As I stated, most every manager would employee the same strategy. Pitching carefully tends to leave balls on the corners. All they needed was a soft poke and the game would have been over. It's a calculated strategy. It didn't work. In addition, pitching carefully would ultimately have led to 2 walks as well or a mistake by the pitcher.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Astros' bullpen has a 0.95 ERA in its last 19 innings (six games) with 31 strikeouts.</p>— Brian McTaggart (@brianmctaggart) <a href="https://twitter.com/brianmctaggart/status/735339581923561472">May 25, 2016</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
At the end of the day, you try to minimize the amount of ways the other team can win the game. With a runner on 3rd and no outs, a simple ground ball that makes ano infielder move can win it for you. With a runner on 1st and 3rd with no outs, same thing, a ground ball wins it for you. With bases loaded and no outs, the ground ball becomes a force at home, which pretty much eliminates their chances of winning that way (barring an error). It was the correct move. Props to Correa for coming through with a base hit.
All this true, but what it mostly came down to is, they didn't fear Correa. He's been struggling. No way they apply that same stradegy if a better hitter was coming up.
does hinch play it that way? that's not the way we play the game. So I don't think every manager plays it the same way. Each to taste. Feels good to win. We've been right there with .600 clubs.
Correa has been struggling. Maybe this will get him going. Needs to take it personal that they loaded the bases and were okay pitching to him. We need a rock or two in this lineup and Correa has not been getting it done. It is hopefully part of the learning process and he will turn it around. Also, Moran is completely overmatched and I have little hope of him being a contributor. This is not as much about the sample size in the majors but his mostly mediocre performances and high strikeout rate in the minors. He is supposed to be a high contact low strikeout guy I thought with good on base skills but the opposite seems to be true. If we are going to test some people out there, maybe Bregman, JD Davis or even Tyler White get some burn there against lefties at some point this season? I am not saying to cut the cord on Moran but I just don't have much hope. Let's hope his pedigree/bloodline kicks in soon and he is able to contribute and get his first major league hit soon. Also, good power by Kemp on his triple. Hopefully he can provide a spark and get solid playing time even against lefties to see what we have. His defense seems pretty solid. It would be nice if he can develop enough to be a top of the order guy but not sure he will be able to do that.
Once you had the lead runner on third (Kemp triple) it was definitely the smart move. Without runners at first and second, any play at the plate would require the ball to beat Kemp home AND the catcher would have to tag Kemp before he touched the base. Tough to do with a guy as fast as Kemp. Putting runners on first and second would mean that they would only have to touch the plate instead of tagging Kemp. It also allows for the possibility of double plays, and pretty much eliminates the temptation for the Astros to attempt a squeeze bunt. Plus, you lose if the guy at third scores no matter what. Putting additional runners on won't hurt you because they will never get a chance to score. All of this doesn't even take into account that the two batters walked, Altuve and Springer, are unquestionably our best hitters and it makes sense to avoid them if possible. In summary: The Orioles most likely were going to lose no matter what after the leadoff triple. The Orioles wanted to create potential force plays and avoid the Astros two best hitters.
Our bullpen is doing some work right now, really a shame that they haven't had leads to protect. Gregersen had a lull, but he looks right back to normal. Giles seems to be back on point after the bad start. Harris has been stupid dominant, and Feliz seems to get filthier every time out. Hell Feldman has been awesome. Some people are of the mindset that any decent starter can be a great reliever if allowed to do it regularly. After seeing Feldman, I'm starting to believe that myself. His K rate has doubled out of the pen.
Feldman hitting 94 to 95... high leg kick... good stuff. We haven't even gone back to Devenski... who was more impressive out of the bullpen than he was as a starter. And add Sipp as somebody who's getting back to his good stuff... this bullpen really doesn't have a single weak component. Hinch certainly has options. As somebody who considers that bullpen management is the main priority of in-game managing... Hinch has shown a decent ability to maneuver through all these guys, and should be a notch in the plus column on his evaluation as a manager. At the very least, he (and the organization) deserves some credit for the handling of Giles... its not easy to bring somebody back from a broken brain (without a change of scenery).
That was a very nice game last night as it turned out. I hope it is an experience they can build on going forward. The bullpen and pitching was outstanding! It was nice to see the new guy get the triple there and score the winning run. Feel bad for the other new guy who can't get a hit.
Well then. <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Carlos Correa has yet to record an extra-base hit against left-handed pitching this season. Just 5 for 33 with 1 RBI vs. lefthanders.</p>— Jake Kaplan (@jakemkaplan) <a href="https://twitter.com/jakemkaplan/status/735492416602406913">May 25, 2016</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Thanks to everyone who explained that strategy Baltimore pulled yesterday. I'm guessing that triple really did it for us given where the batting order stood. It's like that turn right before checkmating your opposition.
Yeah, it's a small sample regardless. But particularly considering he's right handed, I'm gonna need a much, much larger sample to be concerned that he has trouble with lefties. I would call that a flukeish stat, nothing more
