Club just can’t overcome season-long limitations
Few expected the 29-31 Astros to still be alive in the American League Championship Series.
No one expected Jose Altuve and the 2020 Astros to fall apart like this.
Altuve has won the AL MVP and a Gold Glove Award and is one of the most popular players in franchise history. Yet the once incredibly consistent second baseman can no longer be relied upon to successfully throw a baseball to first or second base.
As Altuve’s game-changing throws have become more and more unpredictable, the Astros have followed the arc of the ALCS-altering
errors.
If there’s an official physical or mental explanation for Altuve’s sudden struggles, the answer remained with the Astros when Game 3 was complete. But after three tense contests, it’s 3-0 Tampa Bay Rays. Which means the AL’s No. 1 seed is playing like a true World Series contender and the Astros are constantly cracking at the worst time.
The Rays took the latest battle 5-2 on Tuesday night at Petco Park. Game 3 captured the two contests that preceded it.
A 29-31 team was good enough to lead. The Astros’ starting pitching, once a clear midseason weakness, wasn’t the problem. But as the innings stacked up, Dusty Baker’s team slammed helmets and bats, Tampa Bay made huge plays all over the field and the Astros ultimately fell apart as the Rays soared.
Lance McCullers Jr. deserved better in Game 2.
Jose Urquidy deserved better in Game 3.
Tampa Bay didn’t care. The sleek, deep, fully realized Rays recognized the smallest of openings and instantly cracked open both games.
The Astros were often the better team in Games 1 and 2.
The only problem? Tampa Bay had edged the Astros by a combined 6-3, maximizing on critical opportunities. The Rays entered Tuesday two victories away from the World Series via timely hit
ting, sharp starting and relief pitching and near-perfect defense.
Kevin Kiermaier continued Tampa Bay’s defensive trend in Game 3, taking away two potential hits and several runs on two superb catches before the fifth inning arrived.
But Altuve seemed to officially put Game 2 in the rearview by lifting a 1-1, 82-mph cutter to left field, giving the Astros a 1-0 first-inning lead and finally returning momentum to Baker’s resilient team.
Urquidy became sharper and stronger as the innings mounted.
Tampa Bay right hander Ryan Yarbrough shook off Altuve’s solo shot and early trouble, matching Urquidy as the sixth inning approached.
Then Altuve threw another baseball into the ground.
It was shocking. Unexplainable.
But it also followed Altuve’s unexplainable poor throws in Game 2 that set up the Rays’ win. And the Game 3 jaw-dropper was even more damaging.
From 1-0 Astros and Urquidy rolling to 3-1 Tampa Bay and the Astros barely holding on to reality.
The bases were loaded and reloaded. Two Rays batters were hit. Another Astros reliever was forced to take over. And it was all set up by an Altuve throw that oddly bounced off the dirt, falling about 5 feet short of Carlos Correa’s outstretched glove near second base.
Three throwing errors in two games.
Three unthinkable moments from Altuve, who spent 2015-19 constantly proving and reproving himself in the middle of many of the most intense October moments in Astros history.
A struggling Brandon Lowe helped the cracking Astros finally get out of the sixth. But when the surreal damage was over, Tampa Bay had glued five runs to the board and the Rays were suddenly 12 outs away from holding a 3-0 series lead.
Michael Brantley followed Altuve’s single with one of his own to open the bottom of the eighth inning, giving Baker’s squad two on with no outs in a three-run game.
The long-delayed breakthrough? The Astros erasing Altuve’s third error and taking the glaring spotlight away from No. 27?
Alex Bregman pushed the count to 3-2 but whiffed.
Correa fought off Ryan Thompson’s challenging sidearm action for a slow infield single, loading the bases with one out.
But Kyle Tucker flied out to right field, thanks to another superb Hunter Renfroe catch. Then Yuli Gurriel’s playoff slide continued and it was complete.
The Rays had done almost everything right yet again and were one win away from returning to the Fall Classic for the first time since 2008.
The visibly frustrated Astros were still winless in the ALCS. A 29-31 team was being undone by hard outs and Tampa Bay’s ridiculous defense. But the 2020 Astros were also being held back by their own season-long limitations.