That history, of course, is little more than a collection of what happened to others, and in a sport as random as baseball it doesn’t necessarily repeat itself. It translates into an exciting game that they play.
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Houston Astros relief pitcher Luke Gregerson, left, celebrates Thursday with catcher Jason Castro after their 5-2 victory ove…
On the Astros’ offense, Jose Altuve and Carlos Correa have led their productive lineup. 337 at Kauffman Stadium. They ran aggressively and successfully. They have 230 home runs in the regular season and already 2 so far in the postseason. If not foolproof, the formula is rather close, and it embodies the danger of these Astros when their different outfits work so harmoniously.
It was a crucial victory considering what awaits Kansas City in Game 3 on Sunday: Astros ace Dallas Keuchel, who was 15-0 at home this season.
They nearly had another one in Alcides Escobar, who is a front-runner to earn it at shortstop this year. St. Louis Police Chief Sam Dotson says officers will be in greater numbers for the best-of-five series that gets under way Friday. It will rattle him, they hypothesized. He allowed back-to-back singles and a walk to leave the bases loaded for Josh Fields, who walked Salvador Perez on four pitches to tie the game.
Salvador Perez homered for Kansas City. “We’ve been playing good ball all year”. Evan Gattis hit 27 long balls by himself, and Luis Valbuena and Colby Rasmus hit 25 each. George Springer also drove in a pair of runs after hitting a solo shot in the series opener. Rasmus doubled in a run in the first inning, and Springer added a two-run single in the second as restless Royals fans began to shower their ace with boos. And the Astros’ maligned bullpen, the worst in baseball during September, tossed three scoreless innings, same as it did to finish off the Yankees. “I mean, it’s over with, and now we understand that they’re going to be prepared to play”. “We’re not going to be intimidated by anybody”.
The Royals have at least been respectable on the road, though.
A sub-par month of September had the Royals bruised and battered.
Game 2 is today, when left-hander Scott Kazmir takes the mound for Houston against right-hander Johnny Cueto in a matchup of pitchers traded days apart this past summer. Edinson Volquez will start for the Royals. Even Cueto, in 106th place, can snicker at that. Every move he tried in Game 2 seemed to go awry.
I think that this series will all come down to bullpen.
They were built to take full advantage of their bandbox ballpark, where a 315-foot popup clears the wall in left and a 326-foot blooper is a homer to right. Playoff baseball is frenetic like that, a complete free-for-all that for a few provides electricity that can feel positively static.
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Cast aside such an image and conjure instead the prospect of the Houston Astros, for years not just also-rans but a franchise that dropped a nuclear bomb on itself intentionally, in the American League Championship series against the victor of the Toronto-Texas series.
