The Bullpen Lost the Game. But the Bats Lost the Series. My Game 2 Analysis
The high leverage guys in the bullpen could not walk the tightrope in the 8th inning, but the lack of production from the bats put them in that position.
The Astros had the game where they wanted it. After an excellent start from Hunter Brown (16 whiffs on 46 swings) and 1.1 shutout innings from Bryan Abreu, the Astros took a one-run lead into the eight and turned the game over to Ryan Pressly, with Josh Hader waiting in the wings.
Pressly began by striking out Tigers leadoff hitter Parker Meadows on three pitches. Then the trouble began. Kerry Carpenter, the Tigers best hitter, got ahead in the count 2-0 and then singled to right center. Matt Vierling followed with a grounder that just eluded Jose Altuve to put runners at first and third. The good news is that Pressly struck the next batter—Riley Greene—out. The bad news was that it was after a Pressly spiked a slider for a wild pitch and Carpenter scored to tie the game.
The trouble continued. Pressly walked Colt Keith, and Joe Espada felt compelled to call on Spencer Torkelson. Hader walked him on four pitches. That brought up pinch hitter Andy Ibanez. And after 4 straight fastballs, Hader threw another one. Ibanez lined it off of the Crawford Box wall, scoring all three baserunners.
In the most important inning of the season, the cream of the Astros bullpen failed the team, allowing 4 runs and essentially ending the game, the series, and the season.
It is of course a tightrope walk to preserve a one run lead over 6 outs, but Pressly and Hader, both considered among the best relievers in baseball, are supposed to be up to tough jobs like this one.
But it is also worth asking why the Astros were in a 1 run game in the eight inning today. And the answer is because while the pitching had held Tigers hitters to only 1 run, Astros hitters had only scored 2. That is after scoring just 1 run in Game 1 on Tuesday.
Over two games, the Astros had scored only 3 runs. More notably, they had only 1 extra base hit, a double by Yordan Alvarez in the 9th on Tuesday. Put it together, the Astros had a slash line over the two games of .194/.253/210.
The offense was disastrous across the two games of the series.
It is of course hard for us on the outside to say why. The Tigers are of course an excellent run prevention team and their ability to maximize the abilities of their young pitchers propelled the team to their big winning stretch at the end of the season. But the Astros have had a good—though not great—offense all season. The had the two best hitters in the series, and six of the eight best. They are supposed to score more than 3 runs.
But they did not. Short series baseball is often a series of nearly random events and one team’s advantages—such as the Astros superior bats—does not come through in such a small time frame.
In short, the Astros hitters sure picked the wrong two days to have a slump. Of course, it’s not like they chose it.
But their inability to get a big hit was the biggest factor in this series. Or a long hit. The Astros did not homer. Joe Sheehan’s playoff philosophy is “Ball go far; team go far.” The ball didn’t go far.
The Astros had too few scoring opportunities, and they were not able to cash in when they did. Take the Astros rally in the bottom of the 7th. The Tigers turned to the highly touted but completely inexperienced Jackson Jobe, who showed his nerves by hitting Victor Caratini with his first pitch. Jeremy Pena then singled, and Maurcio Dubon’s sacrifice bunt was so good he reached for a single.
The Astros just needed a base hit to take the lead and an extra base hit for a big rally. The big hit did not come. But the Astros got fortunate thanks to some Tigers defensive miscues. Catcher Jake Rogers could not field a throw that would have gotten a force out at home and Vierling hesitated in throwing home on a short foul pop, allowing Jeremy Pena to score. Kyle Tucker then had an opportunity to break the game open with a runner on third, and he hit into a double play.
The Tigers did not have many opportunities to score runs either. They were only 1-for-7 with runners in scoring position. But the one was Ibanez’s big three run double. The Astros only hit today with a runner in scoring position was the Dubon bunt.
The Astros could have won the game today if they had gotten the performance from Pressly and Hader that they expected. But that they required a tightrope walk from Pressly and Hader was the result of their bats going cold at the wrong time. After having gone cold yesterday as well.
Where does the blame lie? I think the conclusion is that the bullpen lost today’s game, but the bats lost the series.