Astros Strong Page 2

  Altuve, Correa and Springer also made the Astros the first team to hit three homers in extra innings of a postseason game.

  “That’s got to be one of the best games ever,” Astros third baseman Alex Bregman said. “Just both teams battling it out. And the ‘Stros finished on top.”

  Springer went 3-for-5 in the game. The All-Star center fielder doubled off Jansen in the ninth, his first extra-base hit since the ALDS. He had gone 0-for-4 with four strikeouts in Game 1 of the Series. He came into Game 2 with only three hits in his previous 30 at-bats.

  “I just think when the lights turn on even brighter, you tend to subconsciously press, and you want to succeed so bad that you start to do things that you wouldn’t do, or you start to come out of an approach that has worked the whole year,” he said.

  “And this is my first experience at playing this far, playing this long, and in a game of this magnitude. So for me to kind of experience it and to kind of understand, ‘Hey, slow yourself down,’ I understand now why guys struggle in the postseason and some don’t.”

  Said Correa, grinning: “He’s back, man. He gets really scary when he’s back.”

  The Astros improved to 10-0 in games in which Justin Verlander has pitched since they acquired the former MVP and Cy Young Award winner from the Detroit Tigers on Aug. 31. Verlander exited with a two-run deficit despite giving up only two hits. Both left the yard.

  So did four long balls off the Astros’ bats. Making Gonzalez’s ninth-inning blast more impressive was the count in which he hit it. He fell behind 0-2 against Jansen before getting a 94 mph cutter over the plate.

  “I told Marwin the inning before, I told him he was going to win the ballgame for us,” Verlander said. “I didn’t think it was going to be a game-tying home run. I thought it was going to be game-winning. That’s what I told him.”

  George Springer celebrates his two-run home run in the 11th inning of Game 2. Springer’s homer proved to be the decisive blow as the Astros won 7-6 in 11 innings. (Karen Warren/Houston Chronicle)

  The Astros outhit the Dodgers 14-5. Six of their runs came against a Dodgers bullpen that saw its streak of 28 consecutive scoreless innings snapped. The Astros contended with curveballing lefthander Rich Hill for only 60 pitches before Dodgers manager Dave Roberts turned to his vaunted bullpen. Hill went through the Astros’ lineup two times and allowed a run on three singles and a walk against seven strikeouts.

  Bregman opened the scoring with a single to center field that plated Josh Reddick in the third inning, the Astros’ first run before the fourth inning of a game since the ALDS.

  For the rest of the game, the Astros faced an ensemble of relief pitchers. Kenta Maeda gave the Dodgers four outs before lefthanded specialist Tony Watson recorded two outs with one pitch, which he used to extract a double-play grounder from Brian McCann to end the top of the sixth. Ross Stripling and Brandon Morrow served as the rest of the bridge to Jansen.

  Verlander completed six innings before Astros manager A.J. Hinch pinch-hit for him. In another weird twist, Verlander’s outing featured an eerily similar game-changing sequence to the one Dallas Keuchel experienced in the Astros’ Game 1 loss.

  A night after Justin Turner tagged Keuchel for a two-run homer in the sixth, Corey Seager flipped the game with a two-run homer in the sixth. Both were hit with two outs and in pitcher-friendly 1-and-2 counts. Both were hit after Chris Taylor grinded out a two-out walk. Both exited the field of play in left.

  Relievers Will Harris and Joe Musgrove kept the game close for the Astros with scoreless innings in the seventh and eighth, respectively. Giles followed with a perfect ninth.

  Then ... madness.

  “That’s an incredible game on so many levels, so many ranges of emotion,” Hinch said. “If you like October baseball, if you like any kind of baseball, that’s one of the most incredible games you’ll ever be a part of.”

  Savory Save

  Peacock Records Last 11 Outs, Preserves Victory for McCullers

  By Jake Kaplan

  World Series Game 3

  October 27, 2017 • Houston, Texas

  Astros 5, Dodgers 3

  Fifty minutes after right fielder Josh Reddick gloved the final out of a victory Friday night that left the Astros two more shy of their first World Series title, Brad Peacock was still in disbelief.

