Yeah, let’s just hope we don’t need either of them, especially Miley out of the bullpen tomorrow. Greinke has two tough acts to follow but I feel like he can go out there and give us 6-7 solid innings and the offense should be able to be themselves after struggling to score runs the first two games.
I think the better question is how acquainted the reliever, Osuna in this case, is with the situation you put him in. Lots of guys get very locked in to doing things a particular way. The announcers even mentioned how Osuna was going to have to go sit, and get a chance to think about the upcoming 9th, after ending the 8th. This unaccustomed usage added with the club wanting him to throw his slider more when he was against it, certainly has some potential to throw a guy off a bit.
I would not have used Osuna in 8th, but overall playing better players out of their comfort zone is better than playing crappy players. Generally speaking, stretching closers an inning outside their comfort zone is highly beneficial as it gets 8th inning guy in 7th (or 6th and 7th) and 7th inning guy in 6th (or 5th). Not every team has back to back days of excellent starting pitching.
You are worried about Astros losing a postseason game having a closer go for 4-out or more save, and you don't even know if Astros have ever lost a game doing that. Hinch has done it 6-7 times to my memory...not always pretty, but my memory can't recall a game that Astros lost.
That has more to do with my memory not being that great anymore. That said, it doesn't have to be a loss to make it a bad idea. A closer nowadays will typically come in and go full throttle for 1-inning and get as many outs as they can or what the team needs. In a 4+ out save situation, you are breaking that role for them. Now, they go out in the 8th inning to get an out in a critical situation. They throw their best stuff, their body is tensed, their adrenaline is pumping and then what happens? They sit and wait. Their bodies cool down and settle. They start thinking about who is coming up and how they might want to pitch instead of just pitching balls to walls. That abrupt change can be jarring to closers and we all saw how Osuna completely unraveled last night, putting runners on bases with pointless walks and throwing poorly placed sliders (at least from my view) repeatedly.
Not a fan of having the closer get more than 3 outs. Also, as good as the pitching has been. I don't think scoring 3-4 runs every game will win the series against the Yankees. You might win a game or two, but not the series.
Well that’s how they beat them in 17. Every series is different. There’s a variety of ways to win these games. You’re not going to just manufacture endless runs over and over in the playoffs. That fact that the stros can win that way speaks volumes
Does anyone one know what the celebration means? Edit: nvm, the answer was just posted in a seperate thread haha.
Relive Greinke's epic 43-word press conference https://www.mlb.com/news/zack-greinke-brief-alds-press-conference
Need 11 wins each postseason. Each WS Champ has at least 1 postseason win with closer coming in for a multi-inning save attempt since Royals in 2015 rode their relievers. Rough estimate, about a quarter to a third of the wins by WS Champs over that time were with closer attempting a multi-inning save. Not sure WS Champs care about closer comfort if they get rings.
Honestly, Greinke is shooting up towards the top of my favorite Astros. Between his blunt personality quirks, proud iceball pitching, and obsessive love for the game and playing it right, I'm just having a blast watching him.
hes kind of wierd to me but obviously this is just his personality. definitely a different vibe compared to what were use to seeing on this stros team
