"They're not giving us a lot of pitches to hit. "They have good pitchers, and they've been executing every pitch," Altuve said after a game in which he knocked two hits (of four total in the Series) and moved into second place all time in postseason homers. And they are missing on more of those swings (27% to 21%). They are swinging at more pitches (47% versus 45%) even though the Braves have thrown fewer pitches in the strike zone (48%, down from 49%). They are swinging earlier in the count (3.76 pitches per plate appearance, down from 3.90). To cut to the chase - an operative word - the answer is yes.ĭuring the World Series, the Astros have chased more pitches out of the strike zone than they did during their seven-month reign as MLB's top offense (31%, up from 26%). The first thing we want to look at is whether Braves pitchers are getting the Astros to do things they don't normally do at the plate, at least collectively. So which is it? Are we talking about Houston's failings or Atlanta's triumphs?
And then when you don't hit, they say, 'What's wrong?' They've been pitching good against us. "They say good pitching beats good hitting.
"I've said it many times," Astros manager Dusty Baker said about the thing he was about to say yet again. The other one is this: The Atlanta Braves have pitched their asses off.
Houston, simply put, isn't hitting.Īt least that is one way to look at where the World Series stands, after two games on cool, damp nights in Georgia, when the Astros have accumulated two runs in two nights, leaving runners stranded everywhere from the Waffle House to the Battery. 206/.291/.298, and they exited Game 4 with an active streak of 17 straight hitless at-bats with runners in scoring position. The Astros' cumulative slash line sits at a resoundingly poor. And those two-strike hits have mostly dried up (.092 two-strike average, down from. Carlos Correa is 2-for-14 with two singles. Yordan Alvarez has taken walks but is 1-for-11. Jose Altuve has two homers, but he's 4-for-18. Alex Bregman looks lost at the plate, with a lone single to show for his 14 at-bats in the Series. The struggles are up and down Houston's deep lineup. Since then, over four games that have left the Astros on the brink of elimination, the Houston offense has transmogrified from prolific to horrific. That was the state of things at the outset of the World Series, when Houston's prolific lineup got ready to square off against the Atlanta Braves. In an era when so much of the battle is decided by the team that wins the strike zone, the Astros' batsmen generally won the strike zone. They walked the fine line between discipline and aggression: They were the best two-strike hitting team in the big leagues. It was the highest-scoring, best-balanced, most unsolvable attack in the majors. or elseĪTLANTA - For nearly seven months, through the regular season and the early rounds of the playoffs, the Houston Astros featured the best offense in baseball. World Series 2021: The Houston Astros had better start hitting.
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