpus. It's a minor-league deal but since there aren't "minor leagues" this year, I don't really know what that means, other than that someone would have to get optioned off the 40-Man Roster in order to add him. I applaud this as now I am no longer older than all of the Astros. Rodney has been teammates with A.J. Hinch, Steve Sparks, Jose Lima, Brian Moehler, Steve Avery, Rondell White, Ugueth Urbina, Troy Percival, Magglio Ordonez, Matt Stairs, and Kenny Rogers.
BREAKING: MLB commissioner Rob Manfred told MLBPA executive director Tony Clark on Friday that if the sport doesn’t do a better job of managing the coronavirus, it could shut down for the season, sources tell ESPN.
Well well well. It's going to be a really dumb time to be online. The Dodgers beat the Astros 5-2, getting all their runs in the 5th while the Astros got all their runs from Carlos Correa. Meanwhile, Joe Kelly - who was with the Red Sox in 2017 and 2018 - threw behind Alex Bregman and over Carlos Correa in the 6th, which led to the benches clearing. The Astros are 3-2. There are 55 games remaining, assuming the season is completed.
Dave Roberts, on Kelly's intent: I really don't know, to be quite honest. I know he got behind Bregman 3-0 and lost a fastball. I really don't think there was intent behind that. I think those guys took a little bit of offense. Even the one to Correa, that was a breaking ball that just backed up.
Dusty: I didn't anticipate that. I didn't anticipate throwing over somebody's head three balls and no strikes. One of our more important guys. If you're going to throw at somebody, you don't throw at the head...That's playing dirty baseball.
It's fair to wonder about Joe Kelly's intent. We are talking about a guy with a 4.46 ERA in 2018 and 2019 who walked 54 batters. It could just be that Joe Kelly kind of sucks. Kelly said it wasn't intentional: No. When I was with the Red Sox we beat them in '18. It's one of those things that I pitch competitively. With no fans here, it's easy to hear some stuff (from the opposing dugout)...there's something they apparently didn't take too kind to.
Anyway, should be a fun one tonight. On to the game:
Carlos Correa was (wink) a triple shy of the cycle, had three of the Astros' four hits, and both of the extra-base hits. It's the 26th time in Correa's career that he had three hits with a home run. It's the 18th time he got two extra-base hits in a game. Everyone else went 1x27 with 8Ks.
Framber Valdez threw 4.1IP, 4H/3R (2ER), 2K:1BB.
Enoli Paredes faced four batters and didn't record an out.
Andre Scrubb and Nivaldo Rodriguez made their MLB debuts, throwing 4.2 scoreless - though not uneventful (four hits, two strikeouts, three walks) - innings.
George Springer's slow start continued with an 0x4 to bring his five-game total to 1x20.
7-9 in the lineup (Reddick-Tucker/Toro-Maldonado) went a combined 0x11 with 7K:0BB.
Alex Bregman walked twice but committed two errors.
I know everyone had the pipe dream that the Astros would go back to Hinch the day after the 2020 World Series, but this is really fair to Dusty, and it gives him what would appear to be a normal shot to win a World Series after a 162-game season. It's fair, and I have zero problem with it. It also guarantees that Dusty has a chance at 2000 wins - he's at 1,866.
Dusty: I've been a lame-duck manager four or five times. I was one of the lamest ducks walking around. It feels pretty good not to be a lame duck. This is the best that I've been treated in quite a while.
*James Click said that Verlander will be shut down for "a few weeks" and that it's too soon to say whether or not he'll pitch again this season. He's also hopeful that Devenski and Pressly will be able to avoid the IL. Yordan is close to taking BP in Corpus, but there's not a timeline for him rejoining the Astros.
The last two teams that won World Series Games 3&4 after losing Games 1&2 at home were the 1996 Yankees and 1986 Mets. Both of them won the Series.
The Astros scored eight runs for the 2nd time this entire postseason (ALCS G4). The last time they scored 9+ runs was 2018 ALDS G3. Since the Astros dropped all three 2017 ALCS games in New York, Houston is 8-6 on the road, winners of four of their last five postseason road games.
*Jose Urquidy made his 8th start in MLB in 2019: 5IP, 2H/0ER, 4K:0BB. Urquidy had previously made one start of 5+ IP and 0ER: September 27 against the Angels. Prior to that it was August 26, when he threw 5.2IP, 3H/0ER, 8K:1BB for Round Rock against San Antonio.
