JV is 40 and gassed from the long season. We were all hoping this wouldn’t happen but we all knew it very well could.
Justin Verlander... hmmm. I am second guessing whether I want to give him that contract he may or may not want. People can say what they want, but he has not performed well for the Astros in the postseason. You can say he's done average and I wouldn't disagree, but he isn't an ace when it matters. Needs to be said.
Exactly. With Garcia/Urquidy/Brown on the roster the Astros have plenty of long arms for the series. No reason JV should still be in there after the home run.
He's been inconsistent in the postseason. I'd let him walk because I don't trust him to stay healthy and resting him during the regular season(we did have a 6-man rotation a lot of the time) clearly isn't enough to keep him fresh for the playoffs. Better to spend his salary elsewhere and lock up much younger key players.
Really poor managing by the Astros that inning. There was no reason to try and squeeze more out of Verlander there, the Astros have a very good and rested pen. Sending Verlander out to start the 4th was a defensible decision. After the Crawford homer he arguably should have been pulled. Letting him continue pitching after Rodriguez tripled was terrible....... Letting him continue to pitch after France doubled? Disgusting....... Got very very lucky there.
My gut feeling is there's no way we'll sign a pitcher to some astronomical contract who has now gone 1-6 in his last 7 playoff decisions and an era approaching 5.00. After all, this is the only season that matters and he just can't get it done for whatever reason.
