ESPN MLB insider Author of “The Arm: Inside the Billion-Dollar Mystery of the Most Valuable Commodity in Sports”
HOUSTON — The walk-off home run Houston Astros slugger Yordan Álvarez hit to cap a wild come-from-behind victory in Game 1 of the American League Division Series on Tuesday called to mind great blasts of Octobers past.
It left the bat with all the ferocity and velocity of another postseason home run at Minute Maid Park: Albert Pujols‘ laser off Brad Lidge in 2005. It was the first game-ending shot by a team that was trailing at the time since Joe Carter’s homer that won Toronto the 1993 World Series. And though it won’t register in the all-time annals because the Astros’ 8-7 victory over the Seattle Mariners arrived so early in the postseason, the 41,125 in attendance and those in both clubhouses — elated on one side, stunned silent on the other — couldn’t help but marvel at Álvarez’s feat.
The Mariners, in the postseason for the first time in two decades, blew a lead similar to the one they’d overcome in their wild card-clinching win Saturday against Toronto. And after chipping away at that 7-3 deficit with a two-run home run by Alex Bregman in the eighth inning, Houston rode Álvarez’s home run to its ninth consecutive playoff-opening victory, tying a major league record.
“If you’re a fan of Houston and that didn’t get you excited, get you animated, I don’t know what to say,” Álvarez said. “I was also speaking to my wife about somebody that wasn’t having a great day, and that moment changed their day for them, and those are the small details. You can change somebody’s day with things like that.”
As animated as the Astros and crowd were, Seattle’s day changed demonstrably for the worse with one 93 mph sinker over the heart of the plate. With closer Paul Sewald allowing two runners to reach, Mariners manager Scott Servais called upon left-hander Robbie Ray to face Álvarez, also left-handed. Ray, the reigning AL Cy Young winner who signed a $115 million free agent deal with Seattle last winter, is typically a starter, but Seattle planned to use him in a fireman role in Game 1.
Álvarez is no ordinary conflagration. The 25-year-old is one of the best hitters in baseball, occupying the No. 3 spot in Houston’s dangerous lineup, and with no discernible platoon split and Ray’s propensity to give up home runs, Servais gambled — and lost. Álvarez fouled Ray’s first pitch, a 94 mph sinker, almost straight back. The second went forward 438 feet, landing in the right-field bleachers after trampolining off Álvarez’s bat at 117 mph.
“I was just trying to get the sinker in on him,” Ray said. “Just didn’t get there. … Just frustrating.”
Never, Ray said, did he consider pitching around Álvarez and loading the bases. The Mariners found themselves in a precarious position because Sewald hit pinch hitter David Hensley with a full-count fastball and lost Jeremy Pena by leaving over the plate a 1-2 slider that the rookie whacked into center field. Then came Álvarez.
“He didn’t miss it,” Astros second baseman Jose Altuve said. “He’s just a great hitter. He’s not gonna miss twice.”
Altuve knows the feeling of hitting a walk-off homer in the playoffs, having won the 2019 pennant with his shot to left field at Minute Maid off New York Yankees closer Aroldis Chapman, but even that was a tie game. A postseason walk-off homer trailing by multiple runs with two outs in the ninth inning? Never happened prior to Tuesday.
The Astros showing up in October is nothing new. They’ve been to five consecutive AL Championship Series and this season won an AL-best 106 games, nearly matching their franchise record. With a loaded pitching staff, deep bullpen, strong lineup and excellent fielding, they’re the presumptive favorites to win the pennant.
Of course, they didn’t expect to start their postseason with ace Justin Verlander — the likely AL Cy Young winner this season — allowing six runs on 10 hits in four innings. Seattle jumped on him for a run in the first, three in the second and a pair in the fourth, with a two-run home run from J.P. Crawford and the top two hitters, Julio Rodriguez and Ty France, going 5 for their first 5 and catalyzing the Mariners’ offense.
Houston’s bullpen mostly stifled Seattle, carving a path down which Astros hitters gladly walked. Yuli Gurriel homered in the fourth to cut the deficit to 6-3. Bregman did his job in the eighth. And when Álvarez saw Ray warming, he grabbed an iPad, looked through video of his five previous at-bats against the 31-year-old and tried to replicate what he did in the regular season, when he hit .306/.406/.613 in 136 games.
“The postseason is just an extension of the season, really,” Astros manager Dusty Baker said. “He has a very slow pulse rate, I’m sure. He doesn’t show excitement too much. He has a high level of concentration, discipline and confidence. You know you’ve got a chance when Yordan comes to the plate, and when he doesn’t come through you’re almost surprised. I mean, you know nobody can do it all the time, but he’s pretty good at it.”
