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.”
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Jeff Passan
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Jeff Passan
Senior MLB Insider
- ESPN MLB insider
Author of “The Arm: Inside the Billion-Dollar Mystery of the Most Valuable Commodity in Sports” -
Jesse Rogers
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Jesse Rogers
ESPN Staff Writer
- Jesse joined ESPN Chicago in September 2009 and covers MLB for ESPN.com.
Right-hander Justin Verlander and the San Francisco Giants are in agreement on a one-year, $15 million contract, sources told ESPN on Tuesday, continuing the future Hall of Famer’s career at age 42 in one of the pitcher-friendliest stadiums in baseball.
Verlander, entering his 20th major league season, is considered perhaps the best pitcher of his generation, with the most innings pitched, strikeouts and wins among active players. A three-time Cy Young Award winner, Verlander is coming off the worst season of his career and joins a Giants team likewise looking for better results than 2024. The deal is pending a physical.
Shoulder and neck injuries limited Verlander to 17 starts, and over his last seven he posted an 8.10 ERA. With a falling strikeout rate and climbing home run rate, Verlander began to show signs of aging after a career in which he seemed impervious to it.
After a dominant 13-year stretch with the Detroit Tigers, Verlander found a second life after joining the Houston Astros in 2017. He won Cy Youngs in 2019 and 2022 — and after the latter signed a two-year, $86.6 million contract with the New York Mets. Verlander spent 16 starts with the Mets before being traded back to the Astros in August 2023.
Over his career, Verlander is 262-147 with a 3.30 ERA over 3,415⅔ innings. He has struck out 3,416 batters, walked 952 and won a pair of World Series with the Astros.
Returning to Houston wasn’t an option for 2025. With Oracle Park a dream for pitchers, Verlander gravitated toward the Giants, whose rotation includes right-hander Logan Webb, left-handers Robbie Ray and Kyle Harrison, and a number of other options for the fifth spot, with right-hander Hayden Birdsong seen as the likeliest candidate.
The Giants had spent a month with limited action before signing Verlander. A month ago to the day, they agreed with shortstop Willy Adames on a seven-year, $182 million contract.
San Francisco, which hired former star catcher Buster Posey as its president of baseball operations in September, went 80-82 last season and finished in fourth place in the National League West, which is arguably the best division in baseball.
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Pete Thamel, Senior College Sports Insider
After showing signs of life on offense in 2024, Iowa is making moves to carry that momentum into 2025.
Former South Dakota State star quarterback Mark Gronowski has committed to Iowa, he told ESPN on Tuesday.
Gronowski, who made an official visit to Iowa on Jan. 3, also strongly considered the NFL, as he had already been issued an invite to the NFL scouting combine, sources told ESPN.
He is the top remaining quarterback in ESPN’s transfer portal rankings, the No. 4 overall quarterback and No. 19 overall player. He’s the most experienced and accomplished quarterback available in this cycle.
“It’s a great coaching staff,” Gronowski told ESPN of the Hawkeyes. “With Coach [Tim] Lester being there and being in the NFL last year and bringing an NFL offense to Iowa, it’s a great opportunity to develop as a player, learn an NFL offense and win a lot of games.”
He comes from a dominant career at South Dakota State, where he tied the FCS all-time mark with 49 wins as a starting quarterback and won two national titles.
Gronowski brings dual-threat capability to the Hawkeyes, as he’s thrown for 10,330 yards and 93 touchdowns and ran for 1,767 yards and 37 touchdowns.
“The culture at Iowa reminds me a lot of the classic Midwest culture I grew up in,” Gronowski said. “It’s a family atmosphere, and all the coaches are welcoming. It’s a similar situation to where I’ve been. It’s a big part of why I ended up going there.”
Iowa finished 129th out of 130 teams in scoring offense in 2023, averaging 15.4 points per game. The Hawkeyes improved this season under Lester, averaging 27.7 points per game to rise to No. 72 in the rankings.
Lester worked for the Green Bay Packers prior to coming to Iowa and brought with him the NFL offense run by Matt LaFleur that’s derived from Kyle Shanahan’s tree.
That appealed to Gronowski.
“It’s the Shanahan system that they are running there,” Gronowski said. “That’s what a lot of NFL teams are running. My goal throughout the process of transferring was getting in a situation to become the best player and be the best potential prospect for the NFL.”
There’s still plenty of work to go in Iowa’s passing game after they averaged 131.6 yards per game through the air this season — fifth worst in college football.
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Paolo Uggetti, ESPN
After a historic season, Boise State running back and Heisman Trophy runner-up Ashton Jeanty is declaring for the 2025 NFL draft, he announced Tuesday.
“The opportunity to play in the NFL is a dream of mine,” Jeanty wrote in social media post. “I’m proud to represent Boise State and all of those who have helped me along the way at the next level.”
In 14 games this season, Jeanty totaled 2,601 rushing yards and 29 touchdowns, averaging seven yards per carry on 374 carries. Jeanty’s rushing total is the second highest for a running back in FBS history, behind only Barry Sanders’ 1988 campaign (2,628 yards).
Bronco 4L🐴💙 #deuce pic.twitter.com/gtrKJUcDOd
— Deuce 2️⃣ (@AshtonJeanty2) January 7, 2025
The junior is projected as the top running back in the upcoming draft, according to ESPN draft analyst Jordan Reid.
Jeanty, 21, has had a unique path to the pros. The Jacksonville, Florida, native moved to a naval base in Naples, Italy, at age 12 and played football there for one season as a high school freshman. He returned stateside and played high school football in Texas for three years before committing to the Broncos.
Jeanty saw limited snaps during his freshman campaign in Boise but made a leap in his sophomore season (1,347 yards and 14 touchdowns) that set up his iconic junior year.
It was clear once the 2024 season began that Jeanty was going to be the fulcrum of the Broncos’ offense. In the season opener, Jeanty had 267 yards and six touchdowns. He didn’t look back, barreling his way through nearly every defender and defense he saw on his way to jaw-dropping runs and a College Football Playoff appearance.
After carrying the ball a whopping 750 times over three seasons, Jeanty finished his college career with 4,769 rushing yards and 50 touchdowns.
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