  Peacock had just converted a 3 2/3-inning save to cap a 5-3 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 3 of the World Series. He did for Lance McCullers Jr. what McCullers did for Charlie Morton in Game 7 of the American League Championship Series. He shut down the game.

  “I can’t believe what just happened out there,” Peacock said on his way out of the Astros’ clubhouse at Minute Maid Park just before midnight.

  His save, the first of a career that dates to 2011, marked the longest relief outing in the World Series since San Francisco star Madison Bumgarner pitched five legendary innings to close out the 2014 Fall Classic. But this was Brad Peacock, an unassuming 29-year-old righthander so unsure of his status with the Astros that before spring training he warned his wife they might have to move to Japan.

  Against the Dodgers on the biggest stage baseball offers, Peacock retired 11 of the 12 batters he faced. He didn’t allow a hit on his way to closing the Astros’ first win in a World Series game played in Houston, a win that put them ahead in the series two games to one.

  A four-run barrage against Dodgers starter Yu Darvish stood as the Astros’ primary source of offense. They chased Darvish, the ex-Texas Rangers ace, in their big second inning. McCullers, while far from his sharpest, gave the Astros a solid 5 1/3 innings before Astros manager A.J. Hinch let Peacock fly for the rest of the game.

  “This postseason, I’ve really enjoyed bringing back the three-inning save,” Hinch quipped. “That’s cool.”

  The Astros pummeled Darvish, who had been dominant in his previous postseason starts against the Arizona Diamondbacks and Chicago Cubs. On Friday, his pitches looked flat. Of the 49 pitches the Japanese righthander threw, only one extracted a swing and miss. Many more were scorched or fouled off.

  Darvish lasted only 1 2/3 innings, the first time in 136 starts since he debuted in the majors he didn’t complete at least three. It was his first time not registering even one strikeout. He issued only one walk but six hits, four that went for extra bases.

  “He just left some balls up over the plate today,” said Astros center fielder George Springer, who led off the game with a double. “He lives on getting you to chase his stuff. For us today to come out and capitalize on some mistakes was big.”

  Brad Peacock was an unlikely hero in Game 3, going 3 2/3 innings for the first save of his career. (Karen Warren/Houston Chronicle)

  Yuli Gurriel sparked the Astros’ four-run second inning with a home run into the Crawford Boxes that registered an exit velocity of 104.3 mph. Jose Altuve cranked a double at 107.5 mph. Even an out by Springer came off his bat at 104.9 mph, a sacrifice fly by Alex Bregman off his at 103.5.

  By the time Dodgers manager Dave Roberts replaced Darvish with Kenta Maeda, the Astros led 4-0.

  “The fastball command wasn’t there, and the slider was backing up,” Roberts said. “So he just really didn’t have the feel and couldn’t get any type of rhythm going. So right there, you find yourself after five outs down 4-0, you have to go right there – had to go to the pen to give us a chance to stay in that game.”

  Roberts used five different relievers to get through the night. Maeda gave Los Angeles 2 2/3 dominant innings, which also probably will render him unavailable until at least Sunday.

  McCullers overcame an off night to record 16 outs for the Astros. After his offense exploded for four runs in the second, the shutdown third inning eluded him. McCullers lost command of his fastball and his curveball, which resulted in walks to the eight- and nine-hole hitters, Joc Pederson and Kiké Hernandez, and leadoff
man Chris Taylor to begin the frame.

  But just after Hinch called for Peacock to begin warming up, McCullers induced a ground ball from Corey Seager. Gurriel fielded it by first base and fired to second, where shortstop Carlos Correa received it and fired back to first to a covering McCullers for the double play. A run scored to make it 4-1, but the double play limited the damage significantly, which is what Correa reminded the pitcher on his way back to the mound.

  “The best outcome right here is one run in this inning, so go out there and get this guy,” Correa told McCullers, who then induced an inning-ending groundout from Justin Turner.

  After the Astros took advantage of a throwing error by L.A. lefthander Tony Watson to tack on an insurance run in the fifth, the Dodgers got the run back and one more in the sixth. McCullers issued a leadoff walk to Seager before spinning a two-strike curveball that Turner ripped down the third-base line for a double.

