Jason Heyward Fights a Wall, Joe Espada Finally Lets the Tears Flow and Josh Hader Keeps It Extra — Inside the Houston Astros’ Sweetest Division Title Clinch of All

Jason Heyward goes after the flying baseball like he’s a rookie trying to prove himself, not a 15-year Major League Baseball veteran who’s already seen and won it all. He’ll use every bit of his 6-foot-5 frame to jump up and snare the ball while running back at near full speed, knowing all the while that his momentum will take him right into the scoreboard wall.

Heyward does not care. He’ll give up his 35-year-old body, ancient by the standards of 21st century baseball, to get this win. To be there for the Houston Astros teammates he didn’t even know 28 days ago.

“Honestly, I wasn’t thinking about it,” Heyward tells PaperCity in the din, cigar smoke, bubbly and beer of another Astros’ championship clubhouse celebration. “I wasn’t thinking about knowing the wall was coming. I did the best I could to make the play. It was a tough one to read, Obviously, I don’t have a lot of experience in right field. . .

“Just trying to stay with it.”

Heyward stays with it and these Astros, the gold standard of Houston professional sports now and probably forever, are the champions of the American League West again. Joe Espada, the first-year manager, stayed with it too, never losing faith in his team, in his guys, even as everyone else around him screamed that the dynasty was crumbling. Astros general manager Dana Brown admits that Espada even calmed him down at times this season.

And when the final out is secured on another clinch night for the Astros, the rookie manager breaks down in tears, finally letting all his emotions out. “I care about this team,” Espada says afterwards, soaked in the sweet stench of victory. “I love this team.”

How could you not? This is the beat up, downright dismissed Houston Astros team that came back from 7-19, 12-24 and 10 games back of the Seattle Mariners on June 18. And on September 24? After a white-knuckled 4-3 victory over those once smug Mariners that shows every bit of this Astros team’s never-ending fight and no-give toughness? Division champs again.

For the eighth straight season, Jim Crane’s Astros are heading to the playoffs, very much alive to chase a third world championship for this grand golden era of Houston baseball.

This one hits a little different though. This one is so extra sweet.

“Everybody thought we were done,” Astros everyman Mauricio Dubon tells PaperCity. “Everybody thought we were nothing. But in this clubhouse, we know we’re going to show up. We know what we still have.”

These Astros have more grit than a Naked and Afraid winner. Having lost so many good pitchers to injury (Cristian Javier, Jose Urquidy, Luis Garcia, J.P. France, Lance McCullers Jr., even Justin Verlander for a large chunk of the season), having lost Kyle Tucker for 78 games with a fractured shin, having lost valuable outfield addition Ben Gamel to a broken leg, this team somehow finds a way.

To say Jose Altuve, Alex Bregman, Dana Brown and Joe Espada absolutely MacGyvered this thing is putting it lightly. There are paper planes seemingly less sturdy. And now Yordan Alvarez is hobbled and may not be able to be himself in the playoffs.

That is a worry for another day — Tuesday at Minute Maid Park for the Wild Card round best-of-three opener to be more precise— though.

This is a time to celebrate what these Astros are made of, what they do have that so many other teams seem to lack. There is Josh Hader, the $95 million closer who Jim Crane pushed to sign, getting the final out ball from young wonder catcher Yainer Diaz. Hader comes through with another four-out save when the Astros need it most and then celebrates with his wife Maria and 2-year-old son Lucas on the field, choosing tenders hugs over more spraying champagne and beer dumps over the head. Hader’s been in the playoffs five times before during his runs with the Brewers and Padres, but he’s never been on a team quite like these Astros.

“These guys are just battlers,” Hader says. “They never give in.”

