This is now history, right? The unlikely story behind Jos Urquidys World Series moment

WASHINGTON — On a Thursday morning last December, on the final day of the Winter Meetings, Major League Baseball held its annual Rule 5 Draft at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino on the Las Vegas strip. Long the bailiwick of speculators, dreamers and true baseball nerds, the event offers clubs a chance to pick up unprotected minor-leaguers at a modest acquisition cost of $100,000.

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The draft, at its core, is a collective dart-throwing exercise, the guesses researched but rapid, the rounds conducted at 95 mph. The picks begin, and the names fly, and if you turn away for a moment, you might miss something that, 10 months later, suddenly feels seismic.

Then again, maybe the entire industry misses it, too. On that Thursday last December, every club in baseball could have selected Jose Urquidy, a 23-year-old right-hander in the Astros system who had never pitched above A-ball, had Tommy John surgery in 2017 and was still known to the baseball world by a different name: José Luis Hernandez.

No one did.

A few months after every team passed, the young pitcher decided to change his last name as a tribute to his mother Alma. It was Alma who raised him in Mazatlán, Mexico, and Alma who supported his baseball journey, and Alma who prioritized school, delaying his professional signing until he was 19.

And, yes, it was Alma who walked into Nationals Park on Saturday night and watched her son toss five scoreless innings for the Astros in an 8-1 victory over the Nationals in Game 4 of the World Series.

“This moment is very special for her,” Urquidy said.

In the moments after his performance, Urquidy switched into shorts and sat in a quiet corner of the visitors clubhouse, peering at his phone and tracking the flood of text messages. “A lot of family,” he said. Surely they, too, wondered how this happened. In spring training, Urquidy had not reached Double A. On July 1, he had not yet pitched in the majors. He made his debut the next day, allowing two runs in 3 2/3 innings at Coors Field. He returned to Triple A soon after, allowing 11 earned runs in 4 2/3 innings on a hot day in El Paso in early August. Urquidy called it “a crazy game.”

The Astros believed that Urquidy was part of their future. He was poised. He exhibited super command. He had a four-pitch mix that could slot into their rotation next April. But that didn’t necessarily mean they were planning on this. They didn’t expect lefty starter Wade Miley to struggle in September and the rotation to thin. They didn’t expect to send out Urquidy to start Game 4 of the World Series in late October, needing a victory to avoid falling behind 3-1 to the Washington Nationals.

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“Every World Series game is a bullpen game, mostly, at some point,” manager A.J. Hinch had said on Friday, explaining his team’s predicament. The Astros were going with Urquidy for as long as he could go.

The thing about Urquidy is that he did expect this — or, at least, he said he did. He dreamed of pitching in the big leagues, and when that vision came into focus, he dreamed of something bigger. “I always imagined playing the World Series and winning the game for us,” he said.

It was, of course, an audacious goal. When Urquidy was born in Mazatlán in the mid-1990s, just one Mexican starting pitcher — the legendary Fernando Valenzuela — had earned a win in the World Series. In 2011, Jaime Garcia nearly added to the list. The odds were low that Urquidy would join the list, yet he displayed a preternatural gift for pitching. He could spin a breaking ball. He could command a fastball. When Astros officials scouted him as a teenager in Monterrey, Mexico, they witnessed a rare blend of power, poise and “pitchability.”

“He was pitching at the stadium in Monterrey,” said Oz Ocampo, a special assistant to the general manager who previously led the club’s international department. “And you just don’t see guys that have that kind of command and that kind of poise and second secondary pitches at a young age.”

Under general manager Jeff Luhnow, the Astros were seeking to make inroads into Mexico. Urquidy fit the profile. They signed him in 2015. The pitcher was still just 19.

Four years later, after Tommy John surgery, a rehab process and a nervous morning at the Rule 5 draft, they handed him the ball in the World Series. Urquidy responded with the best night of his career, navigating five innings on 67 pitches while allowing just two hits.

“What Urquidy did tonight,” right-hander Brad Peacock said, “absolutely fired us up.”

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“He flipped his percentages,” the Nationals’ Adam Eaton said of Urquidy. “He threw me three sliders my first at-bat, and he throws it, like, 10 percent of the time. I was going back, scratching my head (saying), ‘He didn’t throw me any changeups, and he’s supposed to throw me, like, (at a) 40 percent clip changeups,’ and didn’t. Went up the next at-bat and saw a curveball that he throws 3 percent of the time.”

Urquidy showcased his assortment of off-speed stuff. He dialed his fastball up to 95 mph. He pitched so well that Hinch considered sending him back out for the sixth inning. The decision, Hinch said, caused “the mental anguish that goes along with being at this level, at this stage.” Eventually, he opted for four innings of relief and the prospect of using Urquidy again later in the series.

The decision nearly backfired when the Nationals threatened in the sixth. The Astros’ offense would ensure that it would not matter. The series is now a best-of-three and will return to Houston, no matter what happens on Sunday. For one night, the tone was set by a rookie pitcher making his third postseason appearance.

“He controlled the game,” Hinch said.

When the night was done, outfielder Josh Reddick would term Urquidy’s slider as “disgusting” and Peacock would call him “fearless.” And pitching coach Brent Strom would tell a story of being with the Dodgers when Valenzuela came on the scene and with the Cardinals when Garcia helped the club win the World Series. On late Saturday night, he called Urquidy “the pride of Mazatlán.”

“His poise is exceptional,” Strom said.

Urquidy had become the second Mexican starting pitcher to win a World Series game, and he had repositioned his club to win its second title in three years, and he had done it with such chill that nobody in the clubhouse had realized how nervous he had felt.

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“A couple of moments,” Urquidy said, “I was thinking about, ‘Oh my God, I’m (in the) World Series, pitching.'”

But then the moment passed, and Urquidy executed another pitch. Up in the stands, his mother watched as her son lasted five innings and introduced his name to the rest of baseball. Ten months ago, Urquidy was available to all of baseball and still too unproven and unknown to be an option. On late Saturday night, he sat inside a news conference at the World Series.

“I think this is now history, right?” he asked. “I feel very special for that.”

(Photo: Adam Glanzman / MLB Photos via Getty Images)

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