After a controversy filled game four, the Astros had a perfect set-up to get themselves back into the series. The answer? Justin Verlander. Win game five with Verlander, extend to game six with Gerrit Cole and then anything can happen in a game seven. Unfortunately, Houston fell to Boston in game five, 4-1.
J.D. Martinez opened up the scoring with a solo home run in the top of the third inning for the Red Sox and then a few innings later in the top of the sixth with Mitch Moreland leading off with a double. Ian Kinsler then singled which brought up Rafael Devers who delivered a three run home run to make the score, 4-0. Verlander retired the next three hitters to get out of the inning but his night would be done. His final line: 6.0 IP, 7 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 2 BB and 4 K. Roberto Osuna entered and tossed three scoreless innings, allowing only one hit while striking out three.
The Astros finally got on the board with a Marwin Gonzalez solo home run in the bottom of the seventh but that was all the scoring Houston could manufacture. The team finished the ALCS with a team average of .219.
In a series that will be long remembered for a "fan interference" call that wasn't actually interference, the Astros seemed to not be able to find that timely hit. Alex Bregman said in the clubhouse, post-game, on the frustration of not clicking at the right time, "It's tough, everyone in this clubhouse is going to wake up tomorrow pissed off because we didn't win tonight." Bregman went on to say, " They beat us, they beat us and they played well. But do I think the better baseball TEAM won? I don't know and I wouldn't trade any of our guys for any of those guys over there."
For just being eliminated from the Postseason, the clubhouse was very optimistic for the future. Josh Reddick said, "We'll be back next year, you look around this clubhouse and a lot of these guys are coming back. We'll be right back where we are this year."
In a game of failure, you sometimes need luck to win games and for this year's squad, the luck was not on their side. Getting breaks, suspect calls going the other way and better two-out hitting went on the side of the Boston Red Sox and that was the difference in the ALCS.
The future is bright for the Houston Astros and the entire city is already counting down until Spring Training 2019.