Keep the faith, bro. Springer is going to do wonders when he comes back and we're going to slam the Rangers.
Well, only way we win the division is with Texas playing bad, we need them to play .500 so we win. I don't think we can win the division, we are going to need help from Texas.
Yes, keep the hope that George comes back Friday. Keep hope alive, living on a prayer half the year. Hope they call Correa up! Just get Lowrie back from injury! Hope Carter comes around! Hope Gomez comes around! Just get Springer back! Now hope Castro gets back because apparently none of the pitchers, except Ace himself, know how to pitch without him! KEEP HOPE ALIVE! :grin: I know, I know, I'm a negative nancy and it's not as bad as I make it. Come on, they're in first place dude!
Then you haven't been paying attention. The Astros have the third best run differential in baseball. Hell they have a staggering +125 run differential compared to the Rangers, yet the Rangers are only 3-4 games back. That is absurd. Some of that is luck, but some of that is poor managing, poor execution in crunch situations. It is things like having a runner in scoring position and pinch hitting back to back strikeout machines. It is having a lefty specialist pitch an inning or longer. It is trotting Chris Carter out day after day and hitting him in the heart of the line up. It is moving on from defense, base running and pitching to the weird and obviously not going to work line ups Hinch sticks out there.
They have been a .500 team since May, which is what most people thought would be the high watermark for this team. It's a bad series but coming at home against a poor team hurts even more. With the way they have played on the road, all it would take is one poor homestand to knock this team from the division lead. Hopefully they take it to the Twins and find a way to go .500 on the big roadtrip.
Hinch went to Neshek twice and got let down both times. Not much you can do when your highly paid set up man can't get you through the eighth. Nor is there much that can be done when you strand a bunch of runners in scoring position. This was simply poor play from the entire team.
Doesn't Hinch, and the bench, call most of the game anyways? Conger certainly has absolutely zero arm... and they'll miss Castro for that purpose (although I don't remember the last time Castro threw anybody out either... or either catcher's inability to throw out base runners resulting in a loss). I don't think there was much appreciable difference in individual pitchers' ERA's when they were caught by Castro or Conger... if anything, its somewhat fortunate that Hinch didn't go with the whole "personal catcher" approach, and had both catchers get a chance to catch everybody.
The team needs a jolt. They seem to be going through the motions of a long season. Astros were on fire before Springer got injured...maybe they get that swagger back when he finally gets back in the lineup along with Castro...at the end of the day will the talent on this team override the lack of vet experience heading into this month of September or not. Exciting times
But yet he plays every single night. Jake plays better D and goes 2 for 3 and gets yanked. Don't question Hinch's motives, just roll with it.
Hmm.. and pinch hitting Conger snd Valbuena back to back when the WORST thing you can have is a strikeout? No, there are worse managers than Hinch but he isn't very good. The advanced numbers bare it out too.
