Astros insider Bottom of order production can push Astros to the top
0Buried at the bottom of an unbalanced offense are four men who can alter the American League Championship Series. Above them is the one who carried the Astros through a Division Series sweep with two mammoth swings, the sort Yordan Alvarez might never be allowed to take again with a game hanging in the balance. Wednesday evening signaled what the Astros already assumed. The Yankees are hellbent on avoiding Alvarez at any cost. New York could lose the pennant, but Alvarez won’t provide any of the punishing blows to precipitate it.“They were paying attention to the playoffs before,” utilityman Aledmys Díaz said with a grin. “Everyone knows what kind of hitter he is, and it’s going to be really important (for) the rest of the lineup to step up to the situation and produce.”The strategy shifts focus to those surrounding Alvarez, a hodgepodge of hitters either underperforming or residing under the radar. Yuli Gurriel showed his age. No center fielder received enough consistent playing time to establish himself. The team did not construct a roster expecting catcher Martín Maldonado to hit, but the brutal showing by those around him magnified his malaise. General manager James Click’s attempt to add at the trade deadline is, thus far, a dud.“When I get going and Yuli’s going and Maldonado’s going, we have the best team in the world,” Chas McCormick said. Wednesday produced the planet’s best ballclub. The well-rounded offense missing for so much of this season appeared in a 4-2 win during Game 1 of the ALCS. Gurriel continued to bathe in his October fountain of youth. Maldonado mashed an opposite-field double during the second inning and answered his ace’s early struggles. McCormick scooted home from first base, perhaps ending this team’s six-month search for consistency in center field.“This is a team,” Gurriel said through an interpreter, “so we try to protect and cover all our other players, and I think that’s what it’s all about. That’s why we’ve had so much success the past couple years.”Relying on the final four hitters all series is unsustainable. At some point, the players paid to carry this lineup must perform to their pay grade. Jose Altuve is not. Nor is Kyle Tucker. The two men have teamed to go 3 for their past 34, thrusting the one flaw on this freight train into full focus. Houston extracted a .220 batting average and .643 OPS from the bottom four spots in its batting order during the regular season. Only six lineups had a lower batting average. Only four had a worse on-base percentage from their bottom four than the .280 clip Houston coaxed. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate1of172Houston Astros starting pitcher Justin Verlander, center, gets a fist-bump from Luis Garcia, left, as he walks toward the dugout before Game 1 of the American League Championship Series at Minute Maid Park on Wednesday, Oct. 19, 2022, in Houston.
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