Alexander: Be afraid of these Astros, Dodger fans, be very afraid

ANAHEIM — As the Dodgers embark on their annual quest to end their parade-less streak, now 31 years … well, we might be jumping the gun, and assuming a third straight World Series appearance can be risky. But it never hurts to know your potential enemy.

They’re familiar. And scary.

The Houston Astros, Dodgers and New York Yankees entered the final weekend of the regular season still battling for the best overall record in baseball and home-field advantage all the way through to a possible World Series.

And these Astros, who won their 105th game of the season Friday night, 4-0 over the Angels, likely are better – much better – than the Astros who spilled champagne in the Dodger Stadium visitors’ clubhouse on the first night of November in 2017.

One area of improvement is obvious. Houston’s starting pitching Big Three two years ago was Dallas Keuchel, Charlie Morton and late addition Justin Verlander. Now it’s Verlander, Gerrit Cole and late addition Zack Greinke.

Cole and Verlander, who face the Angels the next two games to close out the regular season, are 1-2 in baseball in strikeouts and opponents’ batting average, 1-2 in the American League in ERA and likely 1-2 (in whichever order) in AL Cy Young voting. And while the analytics community has decided that pitching victories should be extinct, or at least irrelevant, Verlander has 20 and Cole 19 – first and tied for second in MLB.

Wins do have a practical application. Getting them usually means those starters are pitching deep into games and reducing the stress on the bullpen. Verlander, Cole and Greinke all average more than six innings per start. Greinke is 8-1 with a 3.02 ERA in 10 Houston starts after coming over from Arizona, came within two outs of a no-hitter in Seattle Wednesday night and could be Houston’s postseason X-factor.

“On a given night, on multiple nights in a row, you run out one of the best pitchers in the game,” Astros outfielder Jake Marisnick said. “The confidence level when they go out is through the roof.”

Astros manager AJ Hinch was asked when he last saw two stars at the top of any rotation similar to Verlander and Cole.

“Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling” in Arizona, he said.

Those two won a World Series in 2001.

Beyond the Big Three, Houston’s clubhouse includes many of the same personalities who have made playoff runs in three of the last four years. Alex Bregman (41 homers, 111 RBIs, 1.016 OPS after a solo home run on Friday night) assumes the MVP candidate role that Jose Altuve carried in 2017, when he won it. Altuve, George Springer and Yuli Gurriel are all having stellar offensive seasons. Michael Brantley, signed as a free agent in the offseason, has provided production on the field – his three-run homer in the eighth on Friday night broke the game open – and leadership off of it.

One possible glitch: Shortstop Carlos Correa, limited to 75 games by injuries, is currently dealing with back issues, though the Astros hope to have him available for the AL Division Series next week.

But then there is the guy who causes Dodger fans to wince, or flinch, when Josh Fields’ name comes up.

Yordan Alvarez was a young Cuban outfielder who had yet to play a professional game when the Dodgers, in their ongoing quest for bullpen help, traded him to the Astros in 2016 for Fields. Alvarez started mashing almost from the moment he joined the Astros’ Dominican Summer League team in ’16, and he hasn’t stopped.

Angel fans didn’t get to see the full package Friday night; he was 0 for 3 with two strikeouts and a walk. But he has a 1.091 OPS and an otherworldly .672 slugging percentage. He has 27 home runs and 78 RBIs in just 305 big league at-bats, and any thought that he would require some sort of learning curve when he was called up from Triple-A was dispelled pretty much immediately, with four homers and eight RBIs in his first five games.

“Impact,” reliever Chris Devenski said. “He’s amazing. He’s a fun player to watch.”

He is also a rebuttal to the prospects-are-cool/parades-are-cooler mentality, a reminder that sometimes the kids you have to trade for immediate help will haunt you for years to come.

Was this trade a blunder the moment it was made? Perhaps not, but the evidence is pretty striking. Fields, who spent 2019 in Triple-A, has a 1.8 career WAR in the big leagues, as calculated by Baseball Reference. Alvarez’s was 3.9 in 84 games before Friday night.

So, how much better is this Astros team than the 2017 edition? Hinch declined to compare, but Marisnick wasn’t hesitant.

“This team’s ridiculous,” he said. “Look at the rotation. All the way through, it’s hard to find a hole, anywhere.”

Moreover, these Astros are battle-hardened, veterans of seven playoff series and a wild-card game over the past four years. The veterans know the drill, and the newcomers pick up on it. There is no panic, just confidence and experience.

And then Marisnick said this:

“You see a confident group but you still see hunger. You see guys who want to win another World Series, who want to win multiple World Series. They don’t want to stop at just one.”

Dodger fans, you’ve been warned.

jalexander@scng.com

@Jim_Alexander on Twitter