Houston’s Worst Hitter Haunts the Braves in Fitting Potential Farewell to Original Baseball-
Astros catcher Martín Maldonado helped keep their season alive on Sunday with some unexpected prowess at the plate.
The following written content by Tom Verducci
ATLANTA – You would have to go back to 1937 and Margaret Mitchell to find the last time anybody in Georgia authored a story this perfect. On a majestic home run by Freddie Freeman, in his 14th and possibly final year in the Braves organization, Atlanta took a 5–4 lead into the fifth inning as uber-reliever A.J. Minter started the front leg of a bullpen relay race that would bring the Braves to their first World Series title in 26 years.
But this was Halloween night. And there was a knock on the door. It was Martín Maldonado, who came disguised as a Little Leaguer.
The Braves did not become World Series champions with a win in Game 5 Sunday. Their date with destiny was not so much gone with the wind as it was gone with a laugh. Maldonado, he of the .095 batting average this postseason, staged an epic trick-or-treat at bat. It was better than doorbell ditch.
“It turned the game around,” Astros hitting coach Troy Snitker says.
There was so much to admire about Game 5 on a grand scale. If this turns out to be the end of original baseball—the last game played in which all players must play offense and defense if the powers that be are bent on homogenizing baseball with the universal DH—this was a fitting breakup. The 9–5 win by Houston left a last reminder that baseball might never again be played with this intricacy. Astros manager Dusty Baker won the game by using nine players in the No. 9 spot in his lineup, including a pitcher getting a pinch hit and a bench player who had not driven in a run in 40 days getting the go-ahead pinch hit.
Goodbye, chess. Hello, checkers.
It was not the end of the Astros’ core four. On a night in which Yuli Gurriel, Jose Altuve, Carlos Correa and Alex Bregman surpassed Derek Jeter, Bernie Williams, Tino Martinez and Paul O’Neill as the longest-touring band of four in postseason history (78 games), the Houston infielders made sure there is at least one more game before Correa departs via free agency. The four combined for eight hits, six runs and four RBI in an unmistakable show of veteran strength when staring into the abyss of elimination.
But nothing on this night was more remarkable than what Maldonado did. The World Series turned on ingenuity.
“That’s one of the things about this team,” Bregman says. “Nobody is scared. Nobody is afraid to fail. They try whatever they think will work.” Read more from S,I,
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