Chirinos homers in back-to-back WS games
Backstop the 6th C to go deep in consecutive Fall Classic contests
WASHINGTON -- The Astros don’t expect much offensively out of their catchers. Robinson Chirinos has some punch with the bat, sure, but he was brought in to catch Justin Verlander and pretty much every other starting pitcher not named Gerrit Cole.
Chirinos is making his mark with his bat, though, homering in his second consecutive World Series game Saturday night when he clubbed a two-run shot in the fourth inning off Nationals starter Patrick Corbin in Houston's 8-1 win in Game 4 at Nationals Park. Chirinos hit a solo homer in Game 3.
“I’m working so hard in the cage to be consistent, and I put a good swing to the ball last night,” Chirinos said. “I told everybody here I put myself in a good position. I was swinging at strikes, I was staying to the middle of the field and I did it again tonight.”
The veteran catcher, who signed a one-year deal with the Astros prior to this season, won’t get a shot to homer in three consecutive World Series games, unless it’s in a pinch-hit role. Martín Maldonado, who catches Cole, will start behind the plate in Game 5 on Sunday night.
“I thought he controlled the game very well,” Houston manager AJ Hinch said of Chirinos. “And then the big swing.”
Chirinos was 2-for-24 with one homer in 10 games this postseason prior to getting two hits and a homer in Game 3. He’s the sixth catcher to homer in back-to-back World Series games, joining Mickey Cochrane (1930), Bill Dickey ('39), Roy Campanella ('55), Gene Tenace ('72) and Ted Simmons ('82).
Carlos Correa led off the fourth inning with a walk and scored when Chirinos hit his 404-foot homer into the left-field seats to give the Astros a 4-0 lead. With Maldonado going deep in Game 3, Houston is the second team in World Series history to have multiple catchers homer in the same series.
“I’m proud to help my team win,” Chirinos said. “In the end, you can hit homers and you don’t win a game, it doesn’t mean anything, especially in these kind of games."