Sometimes it is better to be lucky than good. The boys did not play their best game today but locked in when it counted.
The game started off poorly for Kikuchi, giving up a lead-off monster shot to Taylor Ward. However, he managed to bounce back and give up no runs for the rest of the outing. He did not have his best stuff, but he still struck out nine and only walked one.
The offense was pedestrian tonight, but they took advantage of some bad defense by LA. In the bottom of the fourth, Diaz reached on a throwing error. He scored two batters later on a single from Caratini. With runners on first and second and nobody out, Houston looked like they would break the game open. However, the next three batters were retired.
Score Houston 1, The City of Angels Angels 1.
The biggest drama of the night occurred in the eighth inning when Bryan Abreu gave up a one-out double. Abreu is known for his swing-and-miss stuff, but he did not seem to have it tonight. Luckily, he wiggled out of the jam with a pair of weak ground balls.
Considering the Astro’s terrible record in extra-inning games, it felt like the Astros needed to score soon. Fortunately, they would do just that in the bottom of the eighth.
The inning started well with a pair of walks to Tucker and Yordan. However, it looked like the inning would be derailed when Diaz hit a sharp ground ball to the shortstop. But Diaz hustled to stay out of the double play.
With runners on the corners and one out, JP had an excellent opportunity to drive in the go-ahead run. But he grounded out to first in what was a swinging bunt. JP did not sprint out of the box because he assumed it was a foul ball, but Diaz showed a lot of baseball IQ by running to second right away. The threat would have ended with a double play if he hadn’t.
With runners on second and third, the Angels decided to walk Caratini to bring up Jon Singleton. Singleton got down in the count 0-2, and probably should have been wrung up on a sweeper that caught a lot of plate. Singleton would not let this gift go to waste.
With the count 1-2, Singleton doubled on a meatball that caught too much of the plate to Left-center. The Astros scored two runs on the double and that was all the scoring they needed.
Hader pitched the ninth and looked nearly unhittable. Jason Heyward also made a great play to end the game on a weak flyball that stayed up for just long enough.
Final score: Houston 3, Angles 1.
Thoughts:
I thought it was stupid to give up so much for Kikuchi, and maybe the Astros will lose the trade in the long run. Still, you must give up to the Astros scouting and player development staff for identifying 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 down to five. The Astros and Mariners both have nine games left, which means that four Houston wins and one Mariners loss will be enough to clinch. Ideally, Houston wraps it up before the Guardians series so Espada can rest the pitching staff and line up the rotation for the wild card series.
The wild card series is a crap shoot, I am not excited to watch baseball that weekend. There is at least a 35% chance the Astros will get bounced in the first round, but this season has been fun regardless. At least four of the last five teams to eliminate the Astros from the playoffs will not make the tournament this year; depending on how the Braves finish the season, it may be all five.
The Astros refuse to be irrelevant, and no matter how Houston does in October, we should be thankful.