WASHINGTON — After Washington’s wunderkind Juan Soto went hitless in five at-bats and the ballyhooed home team lost 4-1 to Houston in Game 3 of the World Series, Nationals manager Dave Martinez joked about the way the Astros subdued Soto, whose birthday was Friday.
“I just hope he hits at the age of 21,” Martinez said.
The room laughed.
Soto had been a bubbly playoff story. He’d sipped sparkling grape juice instead of alcohol in Washington’s four clubhouse celebrations over the last month.
But it’s not so funny anymore for the Nationals. They lost 8-1 on Saturday to even the series 2-2. The Astros silenced Soto again.
Soto’s first World Series oh-fer felt like it was just one game, easy to brush aside, difficult to isolate from his barnstorming of Minute Maid Park. He’d looked like Babe Ruth with his three RBIs in Game 1. After another double in Game 2, he’d shaken the Astros so much that they issued him their first intentional walk in 221 games.
But the double, which Soto had struck off Justin Verlander and celebrated with a “Let’s go!” shout toward his teammates, was the last loud moment from him.
Soto is on a 1-for-10 skid with five strikeouts and five walks (one intentional). Martinez spoke encouragingly of Soto’s walks, but those are decent outcomes for the Astros, who’ve kept the Nationals 1-for-19 with runners in scoring position in Games 3 and 4.
The Astros have rendered Soto unproductive in 13 of the last 14 times he’s stood in the box.
“I'm not overly concerned about what they're doing to him,” Martinez said. “He needs to stay in the middle of the field and take his walks. That's the key to him. Don't try to do too much and just stay in the middle of the field.”
The inherent problem with World Series sample sizes is they are small, but there are more adjustments, counter-adjustments and advanced scouting this time of the year. Since seven games are the most a team has to play, every swing, take and result is pored over to inform the next one. (The Nationals stared at four electronic tablets in their dugout to prepare for Brad Peacock’s mid-inning appearance during a change in relievers.)
As easy as it may be to make too much of the last two games, those are the games that matter the most.
And so, a trend appears clear. Since Soto went off, the Astros backed off on their breaking balls, and he went quiet.
The Astros threw Soto 16 pitches in Game 4; only three of them were breaking balls.
Peacock paused when asked to explain Houston’s change in approach. He bit his tongue.
“Definitely don’t want to give anything away,” Peacock said.
In the eighth inning, Peacock had showed the careful way the Astros are handling Soto, who bats lefthanded. Peacock has been proud of his slider’s “pretty good sharpness” this postseason. He usually throws his breaking ball down and in when he wants lefthanded hitters to swing over it.
But Peacock pocketed his best weapon against Soto in an eight-pitch war. He dealt Soto one slider. It missed too far beneath the zone to tempt a swing.
“The guy’s a great hitter, a professional hitter, and he’s only 20 years old,” Peacock said. “Just gotta try to make pitches against him and not fall behind — but I walked him anyways.”
The Astros are spin-rate zealots. They want their pitchers to throw breaking balls often, sometimes as often as fastballs. In the regular season, the Astros threw a higher percentage of breaking balls than all but two teams (the Indians and Angels). Against lefthanded hitters, they threw the second-highest percentage (after the Cardinals).
Houston has shifted gears against Soto. The Astros threw him breaking balls 40 percent of the time combined in Games 1 and 2 – and Soto went 3-for-4 off them. The Astros cleaved their usage, down to 22 percent in Games 3 and 4.
Clearly, breaking balls tempt Soto, who batted .217 and struck out 49 times against them.
In his first at-bat Saturday, Soto drilled a first-pitch curveball that José Urquidy left high. Alex Bregman’s deft glovework at third kept Soto’s hard contact to just another flagrant signal that Soto leaps on similar pitches.
The third breaking pitch Soto saw on Saturday came from Will Harris in Houston’s tensest jam of the night. With the bases loaded and one out in the sixth inning, Soto could have tied the game with a grand slam.
Harris wanted a ground ball. He’d hoped for a double play. He also expected Soto to swing at the first pitch. Harris only throws two kinds of pitches, and given the situation, his cutter would not do.
“Most of the time, a left-handed hitter ground-ball pitch is a depth breaking ball,” Harris said. If I know a guy’s gonna be swinging, chances are I’m gonna be throwing a breaking ball.”
Harris unfurled a hanging curve. He got away with it. Soto sledgehammered it toward first base for a ground out, which scratched across Washington’s only run.
“It wasn’t executed how I wanted, but it worked out,” Harris said with a shrug of relief.
The fruitless game frustrated Soto too much for him to stomach a conversation. After showering and getting dressed, Soto returned to his locker to retrieve something. He kept his back turned to the center of the clubhouse, where media clustered for comment. He did not face reporters or take questions. He left without confronting a subject matter he likely will pick apart exhaustively on his own, through video and in his mind up until he sees Astros starter Gerrit Cole on the mound in Game 5 on Sunday.
Before they last faced each other in Game 1, Cole had thrown 19 curveballs low and away in the zone to lefthanded hitters. Twice they were turned into hits. The one time he threw that pitch to Soto, the precocious slugger lined it for a two-RBI double.
Surely, Cole has been watching tape, studying the trends and going over his memories, too.
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October 27, 2019 at 01:55PM
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How the Astros have silenced Juan Soto - Houston Chronicle
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