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HOUSTON – Instead of grilling again, the Houston Astros are toasting.
After a 4-1 defeat by the Boston Red Sox in the fifth game of the American League series, the Astros' attempt to reign as World Series champions is officially over.
"To be honest with you, this year's team is better than last year, I think," said third-baseman Alex Bregman, who reached the base 10 times in the first three games of the series, but scored the score from 0 to 9 for the Games. 4 and 5. "The ball has to bounce back in the playoffs, it's hard, and we'll learn from it, everyone here will have a little bit more to play with next year, a bit of a chip." on their shoulder, knowing that we believe we should have been two champions in a row. "
Houston was trying to become the first team since the New York Yankees in 2000 to win back-to-back rings. This quest began in mid-February, when the Astros launched their title defense in a whirlwind of controversy.
The day before the first spring training in Houston, Chris Russo, host of the MLB network, proclaimed that the Yankees, who had acquired the most valuable player of the National League title, Giancarlo Stanton, were the team to beat in the American League. Later in the day, Justin Verlander, an Astros player, made an exception on Twitter, where he posted the following message: "I can think of a reason why." When Houston showed up the next day to play in the Grapefruit League, Verlander gave more details about his answer.
"The American League is going through us," said the Houston pitcher at the club's West Palm Beach complex. "Obviously, the old adage, to be the best, you have to beat the best, and I think we proved we were last year."
Although the Astros' 103 wins in the regular season are three more than the total in New York, they finished with the second-best performance of the majors behind the Red Sox, who won 108 games. Anchored by Verlander and resumption of trade in low season Gerrit Cole, the Houston pitcher team, had an ERA of 3.11, the best performance. The offensive, which had to withstand the injuries of defending player Jose Altuve and star Carlos Correa, was sixth overall.
Despite being pushed by two surprising rivals from AL West in the Oakland A & Seattle Mariners, the Astros spent almost three weeks in first place to get to their eighth. division of franchise history. They then swept the Cleveland Indians in the American League Division series, beating them by a combined score of 21-6. This allowed the Red Sox to qualify for the playoffs, which had been eliminated by the Astros in the AL Division series last year and had defeated the Yankees (3-1) in the divisional series.
As fate would have it, it was Verlander who started Thursday in the competition that sealed the fate of Houston as the second best team in the American League this season. By entering the fifth game, the right-handed veteran had a perfect record in playoff games. In five career starts, he was 4-1 with an average of 1.21. He had participated in 24 consecutive innings since the last time that he had allowed a playoff score, tied with Madison Bumgarner for the longest streak of this type in the history of the MLB.
After adding two more scoreless frames to start Thursday's fight against the Red Sox, Verlander finally gave way to the third set. Facing Boston slugger, J.D. Martinez, the Astros pitcher sent a 0-2 slider that appeared to be a shot but which was called a ball by referee Chris Guccione. At the next bidding, a 130-mph curl, Verlander gave Martinez a home run, which sent the field over the left-field wall and under the sign of Conoco Phillips to give an early lead. 1-0 in Boston.
The score stayed that way until the top of the sixth, when Verlander gave Mitch Moreland a double to start the inning. Ian Kinsler followed with only one, then 21-year-old Rafael Devers hit an opposing three-point circuit that barely cleared the wall in the left field and landed in Crawford's boxes. Although Marwin Gonzalez responded with a long ball late in the seventh inning, which allowed a 4-1 game, but Houston never came close.
"It's tough, it's always tough," said Verlander, who has played in the playoffs seven times in 14 years and has a World Series ring. "We had a good season, we did not finish as we wanted, we lost to a great team, I said last year: the playoffs, that 's it. is a coin sometimes – it's the one who plays the best baseball at the time.We were dealing with a ton of injuries, as you can see, but the guys fought and j & rsquo; I have the impression that we gave them a good fight.This was just not enough in the end.They played well in baseball. "
After winning the first game of the series at Fenway Park, the Astros lost four times in a row against the Red Sox. According to ESPN Stats & Info, this is the first team to drop three consecutive home games in a league championship series since losing the Angels three times in a row against the White Sox in 2005.
"It's zero," said Houston manager A.J. Hinch. "It's a press conference you never really get ready for, I do not know the right words, the right tone, the right content, I mean, it's an extremely disappointed clubhouse because we want to continue to We have the feeling bar exactly where it should be, the World Series is the only thing that would give this team the feeling of having accomplished a lot. "
"It's always disappointing to lose," added the player George Springer. "It's a hard pill to swallow, but sometimes you have to recognize the merit of other players and understand that they have had great success in the big situation, have made the big field, have made a big game. the game. You put it behind let it soak for a few days, and you are already at next year. "
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