  After McCullers struck out Cody Bellinger for a third time, Hinch pulled him in favor of Peacock to face Yasiel Puig. A groundout narrowed the Astros’ lead to three runs. A wild pitch by Peacock on a slider to pinch hitter Chase Utley plated Turner and made it a 5-3 game.

  Yuli Gurriel blasts a solo home run off Yu Darvish, one of four runs allowed by the Dodgers starter. (Brett Coomer/Houston Chronicle)

  For the remainder of the night, Peacock showed very little of his slider, the pitch that revitalized his career. Catcher Brian McCann kept calling for the fastball, and the pitcher who rarely if ever shakes his catchers obliged. During a brief visit in the ninth inning amid his final battle against Yasmani Grandal, Peacock asked McCann how he felt about trying a changeup. “Absolutely not,” McCann replied.

  “It was exploding on them,” McCann said of Peacock’s fastball, which averaged 94 mph Friday. “(I was) just seeing funny swings and funny takes . He’s got one of the better fastballs in the game, too. He’s got one of those, like, balls that rides on the same plane. He’s got a two-seamer and a four-seamer, so it’s kind of two different pitches in one. The hitters tell you a lot from their reactions, and we just kept going with it.”

  Peacock, who started for the Astros in the Division Series before he was replaced in the rotation by McCullers in the ALCS, threw 53 pitches to get the final 11 outs. His was the third-longest relief outing in Astros postseason history after McCullers’ four-inning save in Game 7 of the ALCS and Collin McHugh’s four scoreless innings in Game 3 of the ALCS.

  “Honestly, I’ve expected what he’s done this year every year since he’s been here,” said ace lefthander Dallas Keuchel, a teammate since Peacock joined the Astros in 2013. “I’ve told him that myself. You can ask him. I’ve always had high hopes for him. He’s got some of the best stuff on the team, if not the best stuff overall.

  “That’s why they’ve kept him. He’s had a few injuries, a few setbacks. So when you really look at it, he hadn’t gotten much repetition in the big leagues, and he’s had some decent success. So what he finally did was he had a healthy year and just kind of built on each outing. ... He’s just that guy who wants to do anything to help the team.”

  For Peacock, a former 41st-round draft pick of the Washington Nationals who was for years plagued by a balky back, Friday night was hard to fathom. “Wow,” he said quietly before accompanying McCullers to a press conference.

  “I don’t think anybody called that in spring training,” Peacock joked later.

  When he finally exited the Astros’ clubhouse at 11:57 p.m., a man in Astros garb who happened to be walking by stuck out his fist for a pound and said, “Peacock, that was (bleeping) beautiful, baby.” Meanwhile, loud chants of “Let’s Go Peacock” emanated from down the hall, where his parents, sisters and wife and four close friends from back home in West Palm Beach, Fla., awaited him.

  “It’s crazy,” Peacock said. “A crazy year for me.”

  Nightmare Ninth

  Giles, Musgrove Hammered in Five-Run Inning as L.A. Evens Series

  By Jake Kaplan

  World Series Game 4

  October 28, 2017 • Houston, Texas

  Dodgers 6, Astros 2

  Ken Giles’ miserable postseason continues.

  Giles, who has allowed a run or more in six of seven outings in these playoffs, surrendered the runs that doomed the Astros in a 6-2 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 4 of the World Series on Saturday night at Minute Maid Park.

  The defeat evened the series at two games apiece, ensuring the Fall Classic will return to Los Angeles for at least Game 6. Dodgers lefthander Clayton Kershaw, the best pitcher of his generation, looms in Game 5 on Sunday night. The Astros will counter with Dallas Keuchel in a rematch of Game 1.

  “I didn’t do my job. Plain and simple,” Giles said. “I let the team down.”

  Summoned to face the heart of the Dodgers’ order in the top of the ninth of a 1-1 game, Giles faced only three batters. Each reached base. The maligned Astros closer walked off the mound to boos after allowing a run-scoring double to Cody Bellinger.

  Giles’ eight pitches Saturday would seem to be the last he will throw in high-leverage situations in this World Series. But only time will tell.

  “They were all crappy pitches. Not where I want them,” Giles said. “I need to do better. I need to carry my weight. I need to do better for these guys.”

