World Series 2021: Houston Astros' offense runs out of steam at the exact wrong time

By Jake Mintz
FOX Sports MLB Writer

HOUSTON — The bats fell asleep.

On a crisp November evening in East Texas, the Astros’ season came to an anticlimactic yet appropriate end. This was a whimper, not a bang. Shut out on the night by a combination of Max Fried and the Atlanta arm barn duo of Tyler Matzek and Will Smith, Houston was cooked the instant Jorge Soler’s supersonic smash cleared the train tracks beyond the wall in left.

From there, it was an inevitability. When a fan behind the auxiliary press box hollered out, "COME ON, IT’S NOT OVER" to no one in particular around the fifth inning, you knew it was very much over. At no point did the Astros appear interested in or capable of putting up a fight. For a team with tons of postseason experience, none of it showed.

But despite what scrolling through some corners of Twitter might tell you, Houston's losing the 2021 World Series had nothing to do with a mischievously placed video monitor or a garbage can from 2017. Quite simply, their bats seized up at the worst possible time, and their pitching wasn’t dominant enough to make for the difference.

"Sometimes the whole team's going to hit. Sometimes nobody's going to hit." Jose Altuve said postgame. "Then you hit two [home runs] in one game. Then you don't hit for a month. So it's just baseball."

The Astros hit two home runs in total this World Series, both courtesy of Altuve. Only five teams in the wild-card era have won a Fall Classic while hitting two or fewer homers, and just two have done it in the past decade. Both of those teams, the 2015 Kansas City Royals and the 2014 San Francisco Giants, were built on pitching, singles and pixie dust.

The 2021 Astros were built on offense, an offense that led baseball in runs and carried the team to a fifth straight American League Championship Series and within two wins of a World Series title. But as key cogs in the lineup grew cold alongside the chilly conditions in Atlanta during Games 3 and 4, it became clear that Houston’s high-octane lineup was running on fumes.

"They shut us down," Carlos Correa admitted. "I don't think it's just a problem with our guys. It's just them executing pitches. We always say when there's really good pitching, and they're executing, it's hard to hit. So they did a really good job."

Correa, who will hit the free-agent market for the first time this offseason, was mum about his future, as one would expect. If he is to leave Houston, it will mark the end of an era and the disbanding of a franchise-altering infield quartet that carried this franchise to five consecutive ALCS appearances. 

"My time here was amazing, the seven greatest years of my life," he said postgame. "I got here as a boy, turned into a man, grew in this city, and the fans embraced me. So this has been my home. This is my home now. So I'm grateful for everybody."

If this is truly the end for Correa and Houston, it’s quite an unsatisfactory one.

Astros hitters managed just six knocks on Tuesday, none of the extra-base variety. Alex Bregman and Yordan Álvarez, who for much of the series hit third and fourth, combined to go 4-for-41. Bregman was a shell of his best self all October, showing none of the edge, swagger and hitting prowess that made him a household name over the past few years.

Álvarez, who just 11 days ago accepted the ALCS MVP trophy after terrorizing Red Sox pitching with a 12-for-23 showing, looked sluggish and out of sync all series. After hitting like Barry Bonds reincarnate against Boston, the mammoth Cuban slugger swung it more like Barry Manilow this week. He’s still one of the league’s most promising hitters, and Houston should be excited about his future, but boy, oh boy, was this a disappearing act.

There’s still cause for optimism. Houston’s young pitching staff has potential and experience. The lineup is outstanding, and this organization has shown the ability to churn out reliable quality major-league players such as Chas McCormick, Jake Meyers and José Urquidy.

Now Houston’s focus moves to the offseason — that is, whenever the new CBA allows it to begin. The team will make Correa an offer, but another club will probably open the piggy bank and offer him more years. The vibe around the club is that he’ll spend next season somewhere else, whether it be Detroit or Texas or New York. 

You’d assume Houston will replace him with a veteran shortstop until prospect Jeremy Peña is ready, maybe add a pitcher or two and run it back with the same core. The Astros are undeniably still the favorites in the winnable AL West.

Houston’s loss in this Series does not wrap up the 2017 trash can situation in any significant manner. The Astros’ massive success of a season does not vindicate the organization, nor does its eventual failure prove the throngs of haters right. Chances are, the Astros will return to the postseason next year, and slightly fewer people will bang plastic garbage receptacles and say mean things to Altuve.

Only time will force that narrative into irrelevance. Even though the 2017 malfeasance had essentially zero actual impact on the 2021 team, its aftershocks clouded the squad’s public perception all year. That was unavoidable, but eventually the trash can jokes will get stale, if they haven’t already, and the can-banging graphic T-shirts will end up at the local Goodwill.

The five remaining members of the 2017 team — Correa, Bregman, Altuve, Lance McCullers Jr. and Yuli Gurriel — will move on to other clubs or retire as the years roll by. Another team will do something newly unsavory, and baseball outrage will move on to that. 

No one hates the Chicago White Sox for the 1919 gambling scandal anymore. Time moves on, and now, so too must the Astros.

Jake Mintz is the louder half of @CespedesBBQ and a baseball analyst for FOX Sports. He’s an Orioles fan living in New York City, and thus, he leads a lonely existence most Octobers. If he’s not watching baseball, he’s almost certainly riding his bike. You can follow him on Twitter @Jake_Mintz.