No, he did not look. He was especially horrible after Hudson had thrown 72 balls in a row before Lane decided to swing at two low pitches. But, we won and that's all that matters. He's got a chance to be turn it around tonight. Enjoy the victory.
No kidding. Looked like a rookie out there. But it was his first playoff game I think. Can't remember, but hopefully he learned a little something. Needs to be more patient on a night like that when no-one has control. Luckily he never really hurt us with all that free swinging. The walks were key. Hopefully Lane can get a few. I find it ironic that we have this light hitting team and it may be the lineup that gets us a ring. Garner was very efficient last night. Bunting every chance he got. And it paid off most of the time. Glad to see we are scrapping for runs. Looks like he's leaned his lessons the last few weeks.
I thought he played last year's playoffs...he had a spot start out on right field and made a good defensive play. I think he homered in that game also but I could be wrong.
I wouldn't be worried. Every guy has their on- and off- nights. It was an off-night for Lane. Inversely, we got an on-night for Ensburg :-D
That's what's so great and so frustrating about baseball. You can assemble a team like the 98 squad and go out in 4 games. Or you can assemble a weak hitting team and catch lightning in a bottle with great pitching. Oddly enough...the idea that our pitchers would have to be top-notch to advance didn't hold true yesterday. Pettite wasn't bad...but he wasn't stellar, either. And the Astros came away winners on the road.
I'm gonna disagree with you there. He really made one horrible pitch, IMO, the one to Andruw Jones. I didn't think Chipper's HR was a bad pitch as much as it was a nice piece of hitting. Outside of those two HRs, he was never in any kind of trouble or anything. He looked rather dominating, IMO.
Good pitching seems to make Lane look stupid. Not that Hudson was on yesterday, but he seemed to know that Lane would hack away at those breaking balls. I wouldn't mind seeing the league leader in walks Brian Giles as our outfielder next year if Drayton would pay for it.
Yeah, I agree. The Chipper (opposite field) shot was just great hitting by a good hitter... the Andruw Jones pitch was his only real mistake of the game. He was pretty much dominant other then that one pitch.
This is to be expected in a player's first big league season. Next year, I expect him to have fewer "terrible" at bats and fewer strikeouts on pitches way out of the zone. Lane is like a very poor man's Ensberg: He hits mistake pitches. Throw him good pitches and he will usually make an out.
agreed; he gave up four hits in 7 IP. he was as good as advertised. lane's a problem; no, he didn't "kill" us, but he did GIDP to kill the rally in the first and then G'edIDP again that would have killed a rally if giles hadn't dropped the ball at second. but i suspect lamb will be starting tonight and batting fifth. if not, lane has to protect berkman and ensberg. i knew berkman wouldn't see a pitch this postseason; now i'm thinking they'll be more careful with ensberg, too, so lane is going to have to do something.
Lane was just luring them yesterday. He knew that we didn't need his bat to win, so he intentionally looked like crap so the Braves would pitch around Berkman and Ensberg to get to him. Tonight, he'll make them pay!!
Yeah he was very impatient like the commentators were saying. Hopefully he can look back at this game for preperation for game 2.
Lane always has the problem of being impatient after the Astros have a big play. My opinion is just that he wants to play the hero too, and bring in two great plays back to back. He'll do it once sometime too and everyone will forget about the hacking at every pitch
Yeah, Lane is just HORRIBLE he didn't just save our asses by hitting a game tying home run on the last day of the season helping to clinch our playoff birth. If you are going to be these bandwagon fans again STFU and save us all some grief. IT WAS ONE FREAKING GAME he did badly in... and it was a game we FREAKING WON!
