ATLANTA -- For nearly seven months, through the regular season and the early rounds of the playoffs, the Houston Astros featured the best offense in baseball. It was the highest-scoring, best-balanced, most unsolvable attack in the majors.
The Astros hit for power. They hit for average. They walked the fine line between discipline and aggression: They were the best two-strike hitting team in the big leagues. In an era when so much of the battle is decided by the team that wins the strike zone, the Astros' batsmen generally won the strike zone.
That was the state of things at the outset of the World Series, when Houston's prolific lineup got ready to square off against the Atlanta Braves. Since then, over four games that have left the Astros on the brink of elimination, the Houston offense has transmogrified from prolific to horrific.
The struggles are up and down Houston's deep lineup. Alex Bregman looks lost at the plate, with a lone single to show for his 14 at-bats in the Series. Jose Altuve has two homers, but he's 4-for-18. Yordan Alvarez has taken walks but is 1-for-11. Carlos Correa is 2-for-14 with two singles. And those two-strike hits have mostly dried up (.092 two-strike average, down from .195).
The Astros' cumulative slash line sits at a resoundingly poor .206/.291/.298, and they exited Game 4 with an active streak of 17 straight hitless at-bats with runners in scoring position. Houston, simply put, isn't hitting.