You know, I battled with that decision because going into the game you kind of put in your mind, go as long as he's good, which is what I said. I didn't want to get too greedy with him. His spot was coming up in the order so I was going to hit for him at the beginning of the inning. That inning actually played out how I feared his inning would. If they got things started, I didn't want him to face the middle of the order again. So I tried to be proactive and take him out. The other thing in the back of my mind is how long a series can get and how we might need him again back in Houston if we win the game, and then you get to go back to Houston, then Games 6 and 7 starts to factor in, try to save a few bullets along the way.
Urquidy is the 4th rookie in the last 30 years to throw a scoreless start in the World Series, the second pitcher from Mexico to start and win a World Series game (Fernando Valenzuela), and the second pitcher since 1969 whose first career postseason start was a scoreless outing in the World Series (Jon Lester, 2007). Urquidy:
Yes, a couple moments, a couple moments I was thinking, 'Oh, my God, I'm in the World Series pitching.' It was awesome.
My dream was pitching in the big leagues. I always imagined playing in the World Series and winning the game...Something very big for me, big year for me. And I think I'm proud of myself.
It WAS awesome. Adam Eaton, who was 0x3 with a walk, on facing Urquidy:
When you go in with a game plan of kind of working off his scouting report and he goes the complete opposite with it, by the time you kind of make the adjustment, it's too late. He threw me three sliders in my first at-bat, and he throws it 10% of the time, so I went back scratching my head. He didn't throw me any changeups and he's supposed to throw me 40% changeup. Then I go up my next at-bat and saw a curveball, which he throws 3% of the time, then a fastball and finally threw me a changeup to get me out. When you have guys you haven't seen before, you have to go off the knowledge you have.
My mom is someone that I talk to a lot and obviously she helped me out this morning. We had coffee, just gave me some words of encouragement.
Hinch, on Urquidy:
From the very beginning I thought he was calm, I thought he was in control of his stuff. His fastball had a little extra life to it. It's had good life this postseason. And then he just came up with big pitch after big pitch.
Chandler Rome: The Astros almost didn't even call Urquidy up in September.
*Will Harris cleaned up Josh James' mess with two outs in seven pitches. Harris has come into a game this postseason with 12 runners on base (not all at once, that would be weird). Eleven of them have walked back to the dugout after the inning ended. MLB.com's Joe Trezza: Houston's bullpen in Game 4 set them up perfectly for Game 5.
*Alex Bregman hit the 20th Grand Slam in World Series history, first since Addison Russell did it for the Cubs in 2016 World Series G6. Before that it was Paul Konerko in the 7th Inning of 2005 World Series G2 off of Chad Qualls. It was just the 2nd postseason Grand Slam in Astros history - Lance Berkman did it in the 8th Inning of 2005 NLDS G4, the 18-inning 7-6 win over Atlanta.
I think tonight was really the first time we really did what the Houston Astros offense can do.
ESPN's Jeff Passan: Alex Bregman's mic-drop grand slam means that the Real Astros have shown up. Passan:
He is also, in many ways, the Astros' metronome. When he lags, they lag. When he speeds up, they speed up. And his pace in an 8-1 throttling of the Washington Nationals on Saturday that evened the World Series was breakneck. When Bregman suddenly looked like his regular-season self, the Astros followed suit.
Bregman, ALCS-WS G3: 4x31, 1HR, 3RBI.
Bregman, WS Game 4: 3x5, 1HR, 5RBI.
Correa, after Fernando Rodney intentionally walked Michael Brantley to face Alex Bregman in Game 3: "Oh no, you don't do that to him."
Bregman is the 3rd Astro in postseason history with 5RBI in a game, joining Carlos Beltran in 2004 NLDS G5 and Morgan Ensberg in 2005 NLDS G1.
*The Astros got 13 hits, drew seven walks, and got five hits (5x13) w/RISP. 2-8 in the lineup went for a combined 13x30, 3K:5BB.
*Robinson Chirinos is the 6th catcher in MLB history to homer in back-to-back World Series games (Mickey Cochrane, Bill Dickey, Roy Campanella, Gene Tenace, Ted Simmons). Chirinos:
I'm working so hard in the cage to be consistent, and I put a good swing to the ball [in Game 3]. I told everybody here I put myself in a good position. I was swinging at strikes, I was staying to the middle of the field and I did it again tonight.
Jake Kaplan: Chirinos has become an unlikely World Series Hero for Houston.
*Jose Altuve went 2x5 with a run scored and has gotten safely on base in 24 straight postseason games dating back to 2017 World Series G6. In those 24 postseason games, Altuve: .320/.376/.580, 11K:9BB, 6HR. In 15 postseason games in 2019, Altuve is hitting .365/.412/.698.
