The most disturbing aspect of the game last night is that the Nationals looked like the better team. Of course, when you win that happens, but it was more than that. They out pitched, out hit, and out hustled the Astros. Our guys better pick up their game and quick. And I am still mad at Alvarez for that base loaded strike out. That was weak and worse, it was a game changer. Bregman and Correa better eat their Wheaties too! Really weak!
I don't think the Nats proved they have a better starting staff because of one game. I'd still take Cole/Verlander/Greinke every time.
The Astros had more hits and walks, so I don't think you can say Washington outhit or out-pitched them. You are right about the hustle. I'd look at like basically everything went right for Washington (better sequencing of their hits, no call on the catcher's interference, Springer's home run missing by less than a foot, Diaz and Tucker with hard hit outs with men on, etc.) and they still only won by a run.
Jesus. No the Nationals didn’t look like the better team. They looked like a team that took advantage of an off start from Cole and had a big inning. They looked like a team that was trying to do everything possible to hold on to a 5-4 win.
You think everything went perfect for the Nats. Robles is one of the best outfielder in the game. He misplayed fly ball horrible that gave y’all a run. If that does happen, Scherzer would’ve came back out in the 6th. And then he had a bother bad decision when he threw to first base instead of 2nd. Y’all got to our bullpen early which is the recipe for success against the Nats and game up short. That won’t happen too often. Max was getting pitcher counts and couldn’t locate his change up. We were serving up meatballs all night to the Stros’ hitters and they were either scared to lift that bats or couldn’t take advantage
We can't expect to keep winning without scoring real runs and leaving people stranded. We were one of the best offenses in baseball and we look anemic. So do we have to basically pitch perfect to always get a win? We had numerous chances last night even with Cole making a couple mistakes and we didn't capitalize. That's the most troubling part. Not Cold having an off night.
Come on bro. You guys had a nice W. That did not prove that yall had the better staff. Our guy had an off night for the first time in months. Your staff is nice but already stretched. I would feel confident even if yall steal another one tonight.
I'd like to see a full field camera view of the entire sequence. Hard to make any judgement about whether he could have made it to third or not without that full context. That being said, Springer was not thinking "I'm just going to take my time and hop half way down the baseline since I know Tucker is going to have to tag up on this." He assumed it was a homerun, and would have done the same thing if Tucker was on third. Hopefully there are no more mental errors like that tonight.
regardless that's a fundamental error of baseball that shouldn't be made. Especially when you're losing. it's the same issues the braves had with acuna. the crazy thing is springer takes off running on his 1st home run and that was a no doubter. for the 8th inning hit, he found himself watching from the beginning. I'm sure the guys will learn from this. they're definitely smarter than that.
When Josh Reddick hit pop ups and shouts "F***!" it reminds of when the Texans had Matt Turk and instead of pinning a punt inside the 10 he'd launch it 20 yards out the back of the endzone and shout "F***!" every time, as if he normally hits those.
Agree, we have relied on the heroics a number of times and it's bound to catch up with us if we can't string together normal innins instead of just HR's
Bro, put something in the tip jar before you start mouthing off in an Astros thread. No free speech here.
We are seeing, in a sense, a replay of the last series. I hope it doesn't take as much drama to have a repeat of the result.
I agree that the Astros have the better staff, but only because of the roll that Cole has been on, and that has been momentarily erased. If I had to rank the pitchers at this exact moment in the postseason, Strasburg would be second after Cole. Which is bad, because he is pitching tonight. Verlander had a better regular season, but if you're looking at this moment in time, he has not been better than Strasburg in these playoffs. Even recent history, Verlander's playoff performances have been good, but not exactly lights out. Strasburg has much less postseason appearances to go on than Verlander, but he has an ERA of 1.10 in 41 total innings of postseason baseball. Should be an interesting one, but I think at least one of these things are going to need to happen. Astros are going to have to hit Strasburg better than other have been able to do so far in his postseason career, or Verlander's going to have to pitch better than he has been. In short, Astros are going have to break out of their hitting slump in a big way tonight, and do it against a premier pitcher.