WASHINGTON — On the Astros’ charter flight to Washington, D.C., last week, after they had fallen to an 0-2 deficit in the World Series, Houston hitters held discussions at 30,000 feet about how they had tried to do too much as individuals in the first two games of the series. If any team should trust […]
No sport loves parsing out the “best player” vs. “most valuable” argument in MVP debates more than baseball. Sure, the NBA hasn’t given its MVP to a player on a nonplayoff team since Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in 1976. But the best basketball players exert so much more influence on the game than their baseball counterparts that […]
Twenty years ago today, San Diego Padres legend Tony Gwynn flared a first-inning single over the head of Montreal Expos second baseman Mike Mordecai to become the 22nd member of baseball’s 3,000-hit club. It was a classic Gwynn swing: The two-strike breaking pitch from Expos starter Dan Smith was low, but Gwynn tracked it perfectly, […]
With two outs and a man on base in the ninth inning Sunday, Alex Bregman grimaced after connecting on a Craig Kimbrel offering. He had just missed a game-tying homer, instead hitting a fly ball that fell into Andrew Benintendi’s glove on the warning track in front of the Green Monster for the final out. […]
Think of the Houston Astros these past few seasons, and you’re probably picturing Jose Altuve, the team’s pint-sized sparkplug of a second baseman, or Carlos Correa, its megatalented modern-shortstop prototype. Perhaps you’re thinking of all the home runs launched by George Springer in the World Series last fall. Or maybe you enjoy great pitching, and […]