San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
‘Professional hitter’ Brantley back in swing of things
As a party raged over prosecco puddles after the Astros clinched a division series win Wednesday night, Michael Brantley stood closer to a quieter corner of the visitors’ clubhouse at Target Field in Minneapolis. At one point, the veteran outfielder was asked why he appeared so dry.
“I changed shirts earlier,” Brantley said, smiling.
The scene was symbolic in a way. Most of this season, Brantley was relegated to a role of spectator, sidelined by a surgically repaired shoulder that continued to hamper him. Fourteen months elapsed between major-league at-bats for a player whose name often precedes the designation “professional hitter.” It demanded patience, his organization’s and his own.
Wednesday illustrated why each exhibited it. Brantley’s first swing of Game 4 produced a home run, one of two the Astros struck in a 3-2 win over the Twins to advance to the ALCS against the Rangers. Afterward, amid their celebration, Brantley absorbed the type of moment he envisioned during a recovery that seemed at times to have no clear end.
“You just never want to give up,” Brantley said. “If you have this opportunity to contribute in a positive way to help win a game in the postseason, that’s what it was all about.”
Doing so from the field in last year’s playoffs was not an option. Brantley played his last game June 26 before undergoing an arthroscopic labral repair last August. He remained a presence in the clubhouse and dugout as the Astros won a World Series title, the first for Brantley, whose teams had reached the World Series three previous times and lost.
This season brought frustration. Brantley appeared close to rejoining the Astros in May before he was shut down due to shoulder inflammation, marking the first of multiple setbacks that cast the potential for Brantley’s return into question. It ar
rived Aug. 29 in Boston, with Brantley collecting two hits the next day. He played in 12 games before missing eight in a row in September due to shoulder soreness.
Brantley started three of Houston’s final four regular-season games but took just 57 plate appearances down the stretch. Manager Dusty Baker referred to Brantley, 36, repeatedly as “my Kawhi Leonard,” citing the NBA star limited in recent seasons by injuries. Before the ALDS, Baker said he was “hoping to get whatever I can get” out of Brantley, a .295 hitter in 57 postseason games, in the playoffs.
The ALDS, then, gave a glimpse of what that might be for the rest of this postseason. Brantley started three of four games against the Twins, two in left field and one at designated hitter. He did not play in Game 3, which followed the series’ lone off-day. He went 3-for-11 with two singles and his home run against Joe Ryan that tied Game 4 in the second inning.
At 399 feet, it was easily the farthest ball Brantley has put in play since his return. He did not hit a ball farther than 357 feet, a home run against Texas’ Max Scherzer, in his 54 regular-season at-bats. It provided the Astros with a prompt response after the Twins had taken a 1-0 lead in the first inning of Game 4 on Royce Lewis’ home run off José Urquidy.
“Mike is such a special player and just an A-plus human being, so everybody was pulling for him to get back,” closer Ryan Pressly said after Game 4. “The fact that he’s back now, it’s a huge boost to our lineup. You can see what he does. He goes out there and puts quality atbats together. He’s just an amazing hitter, one of the purest hitters I’ve seen in the big leagues since I’ve been up here.”
If healthy, Brantley lengthens an Astros lineup that carries just two lefthanded-hitting regulars without him. For the ALCS, he would figure to match up against two of Texas’ top three starters, righthanders Nathan Eovaldi and Scherzer, if the latter returns from injury for the series. Houston could opt to rest Brantley when it faces lefthander Jordan Montgomery.
The Astros averaged more than seven runs in 13 games against Texas this season, all but one played without Brantley. Although Kyle Tucker struggled in the ALDS, going 2for-14 with six strikeouts, the middle of Houston’s lineup made an impact as Yordan Alvarez, a resurgent José Abreu and Brantley combined to hit .349 with eight home runs in the series.
Texas’ formidable lineup, meanwhile, is also at fuller strength entering the first playoff meeting of the teams. Shortstop Corey Seager played in just seven games against Houston this season, third baseman Josh Jung missed their series in September and the Astros did not see rookie left fielder Evan Carter, who has offered the Rangers a spark in the playoffs.
“I don’t know if it’s more fun,” Brantley said of facing Texas in the ALCS. “I don’t care who we’re playing. It’s the postseason. You work so hard from day one of spring training to get to this. So it doesn’t matter who we’re playing. But at the same time, I know it’s going to be a great rivalry and I’m excited to be part of it.”
Brantley described both his and Houston’s season as having “ups and downs.” The Astros spent 24 days in first place in the AL West yet are in the ALCS for a seventh consecutive year.
“It was a little different path than we normally take,” Brantley said. “But it’s a testament to how hard these guys work and believe in one another. And we did it together. We won this (ALDS) together as a team. A lot of guys stepped up. And we’ve got to do it again the next series.”