Likewise, you wouldn't be surprised if they win this division by 5 plus games. Really glad this is the first ever baseball season for some of you...
Hinch: We're gettin' beat up. We need to get to the next series. We got some things to address. We're not working as perfectly as we normally do. I'm gonna try to take absolutely nothing away from this series. (McCullers) Pitching is really hard when you feel like you have a smaller margin for error. Broke through offensively later in the game. Lance was very dominant. He & Maldonado worked well together. Got him for a run then a couple of things happened in the 3-run inning. If he can get out of the way, ball is hit up the middle to Bregman. Botched play behind him. A little bad luck involved. His stuff was good. Good outing, feels like smaller margin for error right now. (Part of your job knowing when to say something & knowing when not to say something?) I think everything is my job. I gotta do it all. I'm the manager. I'll take the bullets when we go through a stretch like this. I'll address the team if I feel like we need to but we really don't. This is a small, small little sample in a really long season. If you're gonna look for me to panic, you should look elsewhere. (White) We should all take a red eye flight from the West Coast. Really good display of hitting, 4 good ABs, couldn't ask for much more from him. Told late in the night, lands, finds he's in the lineup, 4 times on base, that's pretty good.
No they weren’t Houston was -240 which means you could have got +215 maybe +220 depending on where you are playing
There is definitely cause for concern. The team isn't playing well and is hitting a very rough patch in the schedule. The team had a bigger cushion last season when it had it's August swoon.
I am not panicking by any stretch. It is just a game. But if we are 1 or 2 games out of first 2 weeks from now will you be concerned. I sure will. We went stretches last year where mike fiers and Brad Peacock were our two best pitchers and managed to win. We are the only team in the league to only use 5 pitchers this year yet we are faltering a little more than expected. If I told you at the start of the year that by the end of July not ONE started will have missed their start how big of a lead in the division would you have thought we would have? I would have said 10-12. So yea. I am concerned. If there is a solid rental bat out there we may want to pull the trigger if we are going to take the ultra careful approach. Games are not going to get any easier from here.
Why is it only about the Astros? Why not look at the fact that the Mariners have been horrible over the last few weeks? Or that Oakland just got swept and scored only 4 runs in 3 games at Coors Field?
Lots of games left vs Seattle. Astros have plenty of opportunities to put this away. Need to get healthy.
Blum has said that Kemp is taking grounders at 2B, but Hinch is clearly reluctant to play him there for some reason. When Altuve is resting/DH-ing. it's Marwin, Bregman or Gurriel instead, except for the occasional late-inning defensive shift. Gurriel is a middle infielder, today he showed that he has no business at second base. First and third are good, and he should stay there. I think that with Gurriel, Kemp, and Bregman, we'll be fine without Marwin next year. Tomorrow we face Paxton, a difficult lefty, so as much as I want Kemp and Tucker in the same lineup, not getting my hopes up, it'll likely be both White and Davis again. White is making a lot out of this opportunity, but still too early to tell.
