ANAHEIM, Calif. — After scratching another injured player, shielding his starter from the third look at a teeing-off lineup, orchestrating a successful steal of home plate, putting in the one setup man that is still healthy and sending up a supposed answer to the Houston Astros’ impotent offense, explanations eluded manager Joe Espada.
He managed a must-win game with the urgency it deserved, exhausting every option on his defective and disabled roster, even the trade deadline acquisition he tried his damndest not to play. When it ended in devastation, Espada did not deviate from the soundbites that have become a soundtrack of this spiraling season.
“I feel like we get in the corner and we punch our way out of the corner and we get thrown back in that corner, we have to continue to punch back and fight back,” Espada said after the most excruciating loss in a stretch full of them, a 4-3 setback to the Los Angeles Angels that put his club on the brink of elimination.
“Tomorrow is another day. We have to continue to grind and fight if we really want this. I know these guys want it. We just have to keep fighting.”
Cliches and contagious positivity permeate any clubhouse, whether it is celebrating a championship or authoring a collapse. Few other ways exist to navigate an interminable season, much to the chagrin of fans seeking call outs, criticism or cursing. Baseball rewards those who maintain focus, even if, in the moment, it sounds misplaced. The next game is always the most important one.
“It sucks. But, there’s still a chance,” first baseman Christian Walker said. “That’s all we need. We’re motivated as long as there’s still an opportunity. Yeah, we made it a little bit harder, but it is what it is. Can’t spend too much time dwelling on it. It’s time to focus on winning tomorrow.”
Added Jose Altuve: “We have no other option but to come tomorrow and win, then win the next day and hope for some results. But that’s what we’re going to do, go out there to win. We’re going to make it happen.”
Altuve is a figurehead inside a reeling clubhouse. Showing anything but optimism would begin a death knell for a team probably hearing it anyway. Blowing a three-run lead with the chance to gain ground on both the Cleveland Guardians and Detroit Tigers should’ve sounded it.
Now, one more win by either the Guardians or Tigers will eliminate the Astros from playoff contention for the first time in nine years. One more Houston loss will do the same. On Saturday, both Cleveland and Detroit will begin their games at least two hours before the Astros take the field at Angel Stadium. Elimination before they do is a distinct possibility.
“We’ve all been in situations in life like that where you get your hopes up and everything comes crashing down,” third baseman Carlos Correa said. “It’s not a great feeling.”
“It was a must-win game for us. That’s how we were approaching it and we just didn’t get the job done,” he continued. “It’s not over yet. It looks very uphill. But we still have to go tomorrow and keep the same mentality — go out there and win and keep an eye out for the other games.”
Much of what has been manufactured this miserable month remained on Friday. A bullpen staggered by the loss of six-time All-Star closer Josh Hader could not protect a one-run lead with seven outs to go.
Chris Taylor dunked a game-tying single inside the right-field foul line in the eighth before Mike Trout launched a go-ahead home run in the ninth against left-hander Bryan King.
Before Taylor’s single, King had not allowed any of the 22 baserunners he inherited this season to score. He had held right-handed hitters to a 197/.233/.311 slash line in his previous 193 plate appearances. Just nine of the hits he allowed went for extra bases. Trout’s was the 10th.
“He’s been lights out,” Espada said. “If there’s a guy I want in the game in that spot, it’s Bryan King. He’s been our guy all year.”
According to the boxscore, King bore responsibility, but that he even threw in a one-run game is the fault of so many others. Houston went 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position, failing to find any separation against an Angels pitching staff that boasts a 5.24 ERA since the All-Star break. Of those eight hitless at-bats, five were strikeouts.
Neither Yordan Alvarez nor Jeremy Peña played in the game while nursing substantial injuries. Jake Meyers planned to, but the right calf he had strained earlier this season flared up, forcing the team to scratch him before first pitch. As a result, the final four hitters in Houston’s order struck out nine times in 15 at-bats.
Since the All-Star break, only two teams have a lower batting average with runners in scoring position than the Astros. The three with lower on-base percentages are the Colorado Rockies, Pittsburgh Pirates and Minnesota Twins: two teams constructed to lose and another that tore down during the trade deadline.
Residing in that company created this entire circumstance for the Astros. Correcting it may be impossible given the calendar, so manufacturing is mandatory. In the fourth inning of Friday’s game, with runners at the corners, Espada responded by asking Ramón Urías to steal second base with two outs.
Upon instruction from third-base coach Tony Perezchica, rookie Zach Cole sprinted home when Angels catcher Logan O’Hoppe inexplicably tried to throw Urías out. Cole slid in ahead of the relay throw and scored Houston’s third run. For the next five innings, no other Astro touched third base.
Houston has now scored three or fewer runs in 26 of the 51 games since acquiring Correa, Urías and Jesús Sánchez at the trade deadline. Sánchez has responded with a .586 OPS.
That Cole started over Sánchez against a right-handed pitcher on Friday signaled where he stands in the organizational hierarchy. That Taylor Trammell replaced Cole on defense during the eighth inning only furthered it.
Still, Sánchez is a healthy member of the active roster, so Espada sent him up to start the ninth inning. Sánchez is here for this exact situation: facing a right-handed pitcher in a pivotal spot. Angels closer Kenley Jansen needed six pitches to strike him out. Two more punchouts followed, putting Houston’s postseason hopes in more peril than at any point in the past eight seasons.
“Overall, I think the clubhouse feels we’re taking it the right way,” Walker said. “It’s not ideal. It is what it is. The only thing you can do is make an adjustment and keep moving.”
(Photo: Ronald Martinez / Getty Images)