HOUSTON – If you want to discuss whether the newly expanded playoffs are making it difficult for the candidates to win, speak up. They can’t hear you on the train home in Minute Maid Park.
The Major League favorites – and the least favorite in many fans’ hearts – spent Wednesday night doing what they do every year. on Wednesday, and Astros multiply the Yankees 4–2 in the first game of the American League Championship Series. Ace Justin Verlander went six. Three Astros hit bombs, resulting in a whistling tugboat ride. Closer Ryan Presley finished the ball four-way save it. Details change. The results remain the same.
This is the sixth consecutive season that the Astros have played in the ALCS, an unprecedented race of dominance in the modern era. How do they keep doing that? Righteous Lance McCullers Jr., Houston’s first-round pick in the 2012 draft and who was present throughout this round, tried to attribute it to luck, then reconsidered.
He mentioned player development (the team starts incorporating analytics into the lower leagues, so that players are prepared for the amount of information they will have at the higher levels) and club culture (the team is always so stacked that no one feels they have to carry it into the club). Finally, he smiled. “I feel that no matter who wears the shirt, it brings out the best in him,” he said.
For a while, it was easy to attribute their success to the tear-down and rebuilding strategy espoused by former General Manager Jeff Luno. But the Astros didn’t pick before 28th place in the draft since 2017. For a while, it was easy to attribute their success to the illegal signal-stealing scheme they used en route to the 2017 title. But it’s been five years since the MLB installed security guards to monitor the use of replays. play video.
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For Astros haters, of whom there are plenty, this must be stressful. They were infuriated when they fell. They get angry when they are deceived. They are infuriated now that they have continued to win.
The latest victory included a performance by everyone from 39-year-old Verlander, who threw 66 throws through three rounds but ran six times, to 24-year-old shortstop Jeremy Peña, whose doubles doubles Homer tied the post-season rookie record. Extra base hits. The person who tied it up? His predecessor in a nutshell, Carlos Correa, who finished fifth in last season’s MVP vote, led the Astros to the third flag in his time there and signed with the Twins in the winter – then watched Houston win 11 more games without him.
Only five players remained from that first deep playoff in 2017: McCullers, Verlander, first baseman Yuli Gouriel, second Jose Altoff and third Alex Bregman, despite left quarterback Yordan Alvarez, right winger Kyle Tucker, quarterback Chas McCormick and bowlers Framber Valdez, Cristian Javier, Jose Orchidi, Luis Garcia and Brian Abreu were in the system by then. But most people who pray are engaged, and most engaged people excel.
“These guys were great,” Peña said. They show up every day. They put work into it. You gravitate toward that. You want to be a part of it. So you gravitate toward their work. They’re hungry. They’ve been here for many years, but they still act like it’s their first time. Still We’re hungry in that sense. We have a special team and I think we’re going to have a special tour.”
They’ve had the fourth most home run in baseball this year—while scoring fewer hits than all but one other team. Their rotation covered the most innings in the major leagues, with the second best ERA in the tournaments – and their goal achieved the most hits in nine rounds. If there is a weakness, no one has found it. They won 106 games in the regular season and are yet to lose this season.
“We’re just solid in every aspect,” McCullers said. “I’m not saying it’s the best attack we’ve ever had. Maybe it’s not the best squad we’ve ever had, or our best player, but everything across the board is so good that it… just works.”
Their biggest problem may be the interior décor issue. The entrance to the home club holds signs from every playoff, beginning with their 1980 trip to the NLCS. Its frequency increases with the years, until it becomes a calendar as well: ’17, ’18, ’19, ’20, ’21. There is a gap of 22, but that’s it. wall ends. They are running out of room.
More MLB coverage:
• Juan Soto shows signs that he is about to wake up in San Diego
• Inside Austin Nola’s Long Journey To Face His Brother In NLCS
• Velez looks to the past for a winning promotion strategy
• NLCS comes to Bryce Harper and Manny Machado
• The Yankees will need a new manager next season
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