ARLINGTON, Texas – People will see what they want to see. I said on the FS1 broadcast that Bryan Abreu obviously didn’t throw to Adolis García. Maybe that was too strong.
The umpires ruled that Abreu’s pitch was intentional. Several Rangers players believe the pitch was intentional. But it’s telling that manager Bruce Bochy wouldn’t go so far as to say, “Who knows?”
Bochy was aware that a hit batsman was the last thing that justified the game situation. He was even more upset by a delay that lasted nearly 12 minutes as the referees settled the dispute in Game 5 of the American League Championship Series that led to the ejection of Abreu, García and Astros manager Dusty Baker.
The delay, Bochy said, affected the Rangers’ closer Jose Leclerc, who had just gotten the final out of the eighth inning, and ultimately dropped Jose Altuve’s go-ahead three-run shot in the ninth inning, the decisive blow into the wild of the Astros meant a 5-4 win.
Before we delve into the uproar, let’s imagine an alternate universe in which García would have simply jogged to first base after Abreu hit him in the front shoulder with a 99 mph fastball.
That universe didn’t exist, as even Astros catcher Martín Maldonado said, “I think every hitter in baseball would have felt the same way.” García hit a three-run shot in the sixth. Abreu hit him with the first pitch of his next at-bat. In the heat of the moment, García would react, especially given the past incidents between these teams.
“He could have hurt me,” García said.
But here’s the thing: If García had simply gone first, the benches and bullpens wouldn’t have been freed up. The Rangers would have had runners on first and second with no one subbed out, a chance to extend their 4-2 lead. In the end, mind you, they didn’t score a goal in this situation. But the delay came because there was unrest. And Maldonado, the first target of García’s ire, said the incident fired up his team.
“Yes,” Maldonado said. “Of course it did.”
Leclerc allowed pinch-hitter Yainer Diaz’s first hit in 11 postseason at-bats early in the ninth. It then went to pinch-hitter Jon Singleton, who was at the plate for the first time in 19 days. And then Altuve did what Altuve does and hit his – gasp – 26th home run of the season.
Afterwards, the Rangers stewed over their failure to close out a game they controlled, over the Astros taking a three-games-to-two lead in the series, and yes, over Abreu García scoring.
But what was Abreu’s motive for deliberately attacking García? Justin Verlander, who allowed Garcia’s home run, said the Astros weren’t upset when the slugger walked up the first base line, then speared his bat, saying, “I don’t think anyone’s upset about him puffing up a home run, that was.” the greatest.” Homer in his career, honestly.” Rangers first baseman Nathaniel Lowe suggested that Abreu may have been retaliating for Aroldis Chapman’s near-hitting Yordan Alvarez in the eighth, but that too seems far-fetched .
While players occasionally do stupid things, Abreu would have been completely stupid to put the Astros in a position to fall even further behind in the deciding game of the ALCS. Retaliation occasionally occurs during the regular season, although far less often than in the past. But in the postseason, when the Astros were three outs away from losing a game that would have significantly hurt their chances of defending their World Series title?
Here’s Lowe:
“Wearing this jersey and having Adolis as a teammate feels pretty intentional. There is obviously a history between these two teams. I’m sure Alvarez didn’t like the ball being high and close to him either. But in today’s game we’re throwing up fastballs. If you get emotional about something like that and want to take it out on a guy who hit a three-run home run, that’s too bad. I don’t really stand for it.”
But what about the game situation? Wasn’t it a strange time for Abreu to attack García?
“That’s a nice excuse, isn’t it?” asked Lowe. “That’s how I look at it. When half your bench is short in a hurry and the people on the injured list want to open their mouths and the starters who aren’t involved want to get involved, it seems like there’s more emotion involved than gameplay Game.”
Catcher Jonah Heim was more reserved 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, who was granted anonymity in exchange for his candor, essentially accused Maldonado of orchestrating the whole thing.
“One of the best relievers in baseball suddenly lost command?” the player asked, referring to Abreu. “Maldonado is smart. “They got exactly what they wanted,” Adolis said, annoyed. Crazy coincidence, right?”
Maldonado is definitely smart. He can also be irritating. And obviously he’s on the Rangers’ minds.
If Maldonado plays the kind of three-dimensional chess that the Rangers player suggested, some team should immediately hire him as a player-manager. And if Lowe says it’s OK for Chapman to throw a fastball high and close to Alvarez, then the same logic should apply to Abreu throwing one high and close to García, right?
This is what Abreu insisted: “My plan was to get the ball up and in. I narrowly missed him with the pitch,” he said. Maldonado, however, offered a strangely different perspective. He said the pitch should be absent and was set up accordingly. His divergent account will give further impetus to conspiracy theorists.
After the pitch, Maldonado said García asked him, “Why so?” To which Maldonado replied, “Why what?” Abreu said García overreacted. “I went in and said, ‘Hey, my mistake, it wasn’t intentional.’ He said, “Hey, cop-.” I was like, “Okay, I’m done, you’re hot.” I just tried to back away.”
Abreu only struck out three batters during the regular season. Is it possible that he was simply trying to make García uncomfortable, just as Chapman may have been trying to make Alvarez uncomfortable? Secure. And that’s what made the Astros so angry about Abreu’s firing. Baker said, “I haven’t been this angry in a long time.”
Dusty Baker said after the game: “I haven’t been this angry in a long time.” (Kevin Jairaj / USA Today)
García’s home run off Verlander, Baker said, was an error, a throw that went down and in. “We throw it up and inside,” Baker said. “And every time you throw a projectile at 97 miles per hour, some of them are going to escape. I don’t care if you’re in the big leagues, in the Hall of Fame, I don’t care who you are.”
A good hour after the game, Baker was still seething in his office and said, “You can’t prove intent.” Ryan Pressly, the Astros closer who replaced Abreu and played in both the eighth and ninth games without any problems in the first and second round, said: “In this situation, no one is trying to hit anyone.”
The referees disagreed and took the unusually bold step of ejecting both Abreu and Garcia from a postseason game. Team boss James Hoye told a pool reporter that all six referees ruled that Abreu’s throw was intentional. Garcia was sent off for being the “aggressor” and trying to get to Maldonado through plate umpire Marvin Hudson. Baker was ejected for arguing Abreu’s expulsion.
And the delay that so frustrated Bochy? Hoye said the referees took their time because they didn’t want to make a mistake. Further disciplinary action for those ejected is possible, according to Michael Hill, the league’s senior vice president of on-field operations. Any bans would likely not be served until next season. That 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 toward then-Dodgers pitcher Yu Darvish.
The incident will be discussed for years. People will see what they want to see. But the bottom line is this: The Astros are on the verge of their third straight World Series. It seems hard to believe that in a game they absolutely had to win, they were willing to fall further behind just for vigilantism.
(Top photo of Adolis Garcia being hit by a pitch in the eighth inning: Stacy Revere / Getty Images)