The Dusty Baker-led Astros won’t relinquish their title easily
If baseball fans penciled in the Houston Astros for another American League Championship Division Series appearance and maybe a second straight trip to the World Series at the start of this postseason, the Minnesota Twins weren’t going to be willing participants in the script.
After losing Game 1 in Houston on Saturday 6-4, the Twins blitzed the Astros and their stellar manager Dusty Baker early enroute to a resounding 6-2 win in Game 2 on Sunday to tie up the best-of-five American League Division Series at 1-1.
Former Astros shortstop Carlos Correa, who drove in three of those five runs to help Minnesota jump out to a 5-0 lead, continued to shine in the postseason, delivering three hits, plenty of emotion, and the leadership he was brought there to assert in the postseason.
The series against the Astros is special for Correa, who played for the Astros from 2015-2021, winning the 2017 World Series with them. Correa signed a three-year, $105 million deal with the Twins in March of 2022.
In Game 3 on Tuesday, his previous team showed why they are the defending World Series champions, bashing the Twins 9-1 as the series moved from Houston to Minneapolis. Game 4 was also in Minneapolis last night with Game 5 if necessary tomorrow back in Houston.
Astros first baseman Jose Abreu hit a three-run homer in the first inning of Game 3, which is all Houston would need with their pitching staff, led by starter Cristian Javier, going five innings and allowing just one hit with nine strikeouts.
“It’s a very confident club, not a cocky club. We don’t showboat too much. We just play,” Baker said of his team’s business-like approach. “The guys have a knack of picking each other up. From day to day, there could be a number of heroes.”
Baker is continuing his quest of joining Cito Gaston (Toronto Blue Jays, 1992. 1993) as the only Black managers to win back-to-back World Series rings.
The post The Dusty Baker-led Astros won’t relinquish their title easily appeared first on New York Amsterdam News.