Zack Short Doesn’t Come Up Short, Astros Walk Off Rangers 5-4

Time for me to be honest with y’all for a minute. I didn’t expect the Astros to come back and win after the Rangers took a 4-3 lead in the top of the eleventh inning. It was reflected in the title and everything of this recap when it was only a draft. I know, I’m of little faith. But I’m also a realist, at least a decent percentage of the time; I figured I’d get a jump start on an extremely disappointing loss. Take some initiative for once. Thankfully, I hadn’t got too far into writing the recap, so I didn’t have to erase too much. Small victory for me, a big victory for the Astros. I like this feeling.

I also apologize for the new title of this recap.

Sooner or later, Josh Hader was going to blow a save. I mean, he converted 25 consecutive save opportunities before Saturday. That’s pretty good. But the odds are that he would eventually blow at least one opportunity this season. Probably multiple by September and October. But did this first one have to cause so much stress?

Most of the Astros’ offense, before the eleventh inning, was due to a trio of solo home runs. One from Jose Altuve in the first, another from Yainer Díaz in the fourth, and the last from Mauricio Dubón in the seventh. Two of those three dingers were against Jacob deGrom, so it felt like a win was incoming if the pitching staff could hold it together.

Spoiler alert: They didn’t.

But it wasn’t the fault of Framber Valdez, although it did look like that first inning could get away from him early. A throwing error by Dubón followed by Marcus Semien single was worrisome enough with only one out. Hitting Adolis García didn’t help, either. Bases loaded and Valdez then allowed a run to score via a wild pitch. I’ve seen this movie before and I’d rather not watch another horror film right now. But thanks to some plot armor, Valdez survived a potential implosion, striking out Wyatt Langford and Jonah Heim to end the threat.

That’s the thing about Valdez. He will occasionally pitch himself into trouble and it’ll blow up in his face. Fans in Baltimore or Anaheim will learn about those tendencies next season. But, here’s the thing, if he survives that initial hiccup with little damage, he tends to become lights out. Guess what? Valdez did exactly that, throwing six total innings, striking out ten and walking no one. 14 whiffs on 48 swings. Only four hits, too. And that lone run in the first? Thanks to the error, it was unearned. All in all, it was a pretty good start from Valdez to end his first half of the season.

After Dubón hit his solo home run in the seventh, it felt like the Astros were on their way to a win. Not in the way that ultimately happened, although the idea of Kyle Higashioka hitting the tying home run off of Hader in the ninth honestly came to my mind two pitches before it happened. Of course, Bryan Abreu giving up a solo home run himself in the eighth inning can’t be ignored. It was letdown by the two best pitchers in your bullpen. That can’t happen often and you still win.

The game looked done and nearly over once García pounced on Bennett Sousa’s first pitch in the eleventh to drive in the zombie runner from second base. But Sousa keeping additional runs off the scoreboard was a huge moment that helped set the stage. Ultimately, Robert Garcia couldn’t locate much of anything. Walking Cam Smith is one thing, but walking Kenedy Corona on four pitches is something else. No offense to Corona, who showed a keen eye at the plate, but those two walks did in Texas. Hoby Milner had the unenviable task of facing Christian Walker in a high leverage moment with the bases loaded. A sacrifice fly was all was needed to tie the game, setting up Zack Short to drive in Smith to clinch the win.

The rubber game takes place Sunday, with Hunter Brown squaring off opposite of Nathan Eovaldi in the final game before the All-Star break.

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