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They have been scorned, berated and reviled, but no matter what you called the Houston Astros in the past, they aren’t listening.
The Astros, just one victory away from the World Series championship after beating the Philadelphia Phillies, 3-2, in a thriller Thursday night at Citizens Bank Park, are on the verge of cementing their place in baseball history.
They’re leading the Phillies 3 games to 2, and you can’t help but wonder if the baseball gods are now shining upon them, forgiving all of those transgressions from 2017.
Trey Mancini, who hasn’t played the field since Oct. 5, comes into the game as a replacement for injured first baseman Yuli Gurriel, and makes perhaps the greatest defensive play of his career, spearing a bullet off the bat line-drive of Kyle Schwarber in the eighth inning, saving the game-tying run.
“I had nothing going through my head,’’ Mancini said, “I just tackled it basically. I was just glad I could help. This is the worst I’ve ever hit, but to make a play like that, makes me forget all of those struggles.’’
Center fielder Chas McCormick, who’s from West Chester, Pa., just 30 minutes west of the stadium, and grew up a diehard Phillies’ fan, stunned his family and friends by leaping against the center-field wall and robbed J.T. Realmuto of a ninth-inning hit.
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«My God,» McCormick said laughing, «I don’t even want to look at my family.’’
Astros closer Ryan Pressly, who only once this season has recorded a five-out save, comes into the game with a one-run lead, two runners on, and no rest having closed out Game 4. He winds up saving the game.
Jeremy Peña, who is starting for the Astros this season only because Carlos Correa bolted as a free agent, becomes the first rookie shortstop to homer in a World Series game, makes two dazzling defensive plays, and throws out Nick Castellanos for the final out.
“What he’s done this year was similar to when I saw a young Andruw Jones as a young player with the Braves against the Yankees [in the 1996 World Series],’’ Astros manager Dusty Baker said.