Good undersells Álvarez. He put the Astros on the board first with a two-run double in the third inning and then accounted for their final tally on a sinker that didn’t sink when it was supposed to — and sunk Seattle’s first crack at stealing the home-field advantage that was in its grip. The Mariners will get another chance Thursday, when Luis Castillo, their prized deadline acquisition, faces Houston left-hander Framber Valdez in Game 2.
“It’s like a heavyweight fight,” Servais said. “You’re going to get punched. It’s how you respond in those moments and that’s a tough one. Today I thought we had it in hand. You got to give them credit. Certainly they have been in this spot many times before and you don’t quit.”
The Hockey Hall of Fame is going to swing open its doors to some impressive former NHL stars in the next few years. Legends such as Zdeno Chara, Joe Thornton, Duncan Keith and Patrice Bergeron. Eventually Jaromir Jagr will be inducted. Probably in his 80s, when he’s done playing.
The Hall can welcome up to four men’s players in every annual class. Given how many current NHL players have a legitimate case for immortality, the selection committee will not suffer for a lack of choices.
Here is a tiered ranking of active NHL players based on their current Hall of Fame cases. We’ve picked the brain of Hockey Hall of Fame expert Paul Pidutti of Adjusted Hockey to help figure out the locks, the maybes, “the Hall of Very Good” and which young stars are on the path to greatness.
Let’s begin with the two players who have defined this century of hockey, and another player whose legend has grown to the point where he’s a sure-thing Hall of Famer.
“Honestly, when we lose, I don’t even get in the shower until early this morning. I’ll just be mad. I just brush my teeth. It’s like, I don’t deserve soap.” — Syracuse head coach Fran Brown
Here at Bottom 10 Headquarters, located behind the “sorry, not sorry” bouquet of water hemlocks sent to the Big 12 officiating office from Utah athletic director Mark Harlan, we know all too well the sting of losing football games. We see it every week in every game we watch.
Yeah, yeah, we know what you’re thinking. “Come on, dummy, someone loses every game that anyone watches.” That’s true. At least now it is. We are also old enough to remember when games ended in ties. That was way worse.
But here in the Bottom 10 Cinematic Universe, losses are worse because that’s all you experience. You’d think we’d get used to it, numb from the pain like when you keep accidentally biting that same spot on your tongue to the point that it just becomes sensory free. But instead, it’s like Bruce Banner explained about being the Hulk: “You see, I don’t get a suit of armor. I’m exposed. Like a nerve. It’s a nightmare.”
However, as we learned in “Age of Ultron,” even after one of his worst losses, Bruce Banner does take a shower. So, Coach Brown, take it from us, in a world where every team has a helluva lot more losses than Syracuse … dude, wash up. Seriously. We can smell you from here. And we’re in Kent, Ohio.
With apologies to Mr. Clean, former Miami (Ohio) quarterback Mike Bath, former Southern Illinois running back Wash Henry and Steve Harvey, here are the post-Week 11 Bottom 10 rankings.
The Golden(plated) Flashes are still America’s last winless FBS team, losing their 18th straight game when they were edged by Ohio 41-0. Now they travel to My Hammy of Ohio, where they are given a 2.8% chance to win by the ESPN Analytics Ouija board, er, I mean Matchup Predictor. But honestly, that game will only be the appetizer ahead of the, yes, Week 13 main course that is the Wagon Wheel showdown with Akronmonious. And by appetizer we mean way-past-the-expiration-date freezer-burned mini-pizza bagels.
The New Owls not only used their talons to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory at UTEP, losing in double overtime, they earned Bottom 10 Bonus Points for firing their head coach — and during their first year as an FBS team, no less. Though the AD issued a statement that Brian Bohannon had “stepped down,” Bohannon himself responded on social media: “Contrary to what’s been reported, I want to be clear that I did not step down.” But there is no confusion as to whether the Owls have stepped up or down in these rankings, where every move up is also a move down.
Brett Favre Funding U. lost to We Are Marshall 37-3, meaning all eight of their defeats this season have been by double digits. In related news, I also received double digit political texts on Election Day — and one of those was from Favre. No, for real. I wonder, did he cover the data charges himself or did he steal change from the donation jar at his grocery store checkout?
Sometimes in this life we are asked to do things that go against the fiber of our being. Like taking your daughter to the concert of an artist you’ve never heard of. Or me having to use Earth’s most annoying instrument, the leaf blower. This weekend this team of Minutemen will be asked to try to defeat Liberty.
