So Bochy on one hand justifying all the hullabaloo that went on in the bottom of the 8th and in the same breath bytching about the delay it caused. Pick a lane, old man.
I say this is sweeter because the Rangers (are Cowboys fans), we can say in Texas, Houston is #1 in baseball.
Game 6, I expect Maldy to get plunked, or the other Stros. I'd be shocked if Evaoldii does it, he doesn't look like the guy who would disrupt his game, or rhythm.. Usually when Abreu finishes the pitch, or after his windup, he keeps looking at the catcher. Looking at the replay, Abreu looked away after it hit Adolis. I think Abreu was trying to get a pitch close to Adolis like what they did to Tuve earlier.
Altuve's home run was number 1 on SportsCenter Top Plays and Kissinger's leap and catch on the liner was number 4. From San Antonio.
The comments about how many Astros fans were at the game were interesting. When altuve hit that Homer it was so loud in there I thought the game was at minute maid.
Good morning! I’m still on cloud 9 and my kids are already outside recreating Altuve’s homer each taking their turn to hit it. That’s what it’s all about!
I had that exact turn of emotions. Haha I was screaming for joy, then screaming "Oh No!" thinking he caught it, and then screaming for joy again when I saw Altuve running the bases.
b****es, b****es, b****es. Still got a game to go win. Go finish these crying b****es. https://theathletic.com/4983070/2023/10/21/astros-rangers-intentions-hit-brawl/ “He could have hurt me,” García said. What, though, would have been Abreu’s motivation to throw at García intentionally? Justin Verlander, who allowed Garcia’s homer, said the Astros were not upset the slugger walked up the first-base line, then spiked his bat, saying, “I don’t think anybody is mad about him pimping a homer, it was the biggest homer in his career, quite honestly.” Rangers first baseman Nathaniel Lowe suggested Abreu might have been retaliating for Aroldis Chapman nearly hitting Yordan Alvarez in the top of the eighth, but that, too, seems a stretch. Here’s Lowe: “Wearing this jersey, having Adolis be my teammate, it feels pretty intentional. There’s a history, obviously, between these two teams. I’m sure Alvarez didn’t like the ball high and tight to him either. But in today’s game, we throw fastballs up. If you want to get emotional about something like that and take it out on a guy that hit a three-run homer, that’s too bad. I don’t really stand for it.” But what about the game situation? Wasn’t it an odd time for Abreu to hit García? “It’s a beautiful excuse, isn’t it?” Lowe asked. “That’s how I view it. When half your bench is running out in a hurry and guys on the injured list want to run their mouth and starters who aren’t involved want to get involved, it seems like there are more emotions tied in than gameplay.” Catcher Jonah Heim was more restrained than Lowe, saying, “It looked bad. That’s all I can really say. We don’t know if it’s intentional or not. But it wasn’t the best look.” Another Rangers player, granted anonymity in exchange for his candor, essentially accused Maldonado of masterminding the whole thing. “One of the best relievers in baseball just suddenly lost command?” the player asked, referring to Abreu. “Maldonado’s smart. They got exactly what they wanted, Adolis riled up. Crazy coincidence, isn’t it?” Maldonado is certainly smart. He also can be an irritant. And evidently, he is inside the Rangers’ heads. If Maldonado is playing the kind of three-dimensional chess the Rangers player suggested, some team should hire him immediately as player-manager. And if Lowe says it’s OK for Chapman to throw a fastball high and tight at Alvarez, then the same logic for Abreu throwing one high and tight to García should apply, no? That’s what Abreu insisted he was trying to do — “My plan was to try to get the ball up and in. I just missed with the pitch,” he said. Maldonado, though, offered a curiously different view. He said the pitch was supposed to be away, and set up accordingly. His differing account will offer further fuel for conspiracy theorists. After the pitch, Maldonado said García asked him, “Why like that?” To which Maldonado replied, “Why what?” Abreu said García overreacted. “I went in and said, ‘Hey, my bad, it wasn’t on purpose.’ He said, ‘Hey, bull—-.’ I was like, OK, I’m done, you’re hot. I just tried to move back.” Abreu hit only three batters during the regular season. Is it possible he simply was trying to make García uncomfortable, in the same way Chapman might have been trying to make Alvarez uncomfortable? Sure. And that is what enraged the Astros about Abreu’s ejection. Baker said, “I haven’t been that mad in a long time.” García’s homer off Verlander, Baker said, was a mistake, a pitch that was down and in. “We pitch him up and in,” Baker said. “And anytime you’re throwing a projectile 97 miles an hour, some of them are going to get away. I don’t care if you’re big league, Hall of Fame, I don’t care who you are.” Baker was still fuming in his office a good hour after the game, saying, “You cannot prove intent.” Ryan Pressly, the Astros’ closer who replaced Abreu and escaped first-and-second, none-out jams in both the eighth and ninth, said, “Nobody’s trying to hit anybody in that situation.” The umpires disagreed, taking the unusually audacious step of ejecting both Abreu and Garcia from a postseason game. Crew chief James Hoye told a pool reporter that all six umpires determined Abreu’s pitch was intentional. Garcia was ejected for being the “aggressor” and trying to go through plate umpire Marvin Hudson to get to Maldonado. Baker was ejected for arguing Abreu’s ejection. And the delay that so frustrated Bochy? Hoye said the umpires took their time because they did not want to make a mistake. Further discipline is possible for those ejected, according to Michael Hill, the league’s senior vice president of on-field operations. Any suspensions likely would not be served until next season. That’s what happened during the 2017 World Series when the league suspended then-Astros first baseman Yuli Gurriel for five games after he made a racist gesture at then-Dodgers pitcher Yu Darvish. The incident will be debated for years. People will see what they want to see. But the bottom line is this: The Astros are on the verge of going to their third straight World Series. Seems difficult to believe that in a game they badly needed to win, they were willing, for the sole purpose of vigilante justice, to fall further behind.
