Astros Strong Page 4

  Bregman had hit two balls hard off Hill, the first for a single. So when Morrow extracted from the Astros third baseman a weak ground ball to shortstop Seager, he bailed out Roberts from potentially endless criticism.

  Hinch didn’t need to worry much about third-time-through-the-order trends regarding his starter. Verlander overpowered the Dodgers with a fastball that averaged 96 mph. In the first five innings, he allowed only one runner on base, via a one-out single to center field by Yasiel Puig in the second.

  But the third time through the order is the danger zone for a reason, and upon their third look at Verlander, the Dodgers experienced much more success against the former MVP and Cy Young Award winner.

  Austin Barnes led off the sixth inning with a single and became the Dodgers’ first runner in scoring position when Verlander yanked a slider that bounced and hit Utley on the foot. Hinch walked briskly to the mound to meet with his pitcher, catcher and infielders before Dodgers leadoff man Taylor stepped into the batter’s box for a third time.

  Taylor swung and missed on a 1-and-1 slider from Verlander before smacking a 97 mph fastball. It found no man’s land in shallow right field, allowing Barnes to score easily as the tying run and to leave Utley and Taylor in scoring position. Seager skied a sacrifice fly to the base of the wall in right field to give the Dodgers their first lead.

  “I think when I sit down tonight and really reflect on this game, the one thing I’ll be upset about was maybe falling behind Barnes (2-and-0), but he still didn’t hit the ball very well, and that’s baseball. He found a hole,” Verlander said.

  Verlander said he didn’t want to get beat by Utley on what the pitcher described as “a mediocre slider.” The slickness of the World Series baseballs, which pitchers have said affects their sliders, was in the back of his mind, he admitted.

  “I’m not going to go home tonight and be like, ‘Man, I pitched horribly,’” Verlander said. “I feel like I pitched pretty well, and I feel like a National League game dictated that I came out a little quicker than I probably would have.”

  Does that increase the low likelihood of Verlander’s pitching in relief Wednesday? When asked about his potential availability, the 34-year-old righthander gave an answer that didn’t suggest one possibility or the other.

  “Right now I feel great, but I’ve got to sleep on it and see how I feel tomorrow,” he said in the visitors’ clubhouse after Tuesday’s game.

  If Verlander is available, it’s unlikely anyone outside the Astros clubhouse will know until he begins to warm up in the bullpen. After the craziness of Game 2 and Game 5, perhaps a Verlander- or Keuchel-versus-Kershaw relief battle is the wrinkle in store for Game 7.

  Said McCullers: “This series was destined to go seven pretty much the whole time.”

  H-Crown!

  Astros Top Off Rebuild with First Championship in 56-Season History

  By Jake Kaplan

  World Series Game 7

  November 1, 2017 • Los Angeles, California

  Astros 5, Dodgers 1

  Six years ago, on a Friday in November at the Astros’ Union Station offices, Jeff Luhnow pitched new team owner Jim Crane his vision on how to fix the worst team in baseball.

  It would be painful for a few years, and the Astros would have to remain patient and disciplined while enduring as drastic a teardown and rebuild as the sport has witnessed. But when the time was right, and enough elite prospects procured through the draft had matriculated from their farm system, they would compete for championships annually.

  Through the years of losing, trading, selecting atop the draft and mining for hidden gems emerged the roster that delivered Houston its first World Series championship. At 8:58 p.m. Pacific time Wednesday night at Dodger Stadium, the Astros capped their franchise’s 56th season with a 5-1 victory in Game 7 of the Fall Classic. The vision of Luhnow, their general manager, was realized.

  “It made sense for us. Not every plan makes sense for every team. But where we started, with the worst team in baseball and one of the worst farm systems in baseball, we really had no choice,” Luhnow said. “We had to focus on developing our own and, when the time was right, adding to it. That’s what we did.

  “We made some mistakes along the way. They’re well-documented. But we had some hits along the way. Those are also well-documented. And here we are.”

