Sometimes luck is better than skill. The boys didn’t play their best game today, but they were focused when it mattered.
The game started poorly for Kikuchi when he allowed a monster hit to Taylor Ward. However, he managed to recover and not allow any runs for the rest of the game. While he wasn’t at his best, he still managed nine strikeouts and just one walk.
The offense was mediocre tonight, but they took advantage of LA’s poor defense. In the bottom of the fourth inning, Diaz reached base on a throwing error. Two batters later, he scored on a single by Caratini. With runners on first and second base and no outs, it looked like Houston would tie the game. However, the next three batters were retired.
Result: Houston 1, City of Angels, Angels 1.
The biggest drama of the night came in the eighth inning when Bryan Abreu allowed a one-out double. Abreu is known for his swing-and-miss skills, but he didn’t seem to have them today. Fortunately, he was able to get out of trouble with a couple of weak ground balls.
Given the Astros’ terrible record in extra-inning games, it seemed like the Astros needed to score soon. Thankfully, they did just that in the second half of the eighth inning.
The inning started well with two walks for Tucker and Yordan. However, it looked like the inning was going to derail when Diaz hit a sharp ground ball to shortstop. But Diaz struggled to get out of the double play.
With runners on the corners and one out, JP had an excellent opportunity to score the winning run. But he hit a ground ball to first base, which was a swinging bunt. JP didn’t sprint out of the box, assuming it was a foul ball, but Diaz showed a lot of baseball IQ by immediately running to second base. Had he not done that, the threat would have ended with a double play.
With runners on second and third base, the Angels decided to walk Caratini to bring in Jon Singleton. Singleton was down 0-2 and probably should have been stopped by a sweeper that caught a lot of balls. Singleton didn’t miss the gift.
With the score tied 1-2, Singleton hit a meatball that bounced too far off the batting crease and into left-center field. The Astros scored two runs on the double, and that was all they needed.
Hader pitched the ninth and seemed almost unhittable. Jason Heyward also made a great play, ending the game with a weak fly ball that stayed up just long enough.
Final score: Houston 3, Angles 1.
Thoughts:
I thought it was foolish to give up so much for Kikuchi, and perhaps the Astros lose the trade in the long run. Still, you have to give the Astros’ scouting and player development staff credit for recognizing his potential value and getting the most out of him. After tonight, YK has pitched 54 innings with a 3.00 ERA.
The magic number is five. The Astros and Mariners both have nine games left, meaning four wins for Houston and a Mariners loss will be enough to clinch the win. Ideally, Houston will get everything sorted before the Guardians series so Espada can give the pitching staff a rest and set up the rotation for the wild-card series.
The wild card series is a gamble, I’m not looking forward to watching baseball this weekend. There’s at least a 35% chance the Astros get knocked out in the first round, but this season has been fun regardless. At least four of the last five teams the Astros knocked out of the playoffs won’t be in the tournament this year; depending on how the Braves finish the season, it could be all five.
The Astros refuse to be irrelevant, and no matter how Houston performs in October, we should be thankful.
