Astros still confident in Roberto Osuna
HOUSTON – With a different player who perhaps wasn’t deemed as strong mentally, Astros All-Star José Altuve might have been tempted to rush over to give a word of comfort Tuesday evening.
Astros closer Roberto Osuna had an evening to forget Tuesday at Minute Maid Park, but the reigning American League MVP wasn’t worried about him.
Tough night
Brought in to keep the score close while down one run in the eighth, Osuna admittedly lost concentration after giving up a weak, slow roller for a hit in the eighth inning before losing his command and then eventually letting the Red Sox extend their lead on Jackie Bradley Jr.’s grand slam.
Osuna gave up five runs, enabling the Red Sox to pull away for an 8-2 win in Game 3 of the American League Championship Series.
“I’m not worried about (Osuna),” Altuve said after the Red Sox took a 2-1 lead over the defending World Series champions in the best-of-seven series. “If he were another type of player perhaps we’d have to go to talk to him immediately, but he’s a person who has a lot of confidence in himself.
“We have confidence in him, and he knows that. What happened, happened. Perhaps he felt bad because of today’s game, and that’s very normal. But I know he’s going to turn the page very rapidly.”
Strong since trade
Osuna, who was 2-2 with a 1.99 ERA and perfect in 12 save opportunities since he was acquired from the Blue Jays in late July, had not given up a run over 2 ⅓ innings this postseason.
Actually, he had given up only two runs in 19 ⅔ innings over 16 career postseason games before his career-worst playoff performance in Game 3 of the ALCS.
The Red Sox tagged the hard-throwing Mexican righthander for five runs on two hits and two hit batters over two-thirds of an inning.
“When you lose a game, there’s always somebody to blame,” Osuna said. “Today I had to be it, but I’m ready for tomorrow.”
Osuna, 23, refused to make any excuses. He put the blame squarely on himself and said he didn’t have a problem with entering in a non-save situation in the eighth.
He blamed himself for losing concentration after Xander Bogaerts hit a 3-2 cutter for an infield single.
At one point, Osuna had an 0-2 count on Bogaerts, who took an 0-2 pitch for a ball. He then fouled off the 97-mph fastball before taking the next two pitches to fill the count.
Bogaerts got just enough of the seventh pitch of the at-bat, a cutter, to reach on a slow roller to the left side of the infield.
“Today was a bit rare,” Osuna told La Vida Baseball in Spanish. “In reality after the two strikes against Bogaerts I feel that … simply I didn’t have a plan for after that. The truth is I lost concentration and this was the cost.”
One out after Bogaerts singled, Rafael Devers singled to right. Then Osuna hit Brock Holt with an 0-2 slider on the foot to load the bases. Then he hit pinch-hitter Mitch Moreland with a 1-2 fastball to plate another run, giving the Red Sox a 4-2 lead.
Bradley took care of the rest by depositing a 94-mph fastball over the right-center field wall for a grand slam.
“With Bradley, that was my plan,” he said. “With all the other ones obviously I had a lot of errors. But with (Bradley’s grand slam) that was a pitch I wanted to throw, and he hit it.”
Bradley sure did.
“It’s huge. We’re playing a really good team in Houston,” Bradley said. “Runs are at a premium. We never feel like enough runs is going to be enough. So it was very, very special for us.”
What had been a raucous sellout crowd of 43,102 quickly thinned after Bradley’s blast.
Osuna, who had not pitched since Game 2 of the Division Series against the Indians, threw 27 pitches, 17 for strikes.
It will be interesting to see if he can come back if needed in Game 4 on Wednesday night.
As Altuve expected, Osuna was eager for another opportunity against the Red Sox.
“We all have days like this,” Osuna said. “Today was that day. Ready for tomorrow.”
Featured Image: Bob Levey / Getty Images Sport