  The Astros, who scored on an Alex Bregman homer in the bottom of the ninth off Dodgers closer Kenley Jansen, managed only two hits in the game. Both left the yard. They weren’t enough.

  Giles was charged with three runs and didn’t record an out. He gave up a single to Corey Seager and walked Justin Turner before Bellinger struck with his double. Two of the runs charged to Giles scored with Joe Musgrove on the mound. Musgrove was responsible for two runs of his own when he served up a game-breaking three-run homer to Joc Pederson with two outs in the inning.

  “The Pederson pitch was right where I wanted, a fastball up out of the zone, and he just beat me to it,” Musgrove said. “That’s baseball. You get away with plenty of fastballs right down the middle that guys foul off or swing through, and you throw one up out of the zone where you want, and they beat you on it. That’s just baseball.”

  Ken Giles gave up three earned runs and picked up the loss, continuing a rough postseason for the closer. (Brett Coomer/Houston Chronicle)

  The bullpen meltdown and offensive futility wasted a stellar start. Charlie Morton, a hero in the Astros’ Game 7 win in the AL Championship Series, gave his team another dominant outing. In 6 1/3 innings, he allowed only three baserunners. He struck out seven without issuing a walk. Only after he exited was he charged with a run.

  Will Harris was on the mound when Logan Forsythe lined a game-tying single to center field with two outs in the seventh. Moments earlier, after allowing a one-out double to Bellinger, Morton had walked off to a standing ovation, which he acknowledged with a tip of his cap. But once Bellinger scored, Morton was ensured a no-decision.

  “I think (catcher Brian McCann) did a good job. We’re on the same page, and we had a good game plan going in,” Morton said. “I thought we did a pretty good job with the righties, working them in, getting the sinker in on their hands. The curveball was doing all right. I made some good pitches and got some plays behind me.

  “But yeah, I wish we could’ve pulled it out.”

  George Springer broke up lefthander Alex Wood’s no-hitter via a solo homer into the Crawford Boxes with two outs in the sixth inning. The 3-and-1 knuckle curveball Springer punished was Wood’s 84th pitch of the night. It was also his last. After Springer rounded the bases, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts emerged to pull his starter.

  Wood’s command didn’t look as sharp his first time through the Astros’ lineup as his line would suggest. Springer’s sixth-inning at-bat represented the first batter of Wood’s third time through the lineup. If Wood had yielded a hit earlier in his outing, it
is unlikely Roberts would have allowed his starter to face Springer a third time.

  But with a no-hitter intact, Roberts managed to it. The Astros capitalized, with Springer playing hero for the second time in a three-game span.

  Roberts extracted from Brandon Morrow and Tony Watson a combined seven outs to bridge the gap to Jansen, who was still deployed for the bottom of the ninth after the Dodgers opened up a five-run lead. Jansen gave up a two-out homer to Alex Bregman before getting a game-ending fly out from Jose Altuve.

  Both teams struggled offensively from the start. After Chris Taylor led off the game with a single up the middle against Morton, neither team managed a hit until L.A.’s Kiké Hernandez sliced a single to center field in the sixth.

  Between the first-inning single by Taylor and an errant 0-and-1 fastball that hit Barnes in the right forearm to begin the sixth, Morton retired 14 consecutive batters. Barnes advanced to third on Hernandez’s single, which he hit on a full-count fastball.

  The first-and-third jam with one out represented either team’s first offensive threat, especially considering that the Dodgers had the top of their order rolling around. But Morton induced a ground ball to third baseman Bregman, who cut down Barnes at home. A fly out by Seager stranded runners on first and second.

  As he was in Game 7 of the ALCS seven nights earlier, Morton was efficient Saturday. He threw only 76 pitches to record his 19 outs. Harris was left in only for the final two outs of the seventh. Astros manager A.J. Hinch tabbed Chris Devenski for the eighth.

  Devenski needed only 12 pitches to complete a perfect inning. He froze Pederson on a 2-and-2 changeup high in the zone, then induced a fly out from Hernandez and a groundout from Taylor. But despite his excellence, Devenski was not afforded another inning. In the middle of the eighth, Giles began to warm in the Astros’ bullpen.