Hope the first round experience settles Tucker down for this start. He had some bad looking strikeouts vs. TB.
Every season can be different, but Reddick has been really bad in the postseason. all time .212/.274/.285 with Houston .188/.248/.238
Reddick not starting tomorrow either. Guess it will be Diaz who we heard was practicing in left with Pettis yesterday.
Reddick's playoff bat has sucked since forever. Tucker is an unknown but hard to see him being worse. Plus Kyle has more speed. Not sure of the defensive gap.
Oh I'm aware, I was just more talking about the use of 11PAs against Tampa to base anything on. Yep. I have middling faith in Tucker also, but he's the better option. eta: I will say that Tanaka is the type of pitcher Tucker could feast on. I absolutely hate the idea of Diaz/Springer/Brantley in the OF with JV on the mound. Just start Jake in CF, PH for him later in the game if needed. eta: but whatever, tonight's all that matters at the moment, and that's the best lineup they can run out there
Seems like I remember a play at the fence and a throw to the plate(relay by Correa) that saved games against the Yankees in 2017. Might just be my foggy memory, but it seems like we lost five games out of the seven without absolutely startling defensive plays by Redick and Bregman. Was Bregman's play to the plate against the Yankees or the Dodgers? My other memories of the series involve Morton and McCullers throwing curve balls in the dirt while the young Yankees hitters swung belt high over and over and over again. We kept throwing low curve balls while they kept trying to belt high fastballs into the seats. I'm really worried that our aces this year seem to get most of their outs striking out people on high fastballs and the Yankees seem to get most of their runs smashing high fastballs into the seats, but I guess that's another topic.
Reddick was just an automatic out. Sometimes, you just have to do what you gotta do. Tucker should at least be able to match Reddicks past playoff output, but it makes you wonder why Reddick is even on the roster other than it would be too big a blow to the team's ego. But we did it with Miley and McHugh. Anyway, rooting for the kids tonight. Three rookies could be playing. And that doesn't even count Urquidy.
ALCS Game 2: https://www.mlb.com/news/josh-reddick-saves-astros-with-great-plays-c258567982 The Bregman play at home was Game 7 against the the Yankees:
Yep...Reddick fielded a hit at the wall, got the ball to Correa and Correa threw the runner out at third preserving a 0-0 tie early in game 2. Nice play. And he was 1-25 in the series at the plate.
Looking forward to this game. I've been listening to postmortem of the Twins and a couple of things have stood out about that the NY MN series: 1. First off the the Twins were not ready for the big time and one of the Twins pitchers even said that he started to do things he didn't normally like not focusing on the hitter he was facing and thinking about what was coming next. The Stros are an experienced team that shouldn't be afraid of the big lights or be intimidated by the Bronx but some individuals might. That said it didn't help that Nelson Cruz who has played in the World Series and Marwin Gonzalez who was with us for our runs didn't look good against the Yankees. Alvarez and Tucker and some of the other players who haven't been in this situation will have to be able to get the Yankees mystique out of their minds quick. 2. When the Yankees played tshe Twins in the regular seasons those games turned into slugfest with both teams launching ball out of the park. In this series didn't look like that. The Yankees changed their approach at the plate and showed a lot of patience not chasing pitches. That forced the Twins pitchers to start serving them