  Luhnow spoke in a corner of the visitors’ clubhouse at Dodger Stadium, home to the fourth and final champagne and beer celebration the 2017 Astros shared. The 51-year-old former St. Louis Cardinals executive, who came to baseball from the business world, wore black goggles atop his head and waded through the wreckage of the celebration with black Nike flip flops.

  All across the room, players doused each other with beer and champagne. They smoked cigars. George Springer clutched the World Series trophy while a throng of reporters peppered him with questions.

  Springer garnered World Series MVP honors after a historically great Fall Classic. The All-Star center fielder matched Reggie Jackson’s and Chase Utley’s record with five home runs in a World Series. He became the first player to homer in four consecutive games in the same World Series.

  The young infield trio of (left to right) shortstop Carlos Correa, third baseman Alex Bregman and second baseman Jose Altuve were instrumental in delivering the first World Series championship in team history. (Brett Coomer/Houston Chronicle)

  “It’s unbelievable. It’s indescribable,” Springer said. “When you get to spring, you know who you have, you see what you have, and there’s always that thought of, ‘We could do it.’ But the 162-plus games is a lot of games. And a lot of things have to go right in order to get here.

  “And our team believed in each other all year. And through the good times and the bad times, through a rough stretch in August to getting down 3-2 against a very good New York (Yankees) team, there’s a lot of things that happened. I’m so happy to be a part of it – to bring a championship back to a city that desperately needed one.”

  The Astros took Game 7 behind timely hits and a hodgepodge of pitchers, most notably Charlie Morton, their Game 4 starter who came out of the bullpen to pitch the final four innings.

  Springer accounted for the first and last of the Astros’ three hits against Dodgers starter Yu Darvish, who just as he did in Game 3 recorded only five outs before he was pulled. After his double down the left-field line to begin the game sparked a two-run first, Springer’s 438-foot laser to left-center field punctuated a 5-0 lead for the Astros.

  Nearly half of the Astros’ dugout emptied onto the dirt track along the baseline when Springer’s home run cleared the fence. Darvish had grooved a full-count, two-out fastball over the plate. His two terrible World Series starts sunk the Dodgers’ chances.

  For the first time in World Series history, neither starter completed three innings. A wild Lance McCullers Jr. was pulled after only 2 1/3 innings. But a mixture of McCullers, Brad Peacock, Francisco Liriano, Chris Devenski and Morton kept the Dodgers in check. Los Angeles was a woeful 1-for-13 with runners in scoring position.

  The Astros have played 9,023 games since their franchise’s inception in 1962. None featured higher stakes than Wednesday’s.

  The drama had only built over the first six games and 57 innings of an all-time-great Series.

  “We’re playing in one of the most epic World Series in history,” manager A.J. Hinch said before Game 7, “and I think our players have appreciation for that.”

  Hinch didn’t plan to address his team before Wednesday’s game for that reason. After a 3-1 loss in Game 6, he was pleased with the vibe among his players, which he described as “the right amount of disappointment yet optimism toward Game 7.”

  By the time Darvish threw the game’s first pitch, Hinch had ruminated for hours on the countless scenarios of how he could piece together 27 outs. He revealed little of his plans behind his
starter but didn’t rule out any of his 11 other pitchers appearing in the game.

  In McCullers, the Astros had something of a wild card. A 24-year-old righthander whose fastball reaches the mid-to-upper 90s and whose curveball is among the best in the game, he has talent that is unquestioned. But in his Game 3 start, he had lost his command in a three-walk inning. It was uncertain which version would show up five days later.

  The Astros got the erratic McCullers in Game 7, so much so that he set a record for any postseason game by hitting four batters. His shoddy fastball command prompted Hinch to pull the All-Star after only seven outs and 49 pitches.

  Only because of his swing-and-miss curveball and mistakes by the Dodgers did McCullers not allow any runs. After stranding the bases loaded in a 25-pitch first, he survived the second because the Dodgers’ Logan Forsythe strayed too far from second base on a Chris Taylor line out to Astros shortstop Carlos Correa, who easily turned two.

