I'm not sure it was ever responsible to sing his praises. He's a dependable 5th starter... but you have to expect the bad with the good.
Yea that's fair. Responsible is one way to put it. He certainly was instrumental (along with Peacock) in keeping the ship afloat during the injuries. Darvish has given up 5 to the Marlins..so there's that.
It is, and it wouldn't surprise me. All those late-inning comebacks have masked a lot of the pitching disappointments this year. Having 3 MVP-caliber players in your everyday lineup, getting the majority of the AB's, goes a long way towards winning and scoring runs in bunches. Runs = wins... that part has worked out tremendously.
The last 2 months is the outlier for Fiers. Tonight is more like he really is. Sure, we praised his results. There is no contradiction or anything hypocritical about saying that. What is ridiculous is to assume that when a guy has two good months that suddenly he has made the transition from #5 to Ace.
Backend relievers losing their touch--Feliz Sipp etc after ASB. Even Devo showing signs of fatigued arm. Tonight we are also getting worked over by the umpire.
Peacock always had better stuff... he just finally got the mechanics down (throwing exclusively from the stretch) to get a few more miles on his fastball which off-sets his already good off-speed stuff. He's also been consistently good all year... while Fiers has been, by definition, inconsistent.
lol Fiers is an ok pitcher, good #5 and can obviously go on good runs but I'm just saying the odds of him having an outing like this is much higher than a Gray or Verlander guy obviously. Not the guy I want starting in a playoff game and I'd say that even if he had another good game today.