“He’s a winner. Point blank, the guy’s a winner. He’s been around. He’s done it. The winning makeup that he has is pretty special. . . You’ve heard the stories about the speeches that he makes in the postseason. That’s just who is as a human being. There’s nothing phony about the guy. He’s a real dude.” — Astros GM Dana Brown on Jason Heyward

Jason Heyward’s Instant Astros Chemistry

Just take Jon Singleton, who once went eight years and 13 days between Major League home runs, only to find himself wrapping up Jason Heyward, in a giant hug on the sweetest of Astros’ division title clinch nights. It’s amazing how much Heyward already seems to mean to so many of these Astros.

Only signing with the club and the general manager who scouted him when he was a 17-year-old 2007 first round pick on August 29, Heyward has already taken on something of a Michael Brantley role with these Astros.

“He’s a guy that I love watching him play,” Astros centerfielder Jake Meyers tells PaperCity. “And he plays the game the right way. I absolutely love how he plays the game. So to be able to play with him on a daily basis is unbelievable.

“I learn a lot from him everyday.”

On Clinch Night with Brantley himself back in the ballpark, Jason Heyward delivers a lesson in going all out for winning. The uber veteran practically throws himself into that wall on his game-shifting catch, knocking out one of the scoreboard panels with his arm.

“He’s a winner,” Dana Brown says when I ask him about Heyward’s leaping track down catch. “Point blank, the guy’s a winner. He’s been around. He’s done it. The winning makeup that he has is pretty special.

“. . . You’ve heard the stories about the speeches that he makes in the postseason. That’s just who is as a human being. There’s nothing phony about the guy. He’s a real dude.”

Real enough to hit a near 400-foot bomb of a home run to give the Astros the lead for good on Clinch Night. After putting his arm through that scoreboard wall.

“I think Jason Heyward’s home run was my favorite moment,” Astros stabilizer starter Hunter Brown tells PaperCity. “That ball was way back. That was a beautiful thing to see.”

Brown grins and drifts back into the celebration, sidestepping a puddle on the soggy floor. Brown came up as a wide-eyed, Justin Verlander-idolizing rookie on the Astros 2022 World Series championship team. Now, this is his third straight division title Clinch Night. Astros grow up so fast on winning.

Still, this one is different. So extra sweet.

Even the new guy who’s been around the game forever can feel that.

“I can’t say enough about this place,” Heyward says. “. . . Supportive ownership. Supportive front office. Supportive coaching staff. Everyone just seeing something in me. And obviously I see it them. It’s fun to be a part of it. These are the nights why we play baseball.

“This is why we grind. This is why why you get in the trainer’s room early. This is  why you stay late, sometimes lose sleep.”

An Astros’ Clinch Night Like No Other

The Chicago Cubs probably never finally win a World Series without Jason Heyward’s baseball famous Game 7 rain delay speech. The Astros don’t give themselves six days of breathing room to prepare for these playoffs without him either. The Los Angeles Dodgers gave up on this vet, designating Heyward for assignment, deciding he couldn’t help Shohei Ohtani and Co. win a World Series.

But there Jason Heyward is on Clinch Night for the Astros, running through a wall to make the catch, hitting the bomb his younger teammates are marveling over. It also happens to be Heyward’s wife Veranda’s birthday. She’s in Minute Maid Park for this one, jumping into another city for him.

“That makes it even sweeter,” Heyward says.

So much about this one is.

“I can’t say enough about this place. . . Supportive ownership. Supportive front office. Supportive coaching staff. Everyone just seeing something in me. And obviously I see it them.” — Astros outfielder Jason Heyward

As Alex Bregman slips out of the clubhouse, a small backpack swung over his shoulder, he thanks the two clubhouse attendants manning the door. They congratulate one of the last Core Astros, the one who may be on his own last stand in Houston, on another division crown, another clubhouse party earned, another big home run.

“And let’s keep it rolling,” Bregman says as he turns down the hall. “Let’s keep it rolling.”

Why not? Sure, this one hits a little different. Sure, this one is so extra sweet. But these golden era Astros, these players (whether new or old), are always pushing for more.

“Try to win it all,” Dubon says of what’s next. Jason Heyward knows. It’s all out or nothing. Even if there’s a wall.