Braves v Astros. Game 4 of the Baseball World Series.
After a come from behind win, is it written in the baseball stars for the Atlanta Braves as they lead 3–1 in the Series and on the brink of…
After a come from behind win, is it written in the baseball stars for the Atlanta Braves as they lead 3–1 in the Series and on the brink of history?
Firstly, my blogs on the World Series so far, should you read this one and wish to take a peek at the others:
Braves v Astros — World Series, Game 3
Braves set all sorts of records in a 2 hit, 2 run win in Game 3 and take a 2–1 lead into Game 4.medium.com
World Series Game 2 — Houston v Atlanta
Jose Urquidy strikes out 7, goes 5 strong and gets the win as the Astros level the World Series at 1–1.medium.com
World Series Game 1 — Astros v Braves
The Visiting Braves follow their tried and trusted method, win 6–2 and perhaps set a precedent for this years “Big…medium.com
As regular readers of my column here at “Sports Unillustrated” will attest to, I don’t care for bullpen games. I grew up with pitcher versus pitcher showdowns, the game within a game, and who could pitch 6/7 strong innings before passing the baton to his bullpen to close out the win. I’m also well aware that this is “new” baseball, an evolving sport and “necessity” baseball too. We are a maximum four games from knowing who will be this year’s World Series Champions and quixotically this excites me as (a) Houston need to win at least 3 of those maximum games of 4 to create my pre Series prediction of their 4–2 triumph and (b) Even though I detest bullpen games, the Braves have a lights out bench to choose from. But are they all fit, rested and ready to go? Phil Maton of the Astros bullpen has really impressed me in the post-season but to triumph tonight, the Astros will need strong innings from perhaps Raley, Stanek and Kendall Graveman at least if there’s a possibility of throwing to Ryan Pressly to close out the win. Writing this 5 hours before first pitch I foresee some mighty pitching/batter match ups throughout, the Braves trying to continue with a hostile crowd advantage and the Astros desperate for Greinke to go 3+ innings before delving into their bullpen. I dislike bullpen games, but this one, if it skirts the edges of the above preamble, could be a cracker.
1st Inning: It’s another cold Atlanta evening and at around 1.15am here in the UK we have first pitch. Just three batters later the Dylan Lee experiment from the Braves has failed and we are into a bullpen game as early as the 4th Astros batter in the top of the 1st. Lee struggled, giving up a base hit to Jose Altuve before walking Brantley, Alvarez and indeed, walking the bases full. Kyle Wright replaced Lee and inherited the full bases but only gave up one run in a strong inning which he finished off with an overpowering fastball past Kyle Tucker.
As a long time admirer of Zack Greinke (particularly his curveball and his eccentric mannerisms on the pitching mound) I was pleased when the Astros announced he would be tonight’s opening pitcher and he took the mound with a 1–0 lead and left it likewise after 16 strong pitches. He gave up a hit to Freddie Freeman (looking in ominous form again for the Braves) but struck out Ozzie Albies and secured two easy fly outs. A strong opening Inning from Greinke.
2nd Inning: Kyle Wright pitched himself into and back out of a jam as he gave up hits to Greinke and Maldonaldo before a brilliant diving play from 3rd baseman Austin Riley secured a 2nd out in the inning before Brantley weakly ground out to end the inning.
After his base hit with the bat, Greinke returned to the mound and a great match up with the big hitting Joc Pederson and he sat the slugger down with a clumsy and weak ground out. In form Travis d’Arnaud was fooled by both Greinke’s wonderful curveball as well as his high heater and Greinke struck him out looking with a brilliant low fastball on the corner of the plate. Adam Duvall got an easy base hit before Dansby Swanson flew out to right field and Greinke had completed 2 fairly stress free innings and his Astros remained in the lead, 1–0.