  After the final out of Game 7, Jose Altuve leaps into Carlos Correa’s arms as George Springer races in from center field to join the celebration. (Michael Ciaglo/Houston Chronicle)

  Peacock was first out of the Astros’ bullpen. He finished the third, completed the fourth and recorded the first out of the fifth, an inning finished by Liriano and Devenski. Morton, in his first relief appearance since 2008, allowed the Dodgers’ first run in the sixth on two singles and a walk. The Astros had nine outs to go.

  Morton started the seventh and retired the Dodgers’ No. 3, 4 and 5 hitters in order. He was perfect again in the eighth, so Hinch let him bat in the top of the ninth. The game – and the final out to clinch the Astros’ first title – was Morton’s.

  Morton struck out Chase Utley on three pitches and induced a groundout to second baseman Jose Altuve from Taylor. On the first pitch he threw to Corey Seager, a 96 mph fastball, he got a groundout to the same spot. After receiving the throw from Altuve, Astros first baseman Yuli Gurriel threw his hands atop his head in disbelief.

  “I just dropped down to my knees and realized a childhood dream came true,” third baseman Alex Bregman said. “This team worked so hard for this. It’s so special to be a part of this team. The coaching staff is unbelievable, ownership, our general manager, the city of Houston. We won this for them.

  “I’ll tell you this: We’re very young, and we’re going to be back next year looking to win another one.”

  In 2015, the Astros hired Hinch, who led them back to the playoffs ahead of schedule that October. The 43-year-old former major league catcher and front office executive is constantly lauded for his ability to connect with his players, who praise him at every turn.

  “He pulled all the right strings. He really did,” Luhnow said. “He’s a great manager. He should be recognized as such, and hopefully, we’ll be here next year doing the same thing.”

  Before Luhnow interviewed with Crane, who had then just recently purchased the team from Drayton McLane, he typed out a 22- to 23-page document of his plan for the Astros to achieve sustained success. A binder with those pages still sits in Crane’s office. “I’m going to check it when I get back,” Crane said Wednesday night.

  At the end of his job interview, Luhnow asked Crane, “What are my constraints with this job?” Crane ripped off the top sheet of paper from a pad on his desk and tossed it to Luhnow, who expected a list.

  The paper was blank.

  “I can’t ask for a better owner,” Luhnow said Wednesday night, as a clubhouse full of World Series champions partied around him.

  By George!

  Springer Hits Record-Tying Five Home Runs, Takes Series MVP Honor

  By Jenny Dial Creech

  When the grueling, thrilling, stress-filled seven games had ended, George Springer ran toward his teammates from right field. The Astros had just done it. They’d won the World Series.

  As the leadoff hitter who was a constant force in the 2017 regular season, Springer put together a Fall Classic for the ages and celebrated the sweetness of victory after the Astros subdued a beast of a Dodgers team with Wednesday night’s 5-1 victory in Game 7.

  After the clincher was over, he stood on a podium in the middle of Dodger Stadium to collect the Willie Mays trophy, given to the Most Valuable Player of the Series.

  “We did this for Houston,” an emotional Springer said while holding the hardware and standing with his teammates, a World Series Champs hat sitting on his head. “We are coming home champions.”

  After the Series opener, some people were calling for Springer to be moved down in the lineup. He struck out four times in Game 1 against Clayton Kershaw and Kenley Jansen. Before that, he had hit .115 (3-for-26) against the Yankees in the American League Championship Series.

  A.J. Hinch shrugged it off. The manager never worried about Springer, and neither did anyone else in an Astros uniform. They knew Springer would show up, that he would come through at the plate.

  Springer didn’t just prove naysayers wrong. He silenced them by becoming the best Astros player in the final six games of the season. On a team with so much talent, that is no small feat.

