I'm trying to remember the last time Rondon had a good outing this season. Most of his appearances, including tonight, have been mediocre to terrible.
You get spoiled by great pitching. The Astros pitching has been uneven for a while. Verlander gives up 2 homers a game now and the bullpen is a garbage fire all of a sudden.
I couldn’t believe he let Rondon take the 8th. It’s amazing how he unpuckered and pitched a flawless inning once the damage had already been done. I know he hit a HR tonight, but how long is Altuve going to get a free pass? (.255) If they’re going to go for it, Tucker is gone. This team has too many holes. Pitching. All Forms of it.
Harris and Rondon are dog **** but Osuna isn't too far behind lately with his suckiness. NOT worried about the Rangers or anyone else in the AL West but for the other contenders in the AL, the Astros are not looking solid enough to go through a good playoff run. Feel confident Luhnow will make changes and trades but this is frustrating to watch currently.
Cole should be chewing their asses out in the locker room. "I give you motherf*ckas a 4 run lead and THIS IS WHAT YOU DO?"
That Miles Straw blunder is kind of magnified given how this one turned out. We could have used that potential run.
Did Cole have a “quality” start? No. So he wasn’t exactly guilt free But yea. This one sucks. To lose this way to The rangers. Have some f’ing pride Astros
One Astro pitched well out of Five and he's not named Cole. Yordan's night was wasted. Osuna has started pitching like flip a coin, but I think he'll bounce back. Upgrade one starter and the pen improves. Maybe Joe Smith saves us.
I'm not too concerned about the loss tonight. None of those guys had pitched since before the ASG. I expect the rust to be shaken off now, though. I actually thought Osuna did pretty well given the circumstances. His slider wasn't working, so he had to keep challenging with the fastball. He gave up a hit, but then the Rangers started constructing a run by having the runner steal second. That changes things a lot for the pitcher. (We don't do that much at all when we're batting; we should.) He walked Gallo which meant nothing and set up the double play. He got through Odor. He just kept kept challenging, but at some point, you're going to get tagged. He held out much longer than I would've expected. Honestly, it's probably not the worst thing to not have to do extra innings. Also, Jake catches that ball at the end if he's in. And Jake's in appeal mode, so he's available. But his hitting's dropped so much that you can't chance replacing any of the three outfielders with him for that defensive boost. That's on him. I do wish our team would make more use of creating runs though basestealing, bunting, whatever it takes. You increase your batter's chances when you're standing on second or third and the pitcher has to pitch under those circumstances. The Rangers pulled off a great bottom of the 9th, and I don't think Osuna fell apart either. Chirinos is a legitimate problem, though. Total non-threat at-bat, and that throw to second with the guy at third was so ill-advised, it wasn't like him at all. I think he's just got to be worked into the ground. It may not be showing as a discrete injury, but he's not even close to 100% out there. He's not even really passing. Hinch has said he doesn't want him to play more than two games in a row, but I think he needs even more time off at the moment. Straw trying to steal home gives me weird feelings. On the one hand, I like his aggression. He didn't hesitate; he just chose really poorly. Adrenaline-fog, I'll presume. I do think the Astros don't appreciate individual runs for or against them, though, and I've seen that pretty consistently. Kind of like how the Rockets don't appreciate easy transition buckets against them. At the end of the game, though, little things you didn't take seriously up to that point make the difference.
Fell asleep after the fifth or so (before Yordan’s homers). Woke up to these results. Hats off to Cole for his 13 K’s. This game only doubles down why we need to keep him at all costs IMO. Another 10+ K game and he gets a no decision based on the pen. He and Pressly are the only pitchers I completely trust right now. Pathetic. I know, Cole gave up homers, at least they we’re solo, but he kept up his elite BB/K numbers, and with our offense, he pitched more than we’ll enough to get the W. Scapegoat of the game goes to Rondon easily.