I'm old enough to remember when Fiers pitched a no-no against the Dodgers about a week after coming here, and everyone thought that trade was a big win for us. If Fiers wasn't an @sshole who threw at Giancarlo's face, then we could have traded him for Luis Castillo and at least cut our losses (if the source is to be believed), and it would have been before the whole trash can banging started too.
Pence's 2019 revival just came completely out of nowhere, and this year he appears to have resumed the career trajectory he was on prior. With Yordan being done for the year it's not entirely ridiculous if the Astros took a flyer on Pence to see if there's still some 2019 left.
Surprised he went back to the team he had struggled with before. Remind of Carlos Gomez going to Texas and playing at a high level, then being terrible again upon leaving. Danny Santana is another that turned around his career in Texas, though he's struggled this year in Texas.
Gerrit Cole lost today. First charged L in a regular season game since last May. Braves got to him for 5 ER and 3 homers.