3rd Inning: Kyle Wright somewhat surprisingly returned to the mound at the top of the 3rd as he faced the prospect of seeing the heart of the Astros order. Wright sat down Bregman after a “lazy pop up” (classic baseball phrase!) before walking Yordan Alvarez and being clubbed for a single by Correa. With runners at the corners (another classic baseball phrase!), Yuli Gurriel was intentionally walked to both load the bases and for Wright to face fellow pitcher, Greinke, who swung weakly on the first pitch and grounded out, stranding all 3 base runners. Wright rode the wave and left the inning not giving up a run.
The bottom of the 3rd inning sees an immediate role reversal from the top of the inning and Greinke completely overpowers fellow pitcher Wright and strikes him out on 4 pitches for his 3rd strikeout of the night. Eddie Rosario continues with his unreal hot bat with a solid base hit off Greinke and with one out, the veteran faced the heart of the Braves order, but Freeman ground into an inning ending double play and Greinke escaped the 3rd inning with his 1–0 lead intact.
4th Inning: Kyle Wright again returned to the mound for the Braves and immediately got the out of form Maldonaldo to weakly ground out but left a hanger over the middle of the plate and Jose Altuve crushed it into next week! 2–0 Astros and the hit from Altuve was magnificent, a huge “Homer” to straight away centre and a “No Doubter”. Michael Brantley weakly ground out before, with his 54th pitch of the night, Kyle Wright struck out Alex Bregman to keep the score line to just 2–0.
Greinke returns for the Astros to again face the heart of the Braves batting order and now with a 2–0 lead to defend, and defend it he does and in almost the exact same fashion as the previous inning. After giving up a hit to Austin Riley he got a weak ground ball from the lucky pearls wearing Joc Pederson and yet another inning ending double play was successfully turned. At 4 Full, Greinke has pitched four strong innings and 55+ pitches and led his side to a 2–0 lead hence far.
5th Inning: Similarly, Kyle Wright has notched up 55 pitches so far and is still in the game for the Braves. 4 pitches later he sits down Alvarez with a beautiful “change up” before getting another weak ground ball out from the dangerous Correa. Trying to escape the inning Wright leaves a hanger over the plate for the dangerous Kyle Tucker and he clubs a single into the outfield before stealing a base and forcing an error to take 3rd base too. Tucker has hit and stolen his way to 3rd and is just 90 feet away from making it a 3 run game. 15 pitches into the inning, Wright is now at an extended 70 pitches and facing his last batter of the night, pinch hitter Gonzalez. With his 77th and final pitch of the night, Wright gets a lazy fly ball and escapes the inning unscathed.
At the half way mark, the Astros lead 2–0 but have left 9 batters on base and in truth have dominated the game hence far and should be out of sight and cruising to the win. They aren’t. 2–0 Astros.
At the top of the 5th Greinke’s race is run and a strong four innings is perhaps one more than expected (and predicted by me!) and is replaced by the long haired, hard throwing Ryan Stanek. Stanek spun 15 gems, sitting down d’Arnaud, Duvall and Swanson in order and the first clean 1,2,3 inning of the game.
6th Inning: After a brilliant outing from Kyle Wright that has so far kept his team in the game, he’s replaced by the right hander Chris Martin. Maldonaldo’s struggles at the plate continue as he weakly grounds out and Martin strikes out the red hot Jose Altuve and scorer of both of tonight’s Astros runs. With two quick outs on 7 pitches, Michael Brantley squeezes a base hit up the middle and past 2nd base before Bregman grounds out and Martin keeps a clean bullpen inning on just 9 pitches.
The bullpen game is now in full swing as the Astros replace Stanek with Brooks Raley and with one out Raley faces the fizzing Eddie Rosario who clubs a brilliant double down the 1st base line. Home town hero Freddie Freeman works a walk that ends Raley’s short night of work and the call to the Astros bullpen is made and in comes the impressive Phil Maton to the cauldron of a cold night yet red hot Atlanta atmosphere. Maton inherits two base runners from Raley and for the first time tonight the Astros lead of 2 runs looks in jeopardy. Maton blows away Ozzie Albies on 7 pitches but loses the dangerous slugger Austin Riley and his huge double scores Rosario and from nowhere, it’s a 2–1 game and the Braves are threatening to take both control and the lead. Joc Pederson is walked for the pitching match up of righty on righty, Maton on d’Arnaud, and Maton strikes out the Braves catcher to keep his team in the lead, but now a run reduced at 2–1.
