HOUSTON — You know what I see when I look at the Astros?
Not cheaters.
If Yankees fans find that offensive, you might want to cover your eyes for the next sentence.
Because what I see is the closest thing to the dynasty Yankees since that dominant group.
These Astros are the first team since those Yankees to not fall prey to what is so often referred to now as the postseason crapshoot.
They are in their seventh straight ALCS, beginning with Sunday night’s Game 1 against the Rangers. If you don’t like that because it begins with their sign-stealing baseball unholy year of 2017, fine, it is six in a row since 2018.
If you don’t like that because it includes 2019, when perhaps you believe Jose Altuve was wearing a buzzer to alert him to what pitches were coming, fine, it is three straight since 2020, including a championship last season. So they have a chance to be the first repeat champs since the 1998-2000 Yankees threepeat.
They are doing that within a new playoff format the last two years replete with whining about top seeds losing their edge while not playing during the wild-card round. Except Houston was the AL top seed last year and won it all. The Astros were the second seed this year and are the only team with a bye to survive to the LCS in either league.
So they have defied crapshoots and playoff layoff theories. So I personally will give them another bye — to the idea that somehow this staying power is about cheating.
There is no whitewashing of 2017. That is part of the official record. But from that group only Jose Altuve, Alex Bregman, Justin Verlander (who left and returned) and Lance McCullers Jr. (who did not play this year) remain. Altuve/Bregman are a metaphor for the team — they have demonstrated they are champions without the aid of trash cans or buzzers.
In fact, this might be another time to cover your eyes, Yankees fans. Because that duo is the heir to Derek Jeter. Their talent and makeup are reasons that the Astros keep winning this time of year, proving resistant to the crapshoot as the Jeter Yankees once did.
They are beyond the full grasp of current analytics. Because, like with Jeter, they are pressure proof with both a flair and a feel for the game not captured in modern measurement. Which made Altuve’s eighth-inning faux pas Sunday night in the ALCS opener so stunning. He was on first via a leadoff walk and Bregman smashed a ball to the wall in left, but Evan Carter made a leaping catch. Altuve did not touch second base before retreating to first, leading to a double play in a 2-0 Ranger victory.
Still a bad moment does not define Altuve vs. the body of evidence. He has proven to be a Jeter-esque performer. He has the ability to offer what is needed. His time capsule should be his first-inning leadoff at-bats to open the Division Series vs. Minnesota – Game 1: First-pitch homer. Game 2: Second-pitch bunt single. If you need this data point, since the walk-off homer against Aroldis Chapman to clinch the 2019 AL pennant (buzzer-gate), Altuve has 11 more homers in 47 postseason games from 2020-through Sunday. His 136 regular-season OPS-plus since 2020 is better than his career mark (129).
As for Bregman, he is the rarely discussed clutch fielder. Bregman, who wears No. 2 as homage to his favorite player (Jeter), cannot only offer hot-corner genius on, say, June 5 in Kansas City, but can Brooks Robinson it at the biggest moments. Brian Cashman has bemoaned that if the Astros did not cheat in the 2017 ALCS, the Yankees would have won the World Series. But — as opposed to Houston — the Yankees have not done anything since to show they rise to the occasion this time of year.
But here is something simpler: Trash-can banging or not, I believe if you simply flip-flop third basemen — Bregman with Todd Frazier — the Yankees win the 2017 pennant because Bregman made two confidence-high, pressure-ignoring genius plays that helped change games. His glove shows up every October.
Ryan Pressly, who joined the Astros during the 2018 season, was 13-for-13 in postseason saves heading into Sunday night’s Game 1 — the second longest without blowing one to Mariano Rivera’s 23. He is part of the changing cast since 2017 that includes Yordan Alvarez, Kyle Tucker, Cristian Javier and Framber Valdez; the front office with the GM rotating from Jeff Luhnow to James Click to Dana Brown; and the manager with Dusty Baker succeeding A.J. Hinch.
The more they change, the more October stays the same for the Astros, who share another dynasty trait with the Yankees beyond calculation. Those Yankees had such internal belief in the next player — if not Jeter, then Bernie, if not Bernie then O’Neill, if not O’Neill then Tino — or starter — if not El Duque then Pettitte, if not Pettite then Wells, if not Wells, then Cone — that pressure at this time of year was shared. No one player was overwhelmed by the burden of this moment.
Houston appears to have that same collective belief system up and down its lineup, rotation and relief corps. They displace pressure with such strong trust in the group that no individual failure will doom the whole. It fuels their excellence. It endures beyond trash cans or buzzers.