  He hit five home runs – tying the record shared by Reggie Jackson and Chase Utley for a single World Series – including one in each of the last four games. He had extra-base hits in the final six games en route to 29 total bases – a record for any postseason series – and finished with a .379 batting average and 1.471 OPS in leading the charge past a 104-win Dodgers team.

  George Springer hits a two-run home run off Los Angeles Dodgers starting pitcher Yu Darvish, his record-tying fifth homer of the World Series. The Astros tied the record for home runs in a postseason with 27 and set a World Series record with 15 homers. (Brett Coomer/Houston Chronicle)

  Drafted in the first round in 2011, Springer was expected to play a key role for what was a rebuilding franchise. He made his Astros debut on April 16, 2014, going 1-for-5 with a walk against the Royals.

  Before taking the field that night just hours after arriving in Houston – Springer went 3-for-4 with a grand slam and four runs the night before for Class AAA Oklahoma City – he told reporters he was trying to keep his cool in the biggest moment of his life.

  “I wouldn’t say that I’m (nervous),” Springer said. “Kind of the only way I can explain it: My coach at school would always say, ‘You want to be like a duck. You want to be calm above the water, but underneath, his feet are just kicking and going and going and going and going.’ So that’s my plan: to be calm but just go out and play.”

  Since that day, Springer has certainly kept his cool, and he had huge moment after huge moment against the Dodgers.

  His two-run, 11th-inning homer was the difference in the Astros’ 7-6 victory in a classic Game 2 at Dodger Stadium. He tied their epic 13-12 triumph in Game 5 at Minute Maid Park with a homer that made it 8-8.

  And after going deep for his team’s only run in a disappointing 3-1 loss in Game 6, he started the Game 7 clincher with a double to ignite a two-run inning, then smashed a two-run homer in the second to put the Astros up 5-0.

  Coming back to Dodger Stadium for a Game 7 with your back against the wall isn’t easy. But Springer made it look that way out of the gate and set the tone for his team, which followed his lead.

  When he missed 13 games with a quad injury in July and Carlos Correa missed 44 with a fractured thumb, Springer remained positive. When the Astros went through stretches where a number of their starting pitchers were injured, he didn’t worry.

  “A lot of things have to go right in 162 games,” Springer said. “But we always believed. Through every stretch, through the tough times. And here we are. I always believed in this team.”

  Years before his name appeared in the World Series record book, the Astros saw something special in Springer.

  Now the rest of the world has seen it, too.

  Road to the Title

  Brett Coomer/
Houston Chronicle

  Simply A-May-Zing

  Astros Match Best Month in Franchise History With 17-6 Romp Over Twins

  By Jake Kaplan • June 1, 2017

  Minnesota Twins reliever Ryan Pressly didn’t even turn his head when George Springer connected with his elevated fastball. Left fielder Eddie Rosario hardly moved. The only uncertainty stemmed from whether the moonshot would reach Target Field’s third deck or the upper reaches of its second.

  According to MLB’s Statcast, Springer’s home run in the seventh inning of the Astros’ 17-6 clobbering of the Minnesota Twins traveled an estimated 473 feet, the second-longest hit in the majors this season and barely shy of the third deck. The second of Springer’s two homers on the afternoon, it kick-started a six-run frame that broke open the Astros’ season-high seventh consecutive win.

  In completing a three-game sweep of a series in which they scored a club-record 40 runs, the Astros capped their winningest month in 12 seasons. Their 22-7 record in May matched August 1998 and July 2005 as the best in club history. A third of the way through the regular season, the best team in baseball is on a 114-win pace.

  “We’ve been doing it for two months. We need to do it for four more months,” shortstop Carlos Correa said. “I think we’re in a good position right now. But we’re not going to get comfortable. We’re going to strive for more.”

  Even playing a lineup minus three regulars in Josh Reddick, Carlos Beltran and Brian McCann, the Astros racked up a season-high 19 hits, including a season-high six home runs. Springer’s blast was the farthest by an Astros player in the three seasons Statcast has tracked such data. It jumped off his bat at 112.6 mph.