Pitching Scherzer here is more likely to backfire now than it is to give them an emotional push. With a vice grip on the series, the emotional swing if he loses is significant. Allowing him to shake off the rust is good, but not in exchange for letting the Astros back into the series emotionally.
We’ve had extended looks at sborz, chapman, and le clerque. the objective is still to get into that pen.
Astros played like **** and we still had our chances. If there is any franchise that will blow a 2-0 lead with the next 3 at home it is the Texas Rangers.
Not a total no-show, he hit the first pitch he saw in the postseason for a HR. But yes, he's been disappointing.
They have to get to Scherzer early. they get game 3, then it gets real interesting. Javier hasn’t been reliable this year, but he lets those nuts hang in the playoffs, and killed Phillies momentum on the road last year. I do think, if we get to see Montgomery again we mash him. Semien, Seager, and their other big HR guy have been quiet so far, expect them to start hitting. So we need Tuck(dudes losing money), Abreu, and Altuve to counter. Dusty needs to set his lineup and leave it alone. I would give Diaz a start at catcher, maybe it settles his nerves at the plate, but don’t think we’ll see him much again. It doesn’t look good, but the one thing they haven’t done during this run is win a series after they’ve been down multiple games, maybe this is the one they heck that box. But honestly, it’s looking bleak. They kept the LCS streak alive and that was my hope for them, but damn, it can’t be the rangers.
With bases loaded and no outs I had HOPE and when Altuve came up with 2 out in the 9th, I had HIGH HOPES, but you have to tip your cap to them, we didn't get it done. Yordan was a one-man wrecking crew, but something is off with Tuck, I know one of the announcers mentioned that him carrying the team for a few months wore him out, but I am not sure I buy that, the kids in line for a huge payday and I think he is slumping at the wrong time. IMO we could be up 2-0 but in reality, were not so let's get our "Road Team" mentality in gear and go take 3 in Arlington. I probably should be phased by the hole were in but I`m not, the Astros have the fortitude to overcome this, the only question is will they.
So, I'd like to start off and apologize here this morning to everyone in this subforum. I've let my emotions get the better of me many times and probably put half of you on ignore, lol. But I've taken these losses way too personally, lashed out when I shouldn't have probably and just been miserable with the playoffs. The Astros were supposed to (even though they don't know of course) distract me from losing my kid in late June of this year at 22 weeks old (born premature at 22 weeks, I mean) and they have simply not done that. It's sent me into more of a depression/funk and partially a rage/deep sense of frustration too. I don't post many serious posts on this forum. I can count on probably one hand the number of posts (with my GoFundMe for my kid being one of them) that were serious. I know probably no one really cares about this apology, but I'll say it anyway because I apologized to my wife for being an ass to her whenever the Astros lose this morning and I value this community of people that are (almost) as crazy as me when it comes to sports. That being said, I think I've made a difficult decision to simply not watch Wednesday's game for my own mental health and sanity. It sucks when they lose because like I said, this is sort of like when we were playing well in 2017 and it meant a lot to the city for us to play well and win it all. I was hoping this year would be sort of a rallying cry to blissfully distract me from my kid's death in June. It has not, so I'll need to deal with it in other healthier ways. Might not watch Thursdays game either. Who cares at this point. It's just baseball. It's not worth getting so worked up over, taking it out on loved ones and taking it out on myself, and so on. Hope they win. Go Astros. I'm sure they will win or lose just fine without me tomorrow. Hope everyone's mental health is doing better than mine these days. I think mine will get back on track, but I need a break. At least for a game. I'll probably watch a good movie with my wife tomorrow night. Enjoy quality time with her and the dogs, and call it a night. Maybe I'll peak at the Astros box score, maybe not. Love me some Astros, but it's just hard man.
Astros still have ~15% chance to win this series. It’s not over. They dropped 2 games where their guys just didn’t meet the moment; it wasn’t that the other team was too good to overcome, it was that the other team played pretty well and the Astros didn’t perform at the game’s key moments. They lost the last 2 games by 3 runs combined. Win tomorrow and a lot of that goes away. The momentum will start to shift big time.
Lose tomorrow and it'll be over. Unless the Rangers are the 3-0 series leading Yankees. But agreed, I hope they win tomorrow. Maybe me skipping the game will propel them to victory, lol. Who the **** knows.
Honestly, these last two games have been what we've seen all season. Shitty offense and up-and-down starting pitching. They need to get another front line actual ace for next year imo.
The trickle down effect of overplaying Maldonado hurt the team in many ways. If the Astros had 3-6 extra wins from July on, there wouldn't have been such a desperate need to win every game. Many players could've gotten rest, and perhaps Astros win a good portion of those rest-day games too.
So can we agree to screenshot these Twitter posts for when they have a personal meltdown and hide their account Bases Loaded no outs and not scoring was awful, Chas looked bad in his two chances with runners on but I'd rather play the guy that isn't afraid to say I ****ed up today. A lot of warning track power so far for us, hopefully we can square the ball up just a bit more and turn it around. Heading to Arlington for G3 & G4 and hoping for a repeat of our last road trip there.
Framber pitched fewer innings this year than last. The Astros had a deep post season run last year, but Framber didn't pitch in the WBC. I'm not sure there is a lot to suggest overuse was his "problem." His challenge has always been more mental focus and control related. He put it all together last year, so everyone assumed he had "solved" it. His probably going to be a perennial Cy Young candidate going forward that is also prone to blow ups.
Totally agree, "so so" punctuatated by occasional "run explosions." Throw in inconsistent pitching and you have the 2023 Astros. Game three of this series is a MUST win, no doubt about it. They are not winning four straight. In fact, the Astros need to win all the games in Arlington. Statistically, their chances are very low.
The thing is....we really SUCK at home. Honestly, I predicted we would lose both games at home. This series has 2019 World Series written all over it. I wouldn't be surprised if it mirrors those 7 games. I kind of wish we wouldn't have lucked into the division championship. We wouldn't have home field "advantage" and maybe we would have a shot at winning this thing.