5. The Sunshine State
The Coveted Fifth Spot has never been more crowded. The FBS, FCS and NFL teams of Florida posted a 1-11 record over the weekend, salvaged only by the Miami Dolphins’ win over the Los Angeles Rams on “Monday Night Football.” UC(not S)F, US(not C)F, FA(not I)U, Stetson, Florida A&M and Bethune-Cookman all lost, led in misery by the Wildcats’ five-overtime loss to Southern. The Flori-duh Gate Doors celebrated the announced retaining of coach Billy Napier by losing to Texas in a squeaker 49-17. And My Hammy of Florida finally spotted an opponent a lead too large for a Cam Ward comeback and took its first loss of the season, falling to unranked Georgia Tech. If only someone else in the state could relate to that …
The Semi-No’s are continuing to work around the Coveted Fifth Spot by earning their Bottom 10 keep the old-fashioned way, not only losing to semi/sorta/kinda ACC member Notre Dame by a scant 52-3, but also earning a pile of their own Bottom 10 Bonus Points not by firing head coach Mike Norvell, but because Norvell fired both his offensive and defensive coordinators and a wide receivers coach. In related news, over the weekend a friend of mine steered his bass boat into a giant pile of sharp rocks and reacted by throwing his shirt and hat overboard.
It was three weekends ago that the Buttermakers lost to then-second-ranked Oregon 35-0. On Saturday, they lost to then-second-ranked Ohio State 45-0. Now they play sixth-ranked Penn State, and in two weeks end their season playing currently eighth-ranked Indiana. We have to assume that a team of professors from Purdue’s legendary mechanical engineering department is studying this experience as a way to assess the stress put on a school bus that is attempting to drive over a lava field covered in landmines.
The Minors have a weekend off to continue their post-Kennesaw victory party. And what’s the best way to snap yourself out of a two-week hangover? Hair of the dog? A cold bucket of water over the head? How about the hair of a coontick hound and a bucket of water from the river during a Week 13 trip to Neyland Stadium to play Tennessee?
Whatever is left of UTEP after Knoxville will then play whatever is left of the Other Aggies after their Week 12 trip to face the OG Aggies of Texas A&M. If there’s any justice in this world, then the loser and/or winner of that Aggie Bowl would go on to play …
The Other Other Aggies lost to the one-loss team the nation forgot about, Warshington State. But if you consider the week before that, we find a Bottom 10 conundrum. Utah State beat WhyOMGing? but the week before that lost to Whew Mexico by five points. Meanwhile, Wyoming, who lost to Utah State two weeks ago, spent last weekend beating New Mexico by five points. Perhaps we will be given some clarity when Wyoming ends the year at Washington State. Or perhaps we will have already given up. As so many here in the Bottom 10 seem to do.
Waiting list: Miss Sus Hippie State, Georgia State Not Southern, FA(not I)U, Akronmonious, Meh-dle Tennessee, WhyOMGing?, Temple of Doom, Living on Tulsa Time, You A Bee?, Standfird, people who put all those election signs up but now won’t take them down.
NEW YORK — An arbitrator upheld five-year suspensions of the chief executives of Bad Bunny’s sports representation firm for making improper inducements to players and cut the ban of the company’s only certified baseball agent to three years.
Ruth M. Moscovitch issued the ruling Oct. 30 in a case involving Noah Assad, Jonathan Miranda and William Arroyo of Rimas Sports. The ruling become public Tuesday when the Major League Baseball Players Association filed a petition to confirm the 80-page decision in New York Supreme Court in Manhattan.
The union issued a notice of discipline on April 10 revoking Arroyo’s agent certification and denying certification to Assad and Miranda, citing a $200,000 interest-free loan and a $19,500 gift. It barred them from reapplying for five years and prohibited certified agents from associating with any of the three of their affiliated companies. Assad, Miranda and Arroyo then appealed the decision, and Moscovitch was jointly appointed as the arbitrator on June 17.
Moscovitch said the union presented unchallenged evidence of “use of non-certified personnel to talk with and recruit players; use of uncertified staff to negotiate terms of players’ employment; giving things of value – concert tickets, gifts, money – to non-client players; providing loans, money, or other things of value to non-clients as inducements; providing or facilitating loans without seeking prior approval or reporting the loans.”
“I find MLBPA has met its burden to prove the alleged violations of regulations with substantial evidence on the record as a whole,” she wrote. “There can be no doubt that these are serious violations, both in the number of violations and the range of misconduct. As MLBPA executive director Anthony Clark testified, he has never seen so many violations of so many different regulations over a significant period of time.”
María de Lourdes Martínez, a spokeswoman for Rimas Sports, said she was checking to see whether the company had any comment on the decision. Arroyo did not immediately respond to a text message seeking comment.
Moscovitch held four in-person hearings from Sept. 30 to Oct. 7 and three on video from Oct. 10-16.
“While these kinds of gifts are standard in the entertainment business, under the MLBPA regulations, agents and agencies simply are not permitted to give them to non-clients,” she said.
“While it is true, as MLBPA alleges, that Mr. Arroyo violated the rules by not supervising uncertified personnel as they recruited players, he was put in that position by his employers,” Moscovitch wrote. “The regulations hold him vicariously liable for the actions of uncertified personnel at the agency. The reality is that he was put in an impossible position: the regulations impose on him supervisory authority over all of the uncertified operatives at Rimas, but in reality, he was their underling, with no authority over anyone.”