Weak bats and a bullpen meltdown end the Astros’ season a lot like it started.
It’s easy to attribute the Astros’ loss in the WC series to Rob Manfred and the vagaries of a three game series. Yes, perhaps over 162 games the Astros are a better team than the Tigers. Yes. the Astros had an unfortunate propensity to hit balls hard but right at Tigers fielders or just foul in key situations.
But let’s be honest. The Tigers are younger, hungrier, more aggressive, and better coached than the Astros. The Astros looked tired. They deserved to lose, and some of the luck that blessed them in earlier years did not materialize in this series.
Many of the problems that we saw during the season cost the Astros these last two post-season games: Inconsistent hitting. Inconsistent supposed ace, Framber Valdez, and in this game, the under-performing and over-rated backend of the Astros bullpen.
Three runs in two games won’t win playoff games. Going against the soon-to-be Cy Young winner, Tarik Skubal, in Game One, Framber Valdez countered with batting practice.
But worst of all, handed a lead in the eighth inning, 34-year-old Ryan Pressly and the 30-year-old, $90 million man Josh Hader, gave up four runs total to lose Game 2 and the series.
These two, a supposed dream team of closers, were distinctly average, at best, all year, as we waited for the playoffs for them to live up to their reputations. But it turns out, they are what we thought they were all year, not closer material.
Much is made of Hader’s 34 saves, but he gave up far too many runs and home runs all year to ever make you feel comfortable in a save situation. A 3.80 ERA is not closer material, nor his eight losses and ten meltdowns. Today, he avoided a loss or blown save. He merely allowed all of his inherited runners to score, handing the loss to Pressly.
Pressly hasn’t been trustworthy this year either. His performance today was not unlike many he had this year. His 3.49 ERA is accompanied by eight blown saves and 13 meltdowns.
Pressly has a vesting option for 2025 so I’m not sure where he will be after this year. But should the Astros have followed their own unwritten rule not to sign free agents to expensive, long-term contracts in the case of Hader? Is his contract yet another albatross hung on the Astros’ neck, to go along with those of McCullers, Montero, and J. Abreu?
These two, Hader and Pressly, are paid handsomely to win this game, today. They failed miserably. If you reduce their season totals of blown saves and losses by half, the Astros probably have a first round bye in the playoffs.
But let’s not let the Astros bats off the hook against a bevy of Tigers relief pitchers.
The Astros put runners in scoring position in the second and fourth innings but failed to score. The second inning looked a little like the bottom of the ninth of yesterday’s game, when Jason Heyward almost walked it off. On this occasion, Heyward just missed getting the go ahead RBI on two occasions, pulling two pitches just foul to right field before eventually striking out to end the inning.
In the fourth inning, Yainer Diaz singled with one out and Victor Caratini was hit by a pitch. However, Jeremy Pena hit into a double play to extinguish the mini-threat.
It was a scoreless pitching duel between the Astros’ Hunter Brown versus the Tigers’ Tyler Holton, Brennan Hanifee, Brant Hunter, and Beau Brieske.
A pitching duel until Parker Meadows hit a 358 ft homer in the sixth to give the Tigers a 1-0 lead, chasing Brown. Bryan Abreu finished the inning for Brown, but the damage was done.
Brown finished completing 5.2 innings, allowing two hits and two walks, while striking out nine.
Houston, here is your future ace.
In the seventh inning, the Astros’ string of poor luck and just-missed RBIs came to the end. Master strategist, Tigers manager A.J. Hinch, decided to put baseball’s #2 prospect but almost completely green, 22-year-old Jackson Jobe, in. Jobe’s first pitch hit Victor Caratini, followed by a Jeremy Pena bloop single. Attempting a bunt, Mauricio Dubon’s sacrifice attempt was a single, loading the bases.
Jon Singleton then grounded to first, but the throw bounced into home, allowing Caratini to score. Jose Altuve then hit a short fly to right field but just long enough for Pena to score to give the Astros their only lead in the WC series. Unfortunately, with a runner on third and one out, Kyle Tucker took the Astros’ hands off the Tigers’ jugular by grounding into a double play.
The Tigers did not return the favor against Ryan Pressly in the eighth. With one out, Pressly allowed back-to-back singles, followed by a wild pitch, allowing the Tigers to tie the score at two. Pressly walked his fourth batter, which led manager Espada to bring on closer Josh Hader.
Hader walked his first batter on four pitches to load the bases. Unlike the Astros, the Tigers did not let up on the opponent. Pinch hitter Andy Ibanez smacked a three run double off Hader, giving the Tigers an insurmountable 5-2 lead.
The Astros submitted quietly in their halves of the eighth and ninth innings, making an early exit from the postseason for the first time since before 2017.
Next year, the Astros face the loss of Alex Bregman, mainstay of the Championship Era. Not to mention Yusei Kikuchi, for whom the Astros paid dearly but who never got a chance to pitch in the playoffs. In 2025, Framber Valdez and Kyle tucker become free agents.
But hopefully, a number of injured pitchers will return next year to fill the void if these players leave. Maybe #1 draft pick Brice Mathews will arrive next year to provide infield help.
Just wait’ll next year.