Hopefully Benny's persistence to beat the shift was well noticed... he's going to keep doing it if its an RBI situation.
They had the middle IF positioned for the DP, as they should have been. The "wild pitch" was the killer that inning, and speaking of I am not at all impressed with Maldonado behind the plate. If he's not throwing lasers to nail runners he's not really that good. ETA: I misremembered the series of events that inning. You nailed it.
To Me Ryan Presley or Lance McCullers Jr in the 6th, Josh James in the 7th, Hector Rondon 8th, Roberto Osuna 9th Josh James in the 7th Inning is very critical for the Postseason Level of Pitching. Josh is not ready to Start in MLB, when I saw him pitch as a Starter. The only thing in my mind was damn he can be a Huge Setup Man in the 7th. Very Glad it Came True. We Need Bullpen Power Pitchers in 6,7,8,9 innings of the Game. Credit goes to Hinch, Brent Strom, Jeff Luhnow in believing in Josh James. Pressly, James, Osuna are Great Additions, will be the main reason to win close games.
The walk was the at bat where osuna really messed up along with the wild pitch. Allowing that runner to reach base brings the tying run to the plate which is the outcome you really want to avoid there. Goal should be to avoid facing jd Martinez at all costs there. You need to make the hitter beat you there and trust your defense and throw strikes. Most of the balls missed so badly on the walk that the odds of betts chasing were low. I think he may have been rattled from the lucky bloop hit on the walk to betts. That said, the sequence of pitches to jd Martinez was very well executed. Bigger story in our bullpen right now than osuna in my opinion is smiths resurgence, presslys great start and dare I say mr. James now?!? Osuna in my opinion has allowed way too many base runners since joining the team. That high WHIP will burn you sooner or later. Has osuna truly been that much of an upgrade to rondon?
I've been having the same thoughts throughout this series. I think about 6 or 7 years ago, we went to a game vs. the Red Sox. Still in the NL at the time, so it was a rarity. Astros actually had a pretty decent lead until the 7th inning, but they were terrible at the time, so the Red Sox eventually broke it open in the 7th and ended up easily winning. What I remember most was cheers for the Red Sox just completely filling Minute Maid Park. I was sure I was in the minority as an Astros fan at that game. It was ugly and sad. Seeing all that orange at Fenway this weekend and even hearing chants of "Let's Go Astros" is the just most amazing turnaround from my experience.
Heard on the radio broadcast today that the team is blown away by his preparation and attention to detail. No doubt he was damn good today.
The final 3 weeks of the season is going to be interesting if the Red Sox bullpen continues it's meteoric fall they've had over they've been experiencing the past month. They've gone from a top 3 ERA bullpen, to a top 20 ERA bullpen.
Strange. Even this game where he let guys get on, he didn’t make any mistakes in the zone. Rondon does make mistakes in the zone. Mistakes that get hammered. Mistakes that have blown saves. He’s still a very effective late inning bullpen guy, and has certainly exceeded expectations and production since the Astros got him... but Osuna is better. The heads up fully aware of this too, hence why he was elevated back to closer very quickly, despite Rondon not really having done much to lose the job.
Okay, so I've been somewhat busy and not active as often. Sorry, just been SO sick and tired of games all season long where one of our starters does well but does not get the win. I feel JV, Cole, and Morton should be each having 22+ win seasons this year. Obviously wins are wins, I just really wish our starters had more, I think they've definitely pitched well enough to earn them. Sorry, I was just venting. Also upset BTW with the Texans cutting Lechler (he deserves ONE more chance at a ring), but that's irrelevant. Gerrit Cole for Cy Young, 2019!
Looks like Gurriel is our new cleanup hitter. White bats seventh and DH's, meaning Gattis has sat out this entire series. On the Red Sox side, Phillips starts at third base. Returned to MLB during their Atlanta series. He wears #0, the first player in Red Sox history to ever do so.
