HOUSTON — The Houston Astros rolled through the initial portion of these playoffs like world-beaters. Upsets pervaded the field, knocking off dominant teams in Los Angeles and Atlanta and New York. But the Astros — a 106-win juggernaut in their own right — won each of their first seven games, vaulting themselves into their fourth World Series appearance in six years. They met a Philadelphia Phillies team that won 19 fewer games than them during the regular season, representing the second-largest margin between World Series opponents in baseball history.
The Astros were widely expected to cruise.
Then they dropped Game 1 on Friday night — at home, with a five-run lead on the scoreboard and their ace on the mound.
“It was a punch in the face,” Astros center fielder Chas McCormick said. “Maybe we needed it.”
Their response seemed to validate that belief.
The Astros matched up against the most dominant pitcher of this postseason and came out swinging Saturday night. Four pitches into the game, they had accumulated three doubles. By the end of the fifth inning, they had totaled another five runs. And this time, thanks in large part to an impressive pitching display from Framber Valdez, the Astros didn’t relent, securing the 5-2 win from Minute Maid Park that evened this Series at a game apiece.
It all began with Jose Altuve, who contributed a leadoff double and finished with a much-needed three-hit performance.
“It was awesome,” Astros third baseman Alex Bregman said of Altuve. “I feel like that one swing of the bat to start off the game got the crowd into it, got our dugout into it, got our offense going.”
Philadelphia’s Zack Wheeler was nearly unhittable through his first four starts of these playoffs, posting a 1.78 ERA. His 0.51 WHIP was on pace to become the lowest in postseason history among pitchers who accumulated a minimum of 25 innings. But his first pitch of this World Series, a sinker down the middle, was driven to left for a double by Altuve. His second pitch, a curveball near the heart of the plate, was driven to left for a run-scoring double by Jeremy Pena. His fourth pitch, a slider slightly up, was driven off the left-field scoreboard for a run-scoring double by Yordan Alvarez.
“That was the plan — to attack him early,” Alvarez said in Spanish. “He likes to attack hitters early in counts, but we have a lot of good hitters.”
The Astros became the first team in World Series history to begin a game with three consecutive extra-base hits. It also marked the first time in postseason history that a team notched three extra-base hits within the first four pitches of a game, according to research by ESPN Stats & Information. Only three teams have ever achieved that feat in a regular-season game over the past 20 years.
“It’s kind of everybody’s game plan against me to be really aggressive and just try to get that first pitch or hop on the fastball,” Wheeler said. “I kind of expected that. But to swing at the first two pitches? It is what it is. I just need to execute a little better.”
Wheeler completed five innings but was tagged with five runs, four of them earned. The Astros tacked on an additional run in the first on a two-out throwing error by Phillies shortstop Edmundo Sosa, and Houston then got two more on a fifth-inning homer from Bregman.
Wheeler throws his three most trusted pitches — a four-seam fastball, a slider and a sinker — at high velocities. He also throws a lot of strikes, a trait that makes him a highly effective starting pitcher. But the Astros were the second-best team in the majors this season at making contact within the strike zone and carried the third-highest OPS against fastballs.
“Everything’s hard,” McCormick said of Wheeler’s repertoire. “We can hit hard.”
Valdez’s profile is vastly different. He attacked as he always does, with a devastating curveball and a hellacious sinker, weaving in and out of traffic to allow only one run in 6⅓ innings. The Phillies threatened to begin the sixth, placing the first two batters on base for the heart of their order. But Valdez struck out J.T. Realmuto on a high fastball then got Bryce Harper to bounce into an inning-ending double play. Of Valdez’s 19 outs, nine came via strikeout and nine came on the ground. Only five of the Phillies’ batted balls left the infield.
Through three starts, Valdez’s postseason ERA stands at 1.42.
“This guy has been as consistent as any pitcher that I’ve ever had throughout the course of the year, and he just continued to do the same thing during the playoffs,” Astros manager Dusty Baker said of Valdez, who set a record with 25 consecutive quality starts during the regular season. “He gets big outs. He makes big pitches.”
The Astros will play their next three games in what promises to be a raucous Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia, needing at least one victory to bring the series back to Houston. They’ve essentially lost home-field advantage, but two glaring positives emerged from their time at home. One is that they combined for 10 runs against Wheeler and Aaron Nola, the Phillies’ fearsome pitching duo. The other is that Altuve might finally be turning the corner.
Altuve, an eight-time All-Star and three-time batting champion, began this postseason mired in a head-scratching 0 for 25 slump. But he followed with four hits in a 12-at-bat stretch heading into Saturday, and then he seemingly broke out. Altuve lined a double to left in the first, grounded a base hit up the middle in the fifth and lined a single to right — on a fastball near the height of his head — in the seventh.
He laughed to himself when he arrived at first base, as he should.
“Early in the playoffs, I was swinging at everything and then getting slowly better at swinging at my pitch,” Altuve said. “Yeah, I got a hit on a pitch almost above my head today. But it’s a hit, so it’s good.”
-
Jeff Legwold
BOULDER, Colo. — For the horde of NFL talent evaluators and some bleachers full of fans, Colorado coach Deion Sanders said Friday that they all got to see the top two players available in this year’s NFL draft.
