All series talk goes in here. Non series talk goes somewhere else. No PBP, that can be found from other sources if you need it. All games are broadcast on AT&T Sports SW unless otherwise noted. 9-9 Mike Fiers (R) vs. Zack Greinke (R) 7:10 9-10 Tanner Roark (R) vs. Wade Miley (L) 7:10 9-11 Brett Anderson (L) vs. Bullpen Day 7:10 9-12 Homer Bailey (R) vs. Justin Verlander (R) 7:10
To quote my mom in absentia, "Now, they'll probably not score anything, because they scored so many runs last night." Been hearing that for 30 years. She's usually right. Let's hope she's not in this series. Believe it or not, Fiers is up there in the top 10 in a few pitching categories this season. See here. He'd have been a great 4th or 5th starter on our team this season. And he's leading the majors in W-L%, meaning his team is also backing him up. Not to be trifled with. Go out and show no mercy from the first at-bat, Stros.
9-9 Mike Fiers (R) vs. Zack Greinke (R) 7:10 Huge game for Greinke. As it stands now, the A's are who we would face in the opening round. Lets see how Greinke approaches the A's bats. Looking for a solid pitching performance against a playoff competitor tonight.
He got bombed 4 times in his 1st 6 starts, since then he's been awesome (ERA would be 5th in MLB, given up more than 3 runs twice in 23 starts)
Astros have 18 games left. Only 4 of them are against teams that above .500 (A's), although you might as well call it 6, because the Rangers are one game under and are on a tear right now. As we know, this doesn't mean a whole lot; gotta treat every team with respect. All of those 4 (6) games are at home, which is good for us. Half of the remaining games are at home and half are on the road. The Astros already own the tiebreaker for home field advantage over the the Yankees (4-3 head-to-head this season.) The tiebreaker against the Dodgers will come down to intradivisional record. The Astros are currently 46-15 against the AL West, and they have 15 games left to play in the division. The Dodgers are 43-24 against the NL West, but they have only 9 more games within their division. The Astros have the edge now, but they need to keep winning, because they have more chances to flip that division record. As, of writing this, though, the Astros are the number one team in baseball.
His best/most complete performance, as an Astro, was the game he pitched against Oakland on 8/18 to stop the Astros losing streak. Greinke, when he's 'normal' can beat anybody. When he's off, seems like he's going to give up hits/runs.