Michael Brantley Shows Why He’s Such a Beloved Astro and World Class Teammate — How an No-Way, Run-Down Catch From Uncle Mike Made the Champs Believe Again

ARLINGTON — Michael Brantley smiles on the baseball field only slightly more often than a total solar eclipse occurs. But after making the defensive play of these playoffs, after making his battered 36-year-old body move like it’s 10 years younger, after absolutely rescuing the defending world champions and maybe flipping an entire championship series, Brantley breaks into the biggest grin ever.

But Brantley isn’t smiling for the reason you might think. He’s not celebrating his all-out sprint and on-the-run catch he makes with his right arm fully extended in the left center field gap that robs the Texas Rangers of a run and even more momentum. No. He’s smiling post catch because he’s thinking of all the crap he’s going to get from his teammates once he gets back to the dugout.

“Of course,” Brantley says when I ask if he heard a lot from his teammates post catch. “That’s why I smiled after I made the catch. Because I knew how much grief I was about to get when I came back in.”

Brantley’s Houston Astros teammates love nothing more than to kid the man they near universally call Uncle Mike about how damn old he is. And after Brantley makes a catch like that — arguably the single most important play in the Astros’ 8-5 Game 3 road win that pulls them right back into this American League Championship Series — well, the teammate jokes sort of write themselves.

Jose Urquidy, who will start Thursday night’s Game 4 with the Astros one win from tying up this ALCS, is in the bullpen when Brantley starts his super sprint to race down that baseball. Brantley runs right towards the bullpen and. . . well, let the pitcher tell it.

“We saw he was running very hard to the ball,” Urquidy says. “We were surprised that he catch it.”

Not as surprised as the Rangers and their cleanup hitter Adolis Garcia who sent that sixth inning shot rocketing into the outfield on a 98.8 mph exit velocity off his bat. Garcia’s missile will travel 372 feet and carry a .490 expected batting average. And end up safely cradled in Michael Brantley’s glove for the final out of the inning.

Flashing leather. Then flashing that smile. It turns out Michael Brantley can still move everyone.

“Every single player on the team was fired up. That’s a big-time play in a big-time situation.” — Alex Bregman on Michael Brantley’s catch

Brantley is supposed to be too old to make this kind of play of course. He’s supposed to be too beat up too. Too body fragile. After all, Brantley missed the first 136 games of this season. He missed the entire playoff run to the world title last fall too, after undergoing shoulder surgery in August of 2022.

Many Astros fans — and more than a few media members — openly doubted if Brantley would ever make it back this season during the heart of the long summer. Maybe Michael Brantley wondered himself some days too.

But there he is playing left field in the Astros’ first virtual must win of these playoffs, with the always difficult repeat title drive teetering more than little. There he is sprinting across the field like he’s LeBron James racing back to get a chase-down block in the NBA Finals when his teammates need him most.

“Incredible,” Astros star Yordan Alvarez, who knows something about incredible feats in the playoffs, says about Brantley’s run-down Rangers robber. “I said it earlier, I think that catch turned the game around.”

It turns out that Michael Brantley can still move plenty fast. When his guys need him to.

“Was I slow?” Brantley jokes. “I’m not that fast anymore. But I’m just glad I made the play.”

Brantley just wants to be there for his teammates, to pick up whoever he can. Last October, unable to play and hurting, Brantley delivered a World Series changing speech after the Astros fell down to the Phillies two games to one. He urged his teammates to keep believing after a 7-0 Philadelphia wipeout Game 3 loss, reminded them of how rare the opportunity was they had at hand, then.

A year later in the first American League Championship Series game played in the Rangers’ space hanger of a still-new ballpark, Michael Brantley would grab a moment of his own. He’d catch it on a full run. That was for his guys too.

“I’m just appreciative of this moment and opportunity that my teammates have blessed me with,” Brantley says. “That I’ve worked for so hard for to just be a part of it and help out in any way.

“It’s a testament to them, to how hard they worked throughout the course of the year. And I’m just thankful. These are my guys. My friends. My teammates. I enjoy coming here every day and working side by side. And I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.”

How Uncle Mike Inspires The Astros

Michael Brantley would never say this himself. But the truth is he is a major inspiration to the rest of the Astros. How hard Brantley’s worked to get back, how he kept grinding and grinding through recovery setbacks when others might have just given up and called it a career, has not gone unnoticed.

It is something Brantley’s teammates talk about amongst themselves and marvel over. Admire. In many ways, Brantley’s example has made these defending world champions even more determined. Even tougher. His stats from the regular season may not say it.

But Michael Brantley remains one of the most important Astros of all. He is an all-out example of what this golden era of Houston baseball is all about in so many ways.

“These are my guys. My friends. My teammates. I enjoy coming here every day and working side by side. And I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.” — Astros outfielder Michael Brantley

This is a night of big Astros heroes. A night when Martin Maldonado — the .191 hitting catcher in the regular season who served as Astros Twitter’s punching bag all year long — scorches a two-out, two run single (101.1 mph exit velocity) past third to give Houston a crucial early 3-0 lead. A night when Jose Altuve hits a 413 foot home run and comes close to hitting two more out to center. A night when Yordan Alvarez collects his ninth and 10th RBI in seven postseason games — and nearly adds his seventh home run with Rangers center fielder Leody Taveras jumping a half body length above the yellow line on top of the wall to rob him of that dinger. A night when Astros every man Mauricio Dubon collects three hits and the struggling Kyle Tucker gets on base four times and scores two runs.

A night when Astros starter Cristian Javier continues to channel his boyhood hero Pedro Martinez in October.

But no one is bigger than the professional hitter who goes 0 for 5 at the plate and completely shifts the game and halts the Rangers’ building momentum with his run-down catch.

“Game changer,” Maldonado says of Brantley’s catch.

“Every single player on the team was fired up,” Astros third baseman Alex Bregman says. “That’s a big-time play in a big-time situation.”

Flashing leather. Then flashing that smile. It turns out Michael Brantley can still move everyone.

When Brantley gets back to the dugout after the catch, all his teammates line up to give him high fives and arm bumps like they usually do when someone hits a home run. Brantley’s catch is that monumental.

After Brantley makes it, he tumbles over onto the Globe Life Field artificial turf, his momentum carrying him to the ground. He pops right back up though. If he didn’t, the dugout kidding would be even worse. And this 36-year-0ld with the rebuilt shoulder swears he feels no worse for wear.

“We’re all good,” Brantley says. “Good to go.”

Michael Brantley isn’t about to stop now. Not with him having the time of his baseball life. Not with the chance to finally be out there with his guys battling.

“We all know how hard he works every day just to be able to play and help the team,” Altuve says. “. . . I think he’s probably our biggest leader. Him and Martin (Maldonado) too. Michael’s been in the league so long. He’s passed down so many good things in his career.

“And now he’s doing it for us. So we really appreciate the good guy — the great guy — he is in the clubhouse. He’s just like a big brother for everybody.”

Or a wise Uncle who can flash some unexpected speed when you least expect it.

“I played with Michael when he was a young buck,” Maldonado says when someone asks if he’s surprised by the run-down catch. “That guy used to be a centerfielder.”

Now he may be the most respected, beloved and inspirational Astros teammates of all. Sometimes you can do more than anyone expects. Especially if you’re doing it for more than just yourself.

Flashing leather. Then flashing that smile. It turns out Michael Brantley can still move everyone.

It turns out Michael Brantley isn’t done yet. And neither are these Astros.