The Astros arrived Saturday night at Game 7 of the American League Championship Series having weathered the impact of a sign-stealing scandal and a season characterized by injuries, buzzard’s luck, scorn, slumps and the longest odds that Major League Baseball can offer.
But with a 4-2 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays at Petco Park in San Diego, their season is done. They reached the threshold of a historic comeback, winning three ALCS games after losing the first three, but could not prevail in Game 7.
And now they, and their fans, must wait ’til next year.
Astros starter Lance McCullers allowed early home runs to Rays rookie Randy Arozarena and catcher Mike Zunino as Tampa Bay advanced to the World Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers or Atlanta Braves.
Houston’s bats, meanwhile, were held in check by Tampa Bay starter Charlie Morton, who twice was the Game 7 winning pitcher during Houston’s 2017 World Series championship season in the memorable year of Hurricane Harvey, before scoring twice in the eighth on a Carlos Correa base hit against the Rays’ bullpen.
“It sucks, man. It really does,” McCullers said. “But congrats to the Rays. They’re a damn good team. They’ve been the best team in the AL all season. They went through the Yankees, and they went through us, and you have to tip your cap to them … we were right there … but that’s how it goes.”
The Astros were the second MLB team to lose the first three in a best-of-seven playoff series and win three to force Game 7. The 2004 Boston Red Sox won ALCS Game 7 against the New York Yankees before winning Boston’s first World Series title since 1918.
The 2004 Red Sox-Yankees series has become the stuff of legend, given the heated nature of the Boston-New York rivalry. Astros-Rays unfolded in considerably different circumstances, given the absence of fans, the neutral site venue in San Diego and the public’s focus on the COVID-19 pandemic, the economy and a divisive presidential campaign.
Still, the series was notable because of the controversy surrounding the Astros’ 2017-18 sign-stealing scandal and the emotions they arouse among those who love and defend them and those who will continue to wish them ill.
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For the Astros and their partisans, it’s been a trying 11 months. A few weeks after Houston lost the 2019 World Series to the Washington Nationals, revelations in November of the sign-stealing scheme led in January to the dismissal of general manager Jeff Luhnow and manager A.J. Hinch by owner Jim Crane.
Two weeks later, the Astros hired Dusty Baker as their manager, a popular move involving one of the game’s best-liked veterans, and began spring training only to have the season interrupted by the COVID-19 shutdown.
Opening Day in late July gave way to season-ending injuries to Cy Young Award winner Justin Verlander, Rookie of the Year Yordan Alvarez and relief pitcher Roberto Osuna and to uneven performances at the plate by Jose Altuve and many of Houston’s veteran hitters.
With a roster that included 10 rookie pitchers, the Astros were 29-31 entering the expanded playoffs. But then they kicked into gear, beating the Minnesota Twins in two games in the best-of-three wild card round and the Oakland A’s in four games of the best-of-five Division Series.
That set up the ALCS against Tampa Bay, which ran off three wins with timely hits and impeccable fielding while the Astros couldn’t get the big hit and Altuve struggled in the field as well as at bat.
Then came the turnaround. Outfielder George Springer’s two-run homer was the margin of victory in Game 4. He and shortstop Carlos Correa homered on the first and last pitches of a walkoff win in Game 5, and lefthander Framber Valdez held Tampa Bay in check en route to a 7-4 win Friday to set up Saturday’s Game 7.
But that was then. Morton was untouchable in Game 7, the Astros could not manage an extra-base hit against Rays pitching and McCullers couldn’t make it through the fourth against a Tampa Bay offense that has scored 41 postseason runs on homers.
“These guys fought. They fought to the very end,” Baker said. “A lot of people didn’t have us even making the playoffs. Most people didn’t have us beating Minnesota. Nobody had us beating Oakland, and then nobody had us beating the Rays, and were down 3-0.
“This team is a bunch of fighters, a bunch of guys with a tremendous amount of perseverance and fortitude, and one thing is for sure: We’ll be back in this position again next year.”
As the Astros return home from San Diego, they enter an offseason of considerable uncertainty. Springer and outfielders Michael Brantley and Josh Reddick are free agents, and Osuna’s return is in question given his injury and his contract status.
“Hopefully we have a long future together,” third baseman Alex Bregman said before Game 7. “It’s been some of the best times of my life playing with them, and hopefully we get to play together for many more years.”
Correa, however, was realistic about the prospects that some familiar faces will not return.
“If those guys don’t come back, we’re going to miss them a lot. It’s going to be weird seeing them in another uniform.”
Springer again declined after the game to discuss his free agency prospects but said of his time in Houston, “It’s been special. The city, the fans, have really embraced our team. it’s been fun.”
Correa, McCullers and starter Zack Greinke will be in their final season of club contract control in 2020, and pitchers Chris Devenski and Brad Peacock are recovering from recent arm surgery. Verlander is expected to miss the season as he recovers from elbow reconstructive surgery.
Depending on free agency decisions, the core group that played in the 2019 World Series could be reduced to Altuve, Correa, Bregman, utilityman Aledyms Diaz, catcher Martin Maldonado, outfielder Kyle Tucker and pitchers Zack Greinke, Josh James, Jose Urquidy and Ryan Pressly.
2020, however, also offered strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow in the emergence of Tucker as a force in the lineup, Valdez’s development as a future ace of the pitching staff and the work of rookie relievers Cristian Javier, Blake Taylor, Enoli Paredes, Luis Garcia and Andre Scrubb.
As the Astros regrouped in the clubhouse after the game, Baker said, “I told them how proud of them I was, and everybody to a man told the rookies what a great job they did, and now they’ve had a taste of what its about. A lot of these guys got here in their very first year and they’re going to take this organization a long way.”
And so another season ends and the question turns to the legacy of the 2020 Astros and of the Altuve-Springer-Correa-Bregman connection that has produced a golden era of Houston baseball.
“The legacy of this group is that these guys are ballplayers. These guys are men,” Baker said. “They’ve been through a whole bunch other than on the ballfield, and these guys can forgive whatever problems they have had and come together as a group and be forever friends. They will cherish these moments and have these moments for the rest of their lives.”
There is, however, another layer of legacy to be considered as well.
Because of the impact of the sign-stealing scandal, and because of the inalienable right of 21st century social media users to heap abuse upon abuse without consequence, the 2020 Astros were an object of outright hatred and derision among fans and even among some major league players.
It’s a burden that they no doubt will continue to shoulder next season when they play before fans for the first time since spring training.
But when asked if the Astros of 2020 ever returned hatred for hatred, George Springer smiled and replied, “The Astros stayed in their dugout and stuck together.”
david.barron@chron.com
twitter.com/dfbarron
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