HOUSTON — Before the biggest day of his life, Cam Smith searched for Shipley Do-Nuts, driving through the streets of downtown Houston to maintain tradition. Day-game donuts are a ritual inside the Houston Astros’ clubhouse that stretches across this golden era.
Smith scanned his iPhone for the closest Shipley to his hotel, only to discover it was inside a corporate office. Unable to enter or find the building, Smith sought another location with a drive-through. Once he found it, Smith secured the three boxes of glazed donuts these veterans demand.
“He did good,” said Mauricio Dubón, who prepared the phenom for his first test, the closest thing to hazing any rookie in this clubhouse will ever endure. “He did really good, actually.”
Smith and reliever Ryan Gusto are the only two players on Houston’s Opening Day roster with no service time. Gusto got three boxes of Krispy Kreme: one assorted, one chocolate iced and one glazed. Smith stayed loyal to Shipley, a Texas-based chain and favorite of former setup man Ryan Pressly.
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Teammates are sure Pressly would’ve protested Krispy Kreme’s inclusion in the pregame spread. Instead, the Astros dumped his salary during their transformative winter. A month later, they allowed Alex Bregman to sign with the Boston Red Sox, refusing to alter their six-year, $156 million offer while robbing their clubhouse of another veteran presence.
“It’s a different club,” manager Joe Espada acknowledged Thursday.
Change can cause trepidation, fear that abandoning what worked so well will author a sudden decline. A crossroads always awaited the Astros at some point during this dynastic run. Trading Pressly and Kyle Tucker while watching Bregman sign with Boston prompted wonder whether the club will thrive after confronting it.
A 3-1 win against the New York Mets on Thursday afternoon is an admirable initial answer, but drawing any bigger conclusions is crazy. It is one game in an interminable season, only magnified by the optimism Opening Day engenders and the overwhelming media coverage that will disappear starting on Friday.
Signs of promise alternated with sobering reminders, be it ace Framber Valdez’s seven scoreless innings or the shaky work of the two leverage relievers who followed him. Both Bryan Abreu and Josh Hader stranded the go-ahead run at home plate.
Abreu required 25 pitches to do so. Hader threw 25 pitches before procuring an out. His 35th struck out Juan Soto to secure the win and hand Hader his 200th career save. How Espada navigates the next two games without them — or Pressly — is anyone’s guess.
Jose Altuve and Yordan Alvarez struck out four times against three Mets pitchers, only for Isaac Paredes, Jake Meyers and Yainer Diaz to compensate in their absence. Paredes saw 23 pitches in his four plate appearances, spotlighting why he’ll hit second in a lineup that needed someone like him.
New first baseman Christian Walker whacked three balls with an exit velocity of at least 102.4 mph and an expected batting average of at least .670. Only one of them fell for a hit. Smith, starting at the position Tucker vacated, finished 1-for-3 in his major-league debut.
The game’s only extra-base hit bounced out of Smith’s glove in the fifth inning, a consequence of not reacting quickly enough to the slice of a line drive off a right-handed hitter’s bat. Such is life with a 22-year-old prospect in his third week ever playing outfield.
“He’s going to bring a lot of energy,” Altuve said. “The way he plays, the way he goes out there and talks about winning, it keeps everybody motivated to go out there and win the game.”
Seldom has “energy” been associated with the Astros across this golden era. They have operated with almost robotic precision, ritualistic in their ravaging of the American League West and emotionless in the aftermath of their exploits. Walk-off home runs, individual milestones or clinching something can conjure feelings, but rarely has it ever spread across a full season.
Injecting it into the clubhouse became a priority, according to multiple people around the team. It is, in part, why Smith and Zach Dezenzo made the Opening Day roster. Smith’s infectiousness is contagious, but who in his position — after such a rapid ascent — wouldn’t project such effervescence?
“How you treat your teammates and your guys around you, that’s the biggest thing,” said Smith, who struck the first major-league pitch he saw through the right side for a single.
“Treat your partners like you want to be treated. Treat everybody the same and with love. I just like to spread my love and appreciation for my guys.”
Altuve is the other source of ardor, perhaps part of a player rejuvenating himself in his age-35 season. His move to left field has him acting like someone 10 years younger, rooted in proving his doubters wrong and becoming playable at a position few ever thought he’d master.
So, at 3:10 p.m., one camera focused on the face of Houston’s franchise. He started his 15th season here Thursday, playing for the 918th time inside a ballpark that’s become his playground.
None of the 917 before it featured Altuve anywhere but second base. His acceptance of a position change prompted city-wide acclaim and, somehow, made him more revered in a clubhouse where that doesn’t seem possible.
Fans seated in left field showered Altuve with a standing ovation during his first jog to the new position. Altuve called it “probably one of the happiest moments I’ve had in my career.” Five batters later, Brandon Nimmo lifted a 276-foot fly ball between Altuve and center fielder Jake Meyers.
“Of course, of course in the first inning of the season,” Meyers said. “That’s one of the harder plays. He’s flying in and he got a great jump on it and I got a good jump on it. I’m trying to call him off. It’s loud.”
Whether Altuve heard Meyers at all is up for debate. He cut in front of the Gold Glove finalist, reached his left arm about as high as physics allows and and caught the baseball at its apex. Meyers stopped almost in disbelief. Altuve ambled off the field with a sly grin.
“He kept with it and he caught it. That’s all that matters. I know it doesn’t always look good — and maybe I could’ve called it a bit earlier — but he made a great play,” Meyers said.
“He made a great play. I hope I can kind of lay back the next time and let him make a great play.”
Perhaps one day, the duo can fulfill that prophecy. They’ll work to refine their chemistry over the next 161 games, a slate that promises to be more unpredictable than any in this franchise’s recent memory. Lumps and losses are coming. Turnover could be constant. The days of rolling out identical lineups littered with superstars are gone. After making the sport seem so simple for so long, the Astros are now living like the rest of the league.
It’s a change. But even with change, some constants remain. The donuts “went by fast,” Smith said. Whether he ate one is a mystery. His major-league debut made Smith so nervous that, for the first time in his baseball career, “I had to force myself to eat.”
“It was everything I expected,” Smith said. “I knew emotions were going to be high. It’s obviously a dream come true and the nerves were there, but that’s a good thing. That means I love it.”
(Top photo of Cam Smith reacting after his first big-league base hit: Tim Warner / Getty Images)
