Astros halt Phils as ‘awesome’ Altuve hits stride
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.”
LAS VEGAS — Left-handers Chris Sale of the Atlanta Braves and Garrett Crochet of the Chicago White Sox won Major League Baseball’s Comeback Player of the Year awards on Thursday.
Cleveland right-hander Emmanuel Clase won his second AL Reliever of the Year award and St. Louis righty Ryan Helsley won the NL honor.
Los Angeles Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani joined David Ortiz as the only players to win four straight Outstanding Designated Hitter awards. Ohtani and the New York Yankees‘ Aaron Judge won Hank Aaron Awards as the outstanding offensive performers in their leagues.
Major League Baseball made the announcements at its All-MLB Awards Show.
Sale, 35, was 18-3 with a 2.38 ERA and 225 strikeouts in 177⅔ innings for the NL’s first pitching triple crown since the Dodgers’ Clayton Kershaw in 2011. He earned his eighth All-Star selection and first since 2018.
Sale helped Boston to the 2018 World Series title but made just 56 starts from 2020-23, going 17-18 with a 4.86 ERA, 400 strikeouts and 79 walks over 298⅓ innings. He was acquired by Boston from the White Sox in December 2016 and made nine trips to the injured list with the Red Sox, mostly with shoulder and elbow ailments. He had Tommy John surgery on March 30, 2020, and returned to a big league mound on Aug. 14, 2021.
Sale fractured a rib while pitching in batting practice in February 2022 during the management lockout. On July 17, in his second start back, he broke his left pinkie finger when he was hit by a line drive off the bat of the Yankees’ Aaron Hicks. Sale broke his right wrist while riding a bicycle en route to lunch on Aug. 6, ending his season.
Crochet, 25, was 6-12 with a 3.58 ERA over 32 starts for a White Sox team that set a post-1900 record of 121 losses, becoming a first-time All-Star. He struck out 209 and walked 33 in 146 innings.
He had Tommy John surgery on April 5, 2022, and returned to the major leagues on May 18, 2023. Crochet had a 3.55 ERA in 13 relief appearances in 2023, and then joined the rotation this year.
Sale and Crochet were chosen in voting by MLB.com beat writers.
Clase and Helsley were unanimous picks by a panel that included Hall of Famers Trevor Hoffman, Mariano Rivera, Dennis Eckersley and Rollie Fingers, along with John Franco and Billy Wagner. The AL award is named after Rivera and the NL honor after Hoffman.
A three-time All-Star, Clase was 4-2 with a 0.61 ERA, 66 strikeouts and 10 walks in 74⅓ innings, holding batters to a .154 average. The 26-year-old converted 47 of 50 save chances, including his last 47.
Voting was based on the regular season. Clase was 0-2 with a 9.00 ERA in the playoffs, allowing three home runs, one more than his regular-season total.
Helsley, a two-time All-Star, was 7-4 with a 2.04 ERA and 49 saves in 53 chances. He struck out 79 and walked 23 in 66⅓ innings.
Ohtani became the first player with 50 or more homers and 50 or more stolen bases in a season. A two-way star limited to hitting following elbow surgery, Ohtani batted .310 and led the NL with 54 homers and 130 RBIs while stealing 59 bases.
Ortiz won the DH award five years in a row from 2003-07.
The DH award, named after Edgar Martinez, is picked in voting by team beat writers, broadcasters and public relations departments. MLB.com writers determined the finalists for the Aaron awards, and a fan vote was combined with picks from a panel of Hall of Famers and former winners to determine the selections.
Judge led the major leagues with 58 homers and 144 RBIs while hitting .322.
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Adam Rittenberg, ESPN Senior Writer
Boston College quarterback Thomas Castellanos, who lost his starting job earlier this week, will not be returning to the team, he announced Thursday night.
Castellanos, who started 12 games last season and retained the top job under new coach Bill O’Brien, wrote on X that “unfortunately, all good things come to an end, even though it’s sooner than I would like.” He did not mention the transfer portal in his departing message and has not officially entered it. The junior from Waycross, Georgia, started his career at UCF and appeared in five games in 2022.
O’Brien said Tuesday that Grayson James, who replaced Castellanos in last week’s win against Syracuse, will start Saturday when Boston College visits No. 14 SMU. Castellanos “wasn’t real thrilled” with the decision, O’Brien said, adding that the quarterback decided to step away from the team for several days.
Castellanos had 2,248 passing yards and 1,113 rushing yards last season under coach Jeff Hafley, passing for 15 touchdowns and adding 13 on the ground. He had 18 touchdown passes and only five interceptions this season, but his accuracy dipped in recent weeks, and he completed only 2 of 7 passes against Syracuse before being replaced.
In his statement, Castellanos thanked both coaching staffs he played for at Boston College and wrote that he had “some of the best experiences of my life in the Eagles Nest and I will truly cherish these memories forever.”
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Florida quarterback DJ Lagway is “ready to play,” coach Billy Napier said Thursday on his weekly radio show.
Napier removed Lagway from the team’s injury report and penciled him in to start against No. 21 LSU in the Swamp on Saturday.
Lagway practiced every day this week while progressing from a strained left hamstring. The highly touted freshman was carted off the field against Georgia on Nov. 2. Tests revealed a “less significant” injury than initially feared, and now he’s back in time to face the Tigers.
The Gators (4-5, 2-4 Southeastern Conference) need him. They have to win two of their final three regular-season games to become bowl eligible.
LSU (6-3, 3-2) has struggled mightily against dual-threat QBs, including Alabama’s Jalen Milroe, who ran for 185 yards and four touchdowns last week.
Lagway returns after walk-on and Yale transfer Aidan Warner started in his place against Texas. Warner threw two interceptions and was 12-of-25 passing for 132 yards in a 49-17 loss.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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