ALCS Archives - All Mississippi Baseball

21 Oct

a dose of history

The Houston Astros, who are celebrating their 60th anniversary this season, gave a nod to their first World Series team by having a star pitcher from that club, Mississippi native Roy Oswalt, throw out the ceremonial first pitch before Thursday’s Game 2 of the American League Championship Series. Oswalt, the ex-Holmes Community College standout from Weir, was a 20-game winner for the 2005 Astros, who won the National League pennant — Oswalt won the clincher vs. St. Louis — before falling to the Chicago White Sox in the World Series. That it took 43 years for Houston to make that first Fall Classic seems hard to fathom now. Up 2-0 on the New York Yankees in the current ALCS, the Astros are on the cusp of a fourth World Series appearance since 2017, when they won their first and only championship (under controversial circumstances). They’ve been in the ALCS six straight years. Yet this franchise had an inglorious start. Houston’s first team, the expansion Colt .45s, were managed by Ellisville native and former big leaguer Harry Craft. They went 64-96 in ’62. Craft was dismissed late in the 1964 season with a 191-280 record. The team became the Astros in 1965, moving into the Astrodome, and finally posted a winning season in 1972. Pascagoula native Harry Walker was the manager of that team — until he was fired in August despite having a winning record. In 1980, the Astros finally made the playoffs for the first time. Houston’s Double-A team, the Jackson Generals, took up residence at Smith-Wills Stadium in 1991 and helped fuel the Astros teams that won four NL Central titles in a five-year stretch (1997-2001) before finally reaching the World Series in 2005. They didn’t make the postseason again for 10 years, going through a rough rebuilding process that is now bearing fruit year after year. P.S. On this date in 1986, former Jackson Mets star Lenny Dykstra led off Game 3 of the World Series at Fenway Park with a home run off Meridian native Oil Can Boyd. The New York Mets, down 0-2 in the Series, won the game 7-1 over Boston and ultimately won the title in seven games. Boyd allowed six runs in seven innings in his only Series appearance.

20 Oct

role player

Game 4 may have been a pivotal one in the American League Championship Series, and Mississippi State product Kendall Graveman played a pivotal role. Graveman threw two scoreless innings — the seventh and eighth — and got the win as Houston rallied past Boston 9-2 Tuesday night at Fenway Park to square the series at 2-2. Graveman was one of five Astros relievers who worked 7 2/3 shutout innings after starter Zack Greinke was pulled in the second inning. The two-inning stint was the longest for Graveman since he joined the Astros in a late July trade with Seattle. “I was mentally preparing myself to go three, honestly,” he told mlb.com. The Astros went to closer Ryan Pressly in the ninth after scoring seven runs in the top of the inning. Appearing in the postseason for the first time in his seven years in MLB, Graveman has been good: three scoreless innings in the ALCS and a 1.50 ERA in five appearances overall. The right-hander was a closer with Seattle (0.82 ERA, 4-0, 10 saves) but saw his role change to set-up man in Houston. He scuffled at times, posting a 3.13 ERA with three blown saves and seven holds in 23 games. He looked to be in top form on Tuesday. Strangely enough, the only batter to reach against Graveman was Hunter Renfroe, his former teammate at MSU, who drew a two-out walk in the eighth. It was just the second time they had faced each other in the big leagues; Graveman struck out Renfroe in that previous encounter. Renfroe, who had a monster season for the Red Sox, has had a quiet series (1-for-11 with four walks).

14 Oct

tall order

It’s a tough assignment Mickey Callaway has drawn in the American League Championship Series. The former Ole Miss pitcher, now the Cleveland pitching coach, must plot a course through a Toronto lineup loaded with mashers. The Blue Jays’ 2-3-4 hitters, Josh Donaldson, Edwin Encarnacion and Jose Bautista, batted .367 with five homers and 15 RBIs in taking out favored Texas in the ALDS. The Indians’ rotation has been thinned by injuries. The bullpen features the remarkably versatile Andrew Miller and stout closer Cody Allen but its depth will be tested in this best-of-7 series. “We’ve got our hands full,” Callaway told mlb.com. “… We’re going to have to have some guys step up and step up in a big way.” In his four years in Cleveland, Callaway has done a nice job of prompting guys to do just that. His staffs have consistently ranked among the league’s ERA leaders; they were second with a 3.84 in 2016 and posted a 2.33 against Boston, another powerful offensive club, in their ALDS sweep. Callaway’s success as a pitching coach stands in contrast to his experience as an MLB pitcher. He posted a 6.27 ERA and a 4-11 record in 40 games with three different clubs. A seventh-round pick by Tampa Bay out of Ole Miss in 1996, the right-hander did manage to win 71 games in the minors and 32 more in Korea and China. He began his pro coaching career in the Indians’ system in 2010 at Class A Lake County, where his charges had a 3.72 ERA. He moved up the ladder the next couple of years and was hired as the Tribe’s big league coach when Terry Francona became manager prior to the 2013 season. Francona called Callaway a potential “star” when he gave him the job. Cleveland has had winning seasons every year since 2013 and is now taking aim on its first World Series appearance since 1997 and first championship since 1948. P.S. Petal’s Anthony Alford belted a reported 434-foot home run in an Arizona Fall League game on Thursday. Toronto prospect Alford, off to a 2-for-8 start for Mesa, hit .236 with nine homers and 18 steals in an injury-tinged season in high Class A this season.