Houston Astros pitcher Phil Maton announced Tuesday that he would be unavailable to play in the postseason after fracturing a finger for punching a locker. Maton said he was frustrated with how the Astros wrapped up their regular season finale.
Maton injured a finger on his pitching hand and reportedly had surgery on Monday. He admitted the act was selfish and said he had high hopes it would not tarnish the Astros’ performance in the postseason.
“I was upset with how my outing went, and it’s kind of shortsighted and ultimately selfish. And it’s one of those things that I hope doesn’t affect our team moving forward,” Maton said Tuesday.
Joining Maton on the sideline is a fellow veteran pitcher Will Smith. According to the Astros, both players were left out of the main rooster in the first postseason win over the Seattle Mariners. The duo will likely remain out until further notice.
In the meantime, for all pitching duties on the mound, the Astros will have to rely on Justin Verlander, Bryan Abreau, and rookie reliever Hunter Brown. The trio helped the club defeat the Mariners on Tuesday.
Aside from those three players, Houston’s pitchers include Framber Valdez, Lance McCullers Jr., Luis Garcia, Jose Urquidy, Cristian Javier, Ryne Stanek, Ryan Pressly, Rafael Montero and Hector Neris.
Great postseason start for Houston
Despite playing without two of their star pitchers, the Astros had a remarkable start during the first game this postseason against the Mariners.
Houston was scoreless in the first two innings of the game but bounced back in the third and fourth innings. Left fielder Yordan Alvarez helped the team kick off their offense with a two-run double in the bottom of the third inning when Logan Gilbert was on the mound.
In the top of the fourth inning, Verlander made his 208th strikeout to Jarred Kelenic. It was the highest postseason strikeout, besting Clayton Kershaw for most all-time in the MLB. Much later in the inning, the Astros were trailing four runs behind the Mariners at 6-2 — that is until Alvarez returned and first baseman Yuli Gurriel smacked a solo home run.
Houston was four runs behind Seattle in the top of the seventh inning at 7-3 when Seattle third baseman Eugenio Suarez made his solo homer. Astros slugger Alex Bregman recorded a two-run homer to close up the gap to 7-5. Sealing the win for Houston was Alvarez at the bottom of the ninth inning with a walk-off homer.
The hit was enough to propel the team over Seattle, making the final score 8-7. According to the MLB, Alvarez’s walk-off homer was the first in the league’s postseason history, especially after a team is trailing multiple runs behind the opposing team.
After the loss, Mariners manager Scott Servais had nothing but huge praise for Alvarez for hitting the game-ending far-right homer.
“It was something going into the series where we were at, looking at our rotation, where we were going to head, and talking with Robbie about using him out of the bullpen as a bullet, so to speak, for that type of scenario. You know, bringing in a lefty against Alvarez, although Alvarez is one of the better hitters in the league,” Servais said.