*Carlos Correa was 0x2 but drew three walks, a career postseason-high. He had drawn two walks in three other postseason games (2018 ALDS G3, 2018 ALCS G1, 2019 ALCS G5). He had three walks in 14 postseason games in 2019 prior to Game 4. It was just the second time this postseason Correa did not strike out. Correa: What's important now is that we got our swagger back, and we're playing good. And we are dangerous when we feel like this.
*Yuli Gurriel went 1x4 with a walk, but also struck out twice, his 4th straight postseason game with a strikeout after not striking out once in 15 postseason games stretching from 2018 ALCS G2 through 2019 ALCS G6. In 41 career postseason games, Yuli has struck out 2+ times in just four.
New Legends manager Rodney Linares is pretty pumped about his team:
"I think they'll be aggressive. I think there's a lot of kids, especially on the starting-pitching side, that in the next couple years are going to develop into really good starting pitchers in the big leagues."
To emphasize that point, Tanner Bushue will get the Opening Day nod.
What about that offense (which was anemic last year)?
"But I think we're going to be a team that hits enough and is going to score a lot of runs, because we've got a bunch of guys that just create situations."
In a move worthy of the late shift at the supermarket, new Angel Fernando Rodney was apparently instrumental in bringing Jose Valverde to the Tigers, in part so that he wouldn't feel bad about bailing.
Valverde: "All the time, I talked to Fernando he told me, 'There's a good energy over there. You'd be happy over there because everybody, the GM, the manager, everybody's good over there."
McTaggart's post explaining that Valverde's declining is good news (uh, yeah):
The best option for the Astros at this point will be to pursue a closer at a lower cost than Valverde -- Mike Gonzalez, Kevin Gregg or Fernando Rodney, anyone? -- and still have some money to sign LaTroy Hawkins or another reliever. The Astros are also in the market for a third baseman to add some offensive punch and they need some bench help.
As Deputy Jason pointed out, Mike Gonzalez is from Pasadena, and I'd rather have him than Kevin Gregg.
Alyson Footer tweeted a whole lot during Astroline on KTRH. But here are the money quotes from Easy Eddie:
On Tejada: The inspiration he brings to a clubhouse is unsurpassed.We'd love to have him back and he loves it here and would like to be back. The reality he's coming off $13 million as a shortstop
On a starting pitcher (after noting that Roy really should go back to winning 15-17 games): If there are opportunities out there to do something that makes sense on the FA and trade markets we'll certainly try to pursue that. But I don't want to raise expectations. I don't know we'll have significant dollars available to pursue significant starting pitching.
Interesting note that Paulino stayed in Houston to work with trainer Doc Colemean, and has dropped 10-15 pounds: Once he gets a command of his pitches, he's very special. He just needs command.
What happens if LaHawk and Valverde leave? There are some other guys out there who we have our eyes on. Fernando Rodney is a free agent. Soriano and Gonzalez are available. Kevin Gregg is out on the market. There are closers out there, alternatives. We'd rather have Jose back.
On the catching situation: We're going to Spring Training with Quintero and Towles on the roster. We've talked about Jason Castro, we're going to give all these guys an open shot at this thing. Hopefully either Towles or Castro will step up and team up with Q. I prefer to give the job to Castro or Towles or Q and sort it out from there.
Captip to The Crawfish Boxes for getting to this one first. SI's Ben Reiter ranks his Top 50 free agents, with a prediction as to where they'll end up.
Of note for Astros fans:
Jose Valverde: Phillies Miguel Tejada: A's
#23 - Justin Duchscherer: Astros A versatile pitcher who made the All-Star Game as a reliever in '05 and a starter in '08, Duchscherer did not play at all last season due to right elbow surgery, and then underwent treatment for clinical depression. But he went 10-8 with a 2.54 ERA in 2008, and those numbers will look inviting indeed to a number of pitching-starved teams out there, such as the Astros.
#40 - Fernando Rodney: Astros Despite his inordinately high ERA and WHIP, Rodney somehow managed to convert 37 of his 38 save opportunities in '09. He appears to pitch better with a save on the line. The Astros, who will likely lose Jose Valverde, will need a closer, and Rodney's stuff should play better in the NL than in the AL.
What say you, Crawfish Boxes?
I like Duchscherer and agree that he would be a good fit here in Houston. He would come at a discounted rate based on his missed 2009 season, and doesn't walk a ton of batters, nor give up an inordinate amount of fly balls. His last name would be fun to say on a consistent basis, as well.
