If you love baseball, if you want to love baseball, or if you simply want to understand why so many people do, go back and watch Game 5 of the American League Championship Series. Even just the highlights will work.
Drama. Tension. Tempers flaring. Leads changing.
And the littlest guy on the field taking the biggest swing of the night. Again.
Frankly, it doesn’t get much better than Friday night in Arlington, Texas: A 5-4 Houston Astros victory to break a 2-2 tie in the best-of-seven ALCS. All five games have been won by the road team.
And now the Astros head back home needing only one victory to advance to their third consecutive World Series while trying to become MLB’s first repeat champs since the 1998-2000 New York Yankees.
Through the first two games of this series, it appeared the Astros had little shot to get back to the October Classic, losing both games in Houston to a Rangers club that had won seven straight to begin the postseason.
But it’s baseball. Playoff baseball. And just when you think you have it figured out, a club like the Astros sweep the Rangers at their home – Houston’s eighth consecutive victory in Arlington this year – and do so in jaw-dropping fashion.
Jose Altuve steals the show in Texas
The incredible Jose Altuve, listed at 5-foot-6 and 166 pounds, played in his 101st playoff game on Friday night. And he hit his 26th postseason homer – second most in baseball history behind only Manny Ramirez.
The homer occurred in the top of the ninth with the Rangers up by two and needing just three outs to take a one-game lead.
It was a momentum killer.
And it could be a season killer.
Adolis Garcia’s bat slam comes back into play
Up until the point Altuve swung, the momentum had shifted fully to the Rangers by the sixth inning, when Adolis García hit a three-run homer off future Hall-of-Famer Justin Verlander.
García crept up the first-base line, bat in hand, watching the ball soar, then slammed the bat to the ground and screamed. He stomped on home plate after he rounded the bases.
My first thought was, “Well, García is going to pay for that later.”
He did. In the bottom of the eighth, he took a 98-mph fastball off his upper arm from Astros pitcher Bryan Abreu.
García was ticked and jawed with catcher Martín Maldonado while benches cleared – a similar scene that happened between these two teams in July.
No punches were thrown – García did push Maldonado’s shoulder – but Abreu and García were both tossed, as was Astros manager Dusty Baker, who didn’t believe Abreu purposely threw at García, given the crucial game situation, and should have gotten a warning and not a thumb.
Related: Dusty Baker ejected from Game 5 of ALCS after benches-clearing scrum
My take: Even if Abreu wasn’t throwing at García, the umpiring crew had little choice but to toss him – that kind of retribution doesn’t usually happen in such a close game in the late innings, but it was just too coincidental. Order needed to be restored, and García had to leave with him.
Baker had every right to be livid and argue for a warning over an ejection. But by arguing, he was getting tossed, too.
If García had just walked calmly to first base, the game would have continued without any incident. But what occurred, instead, was a delay, which in a sense iced Rangers’ closer Jose Leclerc, who had faced one batter in the top of the eighth. The histrionics in the bottom of the eighth also seemingly woke up the Astros.
When Leclerc went back on the mound in the top of the ninth, he immediately allowed a single, a walk, and Altuve’s bomb.
The Rangers’ first two batters reached base in the bottom of the ninth, but they couldn’t score against Houston closer Ryan Pressly.
Suddenly, the Astros, who looked nearly dead before Game 3, are very much alive.
And the Rangers, who seemed invincible at the beginning of the week, need some more magic on the road to advance to their first World Series since 2011.
In a span of three innings, the momentum changed twice, two huge homers were hit, and emotions overflowed multiple times.
Drama and more drama.
That’s why it is worth paying attention to MLB’s postseason.
It’s always exciting. And rarely predictable.
Related: MLB playoffs notes: Max Scherzer didn’t help Texas Rangers in Game 3, but he’ll be better next time
Dan Connolly is an MLB Insider for Sportsnaut. Follow him on Twitter.