Astros' ALCS rally from down 3-0 falls short with Game 7 loss to Charlie Morton, Rays - Houston Chronicle

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SAN DIEGO — Comfort could arrive in the Astros’ attempt. They reached a place only one other team in major league history had appeared, climbing from a hole that buried 37 other teams chasing a championship in a seven-game series. An American League Championship Series appearance alone felt like an accomplishment after such an average regular season.

Standards sit higher in Houston. The five-man core of this club has played in more postseason games than any five teammates in major league history. They convene each spring with only one objective.

"The only seasons I consider successes,” Alex Bregman said this week, “are the ones that end with a win.”

Saturday represented a failure. In the postseason only due to an expanded field, the Astros clawed back from the brink of embarrassment, only to watch the work fritter away across nine frustrating innings. They won three straight games against the Rays with wonderful starting pitching and a couple of clutch hits. Neither arrived on Saturday and the Astros are home for winter.

They lost 4-2 to Tampa Bay in the seventh game of the American League Championship Series, sending the Rays to their second World Series in franchise history.

FanGraphs gave the Astros a 6.6 percent chance of advancing after Game 3. Tampa Bay was the 39th team in major league history to take a 3-0 lead in a best-of-seven series. Only two of those series went to seven games. The Astros are now the first team to lose after forcing a seventh contest.

Saturday’s loss lived as a microcosm of Houston’s 73-game run, one riddled with ineffectiveness, injury and turnover. The lineup disappeared, as it so often did during a 29-31 regular season. The Astros mustered seven singles against three Rays pitchers. They stranded six baserunners in the final four innings and finished the game 2-for-5 with runners in scoring position.

Tampa starter Charlie Morton manhandled his former team across 5 ⅔ scoreless innings. The righthander required just 66 pitches to procure the game’s first 17 outs. Thirteen of the Astros’ first 17 hitters against him saw three or fewer pitches. He needed just seven to finish the third and six to finish the fifth, making Tampa’s three-run lead feel far larger.

Saturday’s two starters bookended Houston’s other most memorable Game 7. Four Octobers ago, Lance McCullers Jr. started the Astros’ championship-clinching, 5-1 win at Dodger Stadium. Morton finished the game with four fabulous innings of relief, receiving the win and an iconic hug from catcher Brian McCann on the pitchers mound.

Though he kept the Dodgers scoreless that night, McCullers procured just seven outs. He hit four men and struck out three others. McCullers’ command was nonexistent, but Houston’s hodgepodge bullpen picked him up.

Saturday mirrored McCullers’ World Series appearance in almost every way. The first pitch he thew hit Manuel Margot. He yielded two home runs. A baserunner appeared in every inning McCullers began. The Rays struck out seven times, but were able to avoid chasing McCullers’ menacing curveball. He threw 36. Only five were swung upon and missed.

Brandon Lowe chased a 2-2 curve for McCullers’ first out of the game. Margot stood at first base because of McCullers’ first-pitch mishap. The series’ most magnificent player strode to the plate.

Outfielder Randy Arozarena carried his club’s otherwise anemic lineup. He’s struck seven home runs during the postseason, more than any rookie in major league history. The menacing Cuban slugger got to a 2-2 count against McCullers.

McCullers chose to put him away with a two-seam fastball. It sailed low. Arozarena annihilated it over the right-field wall. McCullers gestured in disgust at the moment Arozarena made contact. The showman slugger lost his helmet before reaching first base. His dugout emptied in delirium. Arozarena leapt in celebration with teammates. The Rays were alive.

Morton ensured the Astros could never match their life. He worked with remarkable efficiency, eviscerating the team he once led to a championship. Morton’s now won in nine straight postseason appearances. His exit came in curious fashion. Manager Kevin Cash yanked him after José Altuve’s two-out infield single in the sixth. Morton had walked nine-hole hitter Martín Maldonado to start the frame. He only threw 66 pitches.

Yet Cash stuck to Tampa’s organizational edict — aggressive bullpen usage despite circumstances. Closer Nick Anderson entered to face Michael Brantley, who represented the tying run. Anderson tossed two pitches. Brantley bounced the second to Lowe in the shift, ending the threat.

Two more materialized. Bregman and Kyle Tucker struck consecutive one-out singles against Anderson in the seventh. Yuli Gurriel grounded into a double play to erase any hope. He finished the postseason 5-for-44.

After Anderson allowed two on in the eighth, Cash came from his dugout and summoned Pete Fairbanks, a fireballing righthander with occasional control issues. Carlos Correa struck a two-run single against him, providing the only life on an otherwise listless evening.

Bregman arrived as the go-ahead run. Fairbanks fired four pitches. Three reached 100 mph. Bregman swung through the final one — a rising four-seamer high and outside — bringing another threat to a timid end.

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Astros' ALCS rally from down 3-0 falls short with Game 7 loss to Charlie Morton, Rays - Houston Chronicle
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