Leading off the sixth inning of Game 1 of the ALCS between the Astros and Yankees, Yulieski Gurriel got into a two-strike count with no balls off reliever Clarke Schmidt. An 87-mile slider slipped out of sight until it hit the edge of the outside corner, and then an 85-mile knucle curve nearly went under the ground on a swing from the Cuban.
“This one is a fanatic to give hits when there is no one on base, but now the game is tied and it is out of the air, as always,” a friend told me, very sure that the Astros first baseman would fail for the third time in the game. duel. His phrase may have been shouted in unison by thousands of Cubans who, for the most dissimilar reasons, deeply want Yulieski to sink into the mud.
“Yes, it is inexplicable. He was born here and everything, he can be a star for a lot of people, but I don’t pass it”, the same person told me a couple of hours later at the height of a debate on “Yuliphobia”, triggered long before, when the Sancti Spiritus ignored the worst omens and did not leave the air in his turn in the sixth inning against the Yankees.
In the hole, with the rope around his neck and 41,487 souls squeezing in Minute Maid Park, the most mediatic of the Gurriels took out a powerful 108-mile line that in a matter of seconds slipped into the heated grandstand behind left field, at 381 feet of rubber. Yulieski caught an 86-mile slider from Schmidt, who this time couldn’t draw the pitch in the outside zone.
This was his eighth home run in the postseason, valid to surpass José Canseco in the second position of the historical list among Cubans, led by Randy Arozarena from Pinar del Río (11). In addition, he reaffirmed himself as a pointer in driven (37) and scored (29) of the Cuban army in the always fickle playoffs.
Twenty-four hours after his home run, Yulieski charged back and hit two more hits in the Astros’ second victory over the Yankees, with which he reached 79 postseason rockets and surpassed Reggie Jackson (Hall of Fame) in the history list of these instances. He now only has four hits left to catch up with Tino Martínez and sneak into the Top-15 of all time. Almost nothing!
“You can bring Gurriel to whoever you want right now and he will connect,” said the prestigious ESPN commentator, Ernesto Jerez, just after the second hit of the Sancti Spiritus on Thursday, with which he also reached 21 multi-hit games. in the postseason, just one away from equaling George Springer, Paul O’Neill and Yogi Berra and getting into the Top-15 in this section.
Very few people ventured to forecast some playoffs candy for the Astros’ first baseman, after his offensive average (.242) dropped in the regular season compared to 2021, when he won the batting title with an average of .319. However, in these October games, Yulieski has responded to the confidence of manager Dusty Baker, who has placed him as a starter in all the challenges.
Far from wrinkling, he has shown his face, and one of the clearest examples is that he has gone 22 appearances without striking out, while a crack like José Altuve has 25 trips to the plate without hits. Gurriel has stepped into the spotlight alongside Yordan Álvarez, Jeremy Peña, Alex Bregman and a stellar pitching staff that has the Astros within two wins of the World Series.
After so many setbacks in the Cuban postseason, Yulieski has written a new story in six playoffs Major League Baseball, which he has played continuously as a starter after turning 33 years old. Precisely, the Cuban has become a benchmark among players in that age range (33 years or older), which is no small thing if we take into account that the Major Leagues is a temple to longevity.
For example, Gurriel is the all-time postseason leader in hits (79) and RBIs (37), second in extra-base hits (22), and third in runs (29) and doubles (13) among all MLB players 33 and older. old.
While it is true that Yulieski is the player in this age range with the most games in the postseason, we should not use that fact against him, as many insist on doing. Staying healthy and holding on to a starting job on a team that has consistently aspired to win the World Series for the last six years isn’t the product of fortune, it’s virtue.
My advice to all baseball fans is to continue to enjoy a vintage baseball player, a mortal who has insisted on being eternal within the diamonds. This is what he is demonstrating in the current postseason, an instance in which his story is one of the most attractive among the many outstanding lines that are being written. Below, we present other very interesting notes that have been left after the first episodes of the Championship Series.
* Justin Verlander tied for the second-most strikeouts (11) in a postseason game with six or fewer innings of work. The right-hander was very close to the dozen batters retired by way of strikes in the first duel against the Yankees, something that only three pitchers have achieved in the history of the Yankees. play off: Charles Nagy (1996), Aníbal Sánchez (2013) and Patrick Corbin (2019).
Verlander allowed just three hits and one earned (Harrison Bader homer) on a personal night to remember, passing Clayton Kershaw for the most strikeouts shooter in postseason history. The Houston ace reached 219 structured in this instance, while the Dodgers left-hander was at 213.
* Since being traded to the Yankees last August, Harrison Bader has not hit a home run in 14 games with the Bombers. In 2022, adding his offensive spending between St. Louis and New York, the outfielder only managed three homers in 86 games. However, the postseason has been a transformational stage for the kid, totally unleashed when it comes to power hitting.
