Astros: Bad luck, bad defense lead to 0-2 hole in ALCS

The Houston Astros just can’t catch a break and find themselves in an 0-2 ALCS hole.

When it rains, it pours. Despite an excellent outing from Lance McCullers and a plethora of hard hit balls off the Houston bats, the Astros lost to the Rays 4-2 in ALCS Game Two on Monday. The team can’t seem to get anything to go their way as they fall into an 0-2 hole in the best-of-seven series.

The biggest play of the day was a ghastly error by Jose Altuve in the first inning on a ball that should’ve been the third out. Both he and Yuli Gurriel shared the blame for that awful play. And of course the very next batter hit a three-run homer, which is to be expected at this point. It was the first of two throwing errors committed by Altuve in this game.

McCullers settled down beautifully and ended up tossing seven innings, allowing only four hits and striking out 11. He retired 14 in a row at one point and struck out seven of eight batters in a span between the fifth and seventh innings. He became just the fifth pitcher in history to strike out 10 or more batters and not issue a walk in an LCS game, but the three unearned runs were too much to overcome.

On the offensive side, the Astros had no trouble getting men on base. They tallied 10 hits, three walks and a hit batter, but only pushed across two runs, one of which came on a solo homer by Carlos Correa. Again and again they hit the ball hard but just couldn’t get it to fall in those key situations. Take a look at Alex Bregman’s 0-for-5 day for a perfect example.

Every single ball he put in play classifies as a hard-hit ball, with the slowest being 98.4 mph. It was a team-wide issue, with the Astros having a combined expected batting average of .511 off Charlie Morton in his five innings of work, but they couldn’t score a single run. Some of it is the Rays being positioned well defensively, and some of it is just rotten luck.

Series Outlook

It’s pretty demoralizing when you’ve gotten two excellent starts from Framber Valdez and McCullers and are down 0-2. The offense can’t catch a break at all, which has overshadowed the strong pitching. Astros hurlers have only allowed three earned runs in two ALCS games and combined to strike out the Rays 26 times. By contrast, Houston hitters have struck out 13 times.

More from Climbing Tal's Hill

• Just how much better is the Houston Astros playoff rotation than the rest?
• Houston Astros: A Lineup Change to Spark Offense
• Astros prospect Hunter Brown throws 6 shutout innings in debut
• Always faithful Astros World Series champion Josh Reddick defends the title
• Michael Conforto declines Astros’ 2-year, $30 million offer

The Astros have hit .275 as a team in these two games while the Rays have hit .169, and the Rays have drawn only five walks compared to seven for Houston. Tampa Bay is 2-for-12 with runners in scoring position and the Astros are 3-for-16. Dusty Baker has used only six pitchers through two games while Kevin Cash has used eight, with two of those being used twice.

If you look at everything aside from the run column and take away Altuve’s error, it would seem like the Astros are clearly the better team. In some ways they are. Of course that doesn’t matter much when you’re down 0-2, but for those optimists among us, it’s a silver lining that suggests they’re doing a lot of things right, and that will eventually lead to wins.

The Astros did fall down 0-2 in the World Series last year before winning three straight, so this ALCS is not over. You’d think the offense will start getting some of those hard-hit balls to land in the outfield or leave the park. It will happen eventually, but will it happen in time to win this series?

Jose Urquidy and Zack Greinke will start Games Three and Four respectively, with both games beginning at 7:40 p.m. CT. The Rays will counter with Ryan Yarbrough today, and it’ll likely be Tyler Glasnow in Game Four. The ALCS is not over yet, but it’s do or die time for the Astros.