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Somewhere in the hall beyond Minute Maid Park, there lies a stretch of concrete that will one day be the site of a statue in honor of Astros infielder Jose Altuve. Saturday night’s 9th inning encountered the diminutive second baseman launch a tower kill into the night air of a tied elimination play in the American League Championship Series, sealing with one swaying his region in postseason lore.
But Altuve’s ascension to Game 6 October glory is an unlikely development. While this seems like a pat proclamation at first glance-perhaps pertaining, as observers often do, to Altuve’s small, 5′ 6 frame-the genuinely unlikely thing about Altuve’s story concerns a nascent failing in his native Venezuela. As Alex Putterman’s 2017 story for The Atlantic clarified, Altuve was cut by the Astros after showing as a teen in a fraternity tryout camp because the organization considered him too short. At the behest of his father, Altuve returned to tryout for the fraternity again, where he ultimately presented enough to earn a $15,000 signing bonus from Houston officials-hardly a considerable sum in an international signing landscape where seven-figure deals often grab headlines stateside. While a recap of Altuve’s many job exploits following that signing would be redundant at this degree, tonight seems a accommodating occasion to remember that tonight’s Houston hero achieved his place in record due, in part, to familial encouragement and a little bit of old-fashioned determination. Apparently, even the tiniest of expectations can develop into statues, given the right conditions.
Looking onward to the 115 th World Series, beginning play on Tuesday evening…
With champaign still raining in the Houston locker room, it’s obviously a little early to talk pitching matchups-but that didn’t stop Nationals beat novelist Jesse Dougherty of the Washington Post from dedicating it a shot( link ). As Dougherty learns it, Max Scherzer and Gerrit Cole should square off in Game 1, Stephen Strasburg and Justin Verlander could conceivably follow in the second game, and Patrick Corbin and Zack Greinke job as the matchup for Game 3. For their jobs, those six pitchers have combined for 269.3 bWAR. Cole, as has been stated ad nauseam this postseason, is slated for free agency this wintertime, and Strasburg could follow should he decline the remaining four years and $100 MM sitting on the other side of his contractual opt-out. Chandler Rome of the Houston Chronicle shares that reliever Ryan Pressly had some” scar tissue in his knee[ breaking] off” during his third-inning appearance of Game 6 of the ALCS( link ). Said scar tissue is, presumably, research results of surgery Pressly underwent in August to address soreness in his right knee joint. Pressly intimated to Rome that he will be ” ready to go” for the World Series. If the pitching lineup Astros manager AJ Hinch be useful in the ALCS is any indication, then Pressly’s services would be especially vital in Game 4, which could be a bullpen game for the’ Stros. Todd Dybas of NBC Sports Washington shares that Hinch said in his postgame presser that he is “expecting” Pressly to be ready for World Series action( link ).
Read more: mlbtraderumors.com