Bader hit his fourth home run in six games between the Division Series and the Championship Series on Wednesday, setting a new record for the Yankees. No franchise player had ever hit as many home runs in a span of six postseason games. If we go to the history of the Major Leagues, Carlos Beltrán, Juan Igor González and Ken Griffey Jr. have the record for the most home runs (five) in a period of six duels in play off.
* The Yankees showed the worst image of their offense by taking 17 strikeouts against the Astros in the first game of the American League Championship Series. Matt Carpenter (four) and Josh Donaldson (three) suffered more than anyone in this regard, as they were retired seven times via strikes. The Bombers came just one strikeout away from matching their worst strikeout record in a postseason game, dating back to Oct. 6, 2020, two years ago, when the Rays left them 18 times with the chaperone on their shoulders.
What’s worse is that the following night they were portrayed 13 times at the plate and extended their string of games with at least 10 strikeouts to four, the third longest for the team in postseason history. If they continue in this dynamic, it is very likely that the weekend will mark their farewell to 2022.
* At the start of the season, the Astros weren’t sure what their fate would be without the services of star Puerto Rican shortstop Carlos Correa, but at this point in the season they don’t miss him so much. The most responsible is the young Dominican Jeremy Peña, who has covered with authority the hole left by Correa at shortstop and in the lineup.
Peña debuted last Wednesday in the Championship Series and was a torment for the Yankees, with a pair of doubles and a home run, production that no player had achieved in the first game of his career in that instance.
*José Altuve, a three-time American League batting champion and five-time Silver Slugger, has not driven in runs or hit a hit in the first five games of the postseason. This is an unprecedented event in the career of the Venezuelan, who had never gone through a slump of more than four games without hitting hits. In fact, to find such a negative streak we have to go back to the 2018 campaign, when he went four games and 15 official at-bats without hitting.
In the current postseason, Altuve has 23 shutout at-bats, the second-most in baseball history. play off in a five-game stretch, second only to Robinson Canó’s 24 misses in five games in 2012. Despite tremendous slump of their forward man, the Astros are undefeated and two wins away from completing their pass to the World Series.
* The National League Championship Series couldn’t have gotten off to a better start for Philadelphia, who gave the Padres the first blow with a spectacular performance from Zack Wheeler’s mound. Disconnected from the infernal bustle of Petco Park in San Diego, the right-hander completed seven shutout innings, allowing only one hit and leaving eight with the rifle on his shoulder. His start was so solid that there isn’t much precedent for similar postseason outings.
In fact, Wheeler is only the seventh pitcher in the history of the play off who retires at least seven episodes without accepting runs and with one hit and eight strikeouts in his account. Who had done it before? Well, the list is very exclusive, made up of three members of the Hall of Fame and with 16 Cy Young awards added among the six: Tom Glavine (1995), Mike Mussina (1997), Roger Clemens (2000), Roy Halladay (2010) , Justin Verlander (2019) and Max Scherzer (2019).
* Thirty-nine minutes lasted the bottom of the fifth inning in the second duel between San Diego and Philadelphia, in which the Padres manufactured five runs and turned the score around to tie the League Championship Series at one victory apiece National. Eleven batters from the friars paraded through the offensive rectangle, six of them connected hits and two reached the initial by walk and pitch.
This is the second time in less than a week that the Padres have made five runs in one inning, after they applied the same formula last Saturday against the Dodgers in Game 4 of the Division Series. Both of them rally They have allowed San Diego to come back from very difficult games, which shows a survival instinct that is decisive in the postseason.
* Padres reliever Josh Hader had never thrown 100-mile pitches in six major league seasons, but this postseason he already has six 100-mile pitches. It’s no wonder then that the left-hander already has four saves in five starts, just one hit allowed against 18 and eight straight strikeouts in his last three appearances.
Chris Taylor, Trayce Thompson, Mookie Betts, Trea Turner, Freddie Freeman, Alec Bohm, Jean Segura and Matt Vierling have been the closer’s most recent victims, all retired via strikes.
*For the first time in Major League history, two brothers met as a pitcher and batter in a postseason game. Aaron Nola (Phillies) and Austin Nola (Padres) faced each other this Wednesday, when the San Diego catcher got the better of his younger brother, hitting an RBI single in the fifth inning and then scoring the run that gave him gave the tie to the friars.
“I wish I could have taken a snapshot and held the moment for like a day, because that’s how much fun it is. And I’m sure he would say the same (…) I wish I could press pause on the time button and live it for much longer than it does, because it happens very quickly, “said Austin about facing his brother before the eyes of their parents in the stands.
At the moment, this is the only family that already has a secure spot in the World Series.