7th Inning: The Braves are now at the business end of their bullpen as they turn to one of last night’s pitching heroes, the hard throwing left hander Tyler Matzek who quickly sits down both Alvarez and Correa on weak ground outs before the bare handed Tucker cracks a single base hit to extend the inning to Yuli Gurriel. Gurriel gets under a high fly ball and is an easy out and Matzek spins yet another zero run inning.
Let’s stretch!
The Astros turn to their trusted bullpen again and Cristian Javier, the hard throwing right hander comes in to face the bottom of the Braves order and immediately strikes out a struggling Duvall with a superb slider. However he leaves a fastball in the middle of the plate and Dansby Swanson didn’t miss the present and clubs a Home Run to tie the score at 2–2 before pinch hitter Jorge Soler (he of the Home Run in Game 1 of this World Series) smashes a Home Run into the bullpen area and from 2–0 down the home team Braves have taken a 3–2 lead on back to back Home Runs and, writing this as the game takes place live, I can’t stress enough how far ahead the Astros should be in this game and now, at the bottom of the 7th inning they find themselves losing 3–2 and Cristian Javier has been hit out of the game and the Astros now have no alternative but to turn to closer Ryan Pressly to try to stop the bleeding. 8 pitches later, Pressly strikes out both the big bats of Rosario and Freeman but the game has been turned upside down and the Astros, so dominant and in control at 2–0 now find themselves losing 3–2 and they have six outs to turn the score line around.
8th Inning: If the Braves can replicate last night’s lights out finish they’ll take an almost unassailable 3–1 lead and turn to another of last night’s pitching heroes, Luke Jackson, with AJ Minter and Will Smith warming up in the bullpen. Pinch hitting Diaz battles with Jackson but finally succumbs to a weak fly out and the struggling Maldonaldo (1 for 3 tonight so far) battles as well to a 3 and 2 count before striking out. The diminutive Jose Altuve, who always swings on the first pitch does so again and blisters a home run looking shot to the wall but Eddie Rosario, so hot with the bat matches this with his glove and takes a tough catch at the wall to secure the out and keep his team ahead 3–2.
The Astros unsurprisingly leave their Ace Ryan Pressly in the game and he has the heart of the home team’s order to come (Albies, Riley and Pederson), sluggers all. Albies works a walk before a 94mph heater sits down Austin Riley. Pressly hits Pederson and thus another walk and Pressly now has traffic on base, one in scoring position and the game truly in the balance. Travis d’Arnaud (0 for 3 tonight) but having a great World Series, strikes out before Duvall weakly pops up for an out and Pressly has kept his team in the game and only trailing 3–2. The Astros have their biggest bats up next in the 9th but they’ll be facing the normal lights out, Will Smith.
9th Inning: Smith strides to the mound knowing he’s facing Brantley, Bregman and Alvarez at least and there’s that amazing crescendo sound of a home team baseball crowd willing their “closer” to close out the game, the win, and an almost unassailable 3–1 lead in the World Series. In just 15 pitches, Smith turns the light out on all three batters in a stress free 1,2,3 inning and cue the fireworks and a final box score of the Braves 3 and the Astros 2 and a brilliant come from behind win is well and truly completed.
It’s 4.59am UK time or with the winter time clocks going back an hour, 3.59am and this UK baseball fan is rather tired. How the Astros have managed to lose this game is beyond reason, but that’s baseball. They stranded 11 batters on base and should have converted a huge lead, but that’s baseball too. Incredible game. Second night in a row to yield a tense, tight ball game.
And that’s baseball too. The Braves have that *whisper it* virtually unassailable 3–1 lead in the Series and the Astros have to win all 3 possible games, but on this form and this evidence we won’t be venturing too far into November for the result of this World Series and it could well end tomorrow night, on the last night of October.
And that’s baseball. That’s October baseball.