Quarterback Shedeur Sanders and Heisman Trophy winner Travis Hunter were among the 16 Colorado players who took part in the school’s showcase event for scouts, coaches and personnel executives from every NFL team. And Deion Sanders said the two marquee players confirmed what he has known for a long time.
“It’s tremendous,” Sanders said. “… They should be going 1-2 [in the draft], that’s the way I feel about it. They are the two best players in this draft. … The surest bets in this draft are those two young men, and I didn’t stutter or stammer when I said that.”
Neither Shedeur Sanders nor Hunter took part in most of the position drills or physical testing, but Sanders had a throwing session for just under an hour and Hunter was one of the wide receivers who participated. Neither player worked out at the scouting combine earlier this year, so it was the first time Sanders had thrown in such a setting since the end of the season. He showed some full seven-step drops and play-action from the shotgun and under center.
“I think I did pretty good, to my expectations,” said Sanders, who set the career FBS accuracy mark in his two years at Colorado (71.8%) to go with his 4,134 passing yards and 37 touchdowns last season. “I know I did the best in college football right now, for sure.”
Asked after the throwing session whether he believed he was the best quarterback in the draft, Sanders said: “I feel like I’m the No. 1 quarterback, and that’s what I know. But at the end of the day, I’m not stuck on that because it’s about the situation, so whatever situation, whatever franchise believes in me, I’m excited to go. … I’m comfortable in any situation.”
Players Hunter, who did not speak to the media after the workout, and Sanders met with the Cleveland Browns contingent, including team co-owner Jimmy Haslam, on Thursday night in Boulder.
“They got me really full,” Sanders said. “I definitely needed to go to the sauna after that. … It was a good vibe.”
Said Deion Sanders said: “[I] spoke to the owner, truly delightful. He was engaging. … I think one of those guys is going to be there [at No. 2].”
Hunter, the No. 1 player on Mel Kiper Jr.’s Big Board, did not do any defensive drills Friday, but he ran a full assortment of routes.
Colorado safety Shilo Sanders, Shedeur’s brother, offered plenty of encouragement, shouting commentary and clapping after each throw, including “not a lot of quarterbacks can make that throw” after one deep completion.
The highly attended event — by NFL representatives as well as fans packing small bleachers — had a festive atmosphere. Deion Sanders named it the “We Ain’t Hard 2 Find Showcase,” complete with a large lighted “The Showcase” sign next to the drills.
Hunter, who has said he wants to play offense and defense in the NFL, won the Chuck Bednarik (top defensive player) and Fred Biletnikoff (top receiver) awards in addition to the Heisman. He said whether he will primarily be a wide receiver or a cornerback in the NFL depends “on the team that picks me.”
On Friday, Deion Sanders said “ain’t nobody like Travis.”
Hunter had 96 catches for 1,258 yards and 15 touchdowns as a receiver last season to go with 35 tackles, 11 pass breakups and 4 interceptions at cornerback. In the Buffaloes’ regular-season finale against Oklahoma State, he became the only FBS player in the past 25 years with three scrimmage touchdowns on offense and an interception in the same game, according to ESPN Research.
He played 1,380 total snaps in Colorado’s 12 regular-season games: 670 on offense, 686 on defense and 24 on special teams. He played 1,007 total snaps in 2023.
Shilo Sanders, who hoped to show teams more speed than expected, ran a 4.52 40-yard dash after he measured in at 5-foot-11⅞, 196 pounds. He did not participate in the jumps or bench press that opened the workout, citing a right shoulder injury.
With all NFL eyes on the Colorado campus to see Shedeur Sanders throw, one player who made the most of it was wide receiver Will Sheppard. Sheppard, who measured 6-2¼, 196 pounds, ran the 40 in 4.56 and 4.54 to go with a 40½-inch vertical jump and a 10-foot-11 broad jump.
Baltimore Orioles All-Star shortstop Gunnar Henderson was activated from the 10-day injured list and will make his season debut Friday night against the Kansas City Royals.
Henderson has been sidelined with a right intercostal strain and missed the first seven games of the big league campaign.
The 23-year-old Henderson will lead off and play shortstop against the host Royals.
Henderson was injured during a spring training game Feb. 27. He was fourth in American League MVP voting last season when he batted .281 and racked up career bests of 37 homers and 92 RBIs.
Henderson completed a five-game rehab stint at Triple-A Norfolk on Wednesday. He batted .263 (5-for-19) with two homers and four RBIs and played four games at shortstop and one as the designated hitter. He did commit three errors.
“I think everybody’s looking forward to having Gunnar back on the team,” Baltimore manager Brandon Hyde said Thursday. “The rehab went really, really well. I talked to him a couple days ago, he feels great swinging the bat. The timing came, especially the last few days. He just had to get out there and get some reps defensively and get some games in, and it all went well.”
Baltimore optioned outfielder Dylan Carlson to Triple-A Norfolk to open up a roster spot. The 26-year-old was 0-for-4 with a run and RBI in two games this season.
-
Jorge Castillo
When New York Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns attempted to assemble the best possible roster for the 2025 season this winter, the top priority was signing outfielder Juan Soto. Next was the need to replenish the starting rotation and bolster the bullpen. Then, days before pitchers and catchers reported for spring training, the lineup received one final significant reinforcement when first baseman Pete Alonso re-signed.
Acquiring a player with a singing career on the side didn’t make the cut.
“No, that is not on the list,” Stearns said with a smile.
Stearns’ decision not to re-sign Jose Iglesias, the infielder behind the mic for the viral 2024 Mets anthem “OMG,” was attributed to creating more roster flexibility. But it also hammered home a reality: The scrappy 2024 Mets, authors of a magical summer in Queens, are a thing of the past. The 2025 Mets, who will report to Citi Field for their home opener Friday, have much of the same core but also some prominent new faces — and the new, outsized expectations that come with falling two wins short of the World Series, then signing Soto to the richest contract in professional sports history.
But there’s a question surrounding this year’s team that you can’t put a price tag on: Can these Mets rekindle the magic — the vibes, the memes, the feel-good underdog story — that seemed to come out of nowhere to help carry them to Game 6 of the National League Championship Series last season?
“Last year the culture was created,” Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor said. “It’s a matter of continuing it.”
For all the success Stearns has engineered — his small-market Milwaukee Brewers teams reached the postseason five times in eight seasons after he became the youngest general manager in history in 2015 — the 40-year-old Harvard grad, like the rest of his front office peers knows there’s no precise recipe for clubhouse chemistry. There is no culture projection system. No Vibes Above Replacement.
“Culture is very important,” Stearns said last weekend in the visiting dugout at Daikin Park before his club completed an opening-weekend series against the Houston Astros. “Culture is also very difficult to predict.”
Still, it seems the Mets’ 2024 season will be all but impossible to recreate.
There was Grimace, the purple McDonald’s blob who spontaneously became the franchise’s unofficial mascot after throwing out a first pitch in June. “OMG,” performed under Iglesias’ stage name, Candelita, debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Latin Digital Songs chart, before a remix featuring Pitbull was released in October. Citi Field became a karaoke bar whenever Lindor stepped into the batter’s box with The Temptations’ “My Girl” as his walk-up song. Alonso unveiled a lucky pumpkin in October. They were gimmicks that might have felt forced if they hadn’t felt so right.
“I don’t know if what we did last year could be replicated because it was such a chaos-filled group,” Mets reliever Ryne Stanek said. “I don’t know if that’s replicable because there’s just too many things going on. I don’t know if that’s a sustainable model. But I think the expectation of winning is really important. I think establishing what we did last year and coming into this year where people are like, ‘Oh, no, that’s what we’re expecting to do,’ makes it different. It’s always a different vibe whenever you feel like you’re the hunter versus being the hunted.”
For the first two months last season, the Mets were terrible hunters. Lindor was relentlessly booed at Citi Field during another slow start. The bullpen got crushed. The losses piled up. The Mets began the season 0-5 and sunk to rock bottom on May 29 when reliever Jorge Lopez threw his glove into the stands during a 10-3 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers that dropped the team to 22-33.
That night, the Mets held a players-only meeting. From there, perhaps coincidentally, everything changed. The Mets won the next day, and 67 of their final 107 games.
This year, to avoid an early malaise and to better incorporate new faces like Soto and Opening Day starter Clay Holmes, players made it a point to hold meetings during spring training to lay a strong foundation.
“At the end of the day, we know who we are and that’s the beauty of our club,” Alonso said. “Not just who we are talent-wise, but who each individual is as a man and a personality. For us, our major, major strength is our collective identity as a unit.”
Organizationally, the Mets are attempting a dual-track makeover: Becoming perennial World Series contenders while not taking themselves too seriously.
The commemorative purple Grimace seat installed at Citi Field in September — Section 302, Row 6, Seat 12 in right field — remains there as part of a two-year contract. Last week, the franchise announced it will feature a New York-city themed “Five Borough” race at every home game — with a different mascot competing to represent each borough. For a third straight season, USA Today readers voted Citi Field — home of the rainbow cookie egg roll, among many other innovative treats — as having the best ballpark food in baseball.
In the clubhouse, their identity is evolving.
“I’m very much in the camp that you can’t force things,” Mets starter Sean Manaea said. “I mean, you can, but you don’t really end up with good results. And if you wait for things to happen organically, then sometimes it can take too long. So, there’s like a nudging of sorts. It’s like, ‘Let’s kind of come up with something, but not force it.’ So there’s a fine balance there and you just got to wait and see what happens.”
Stearns believes it starts with what the Mets can control: bringing positive energy every day and fostering a family atmosphere. It’s hard to quantify, but vibes undoubtedly helped fuel the Mets’ 2024 success. It’ll be a tough act to follow.
“It’s fluid,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “I like where guys are at as far as the team chemistry goes and things like that and the connections and the relationships. But it’ll continue to take some time. And winning helps, clearly.”
-
Sports2 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports12 months agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports1 year agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports4 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike
-
Business3 years agoBank of England’s extraordinary response to government policy is almost unthinkable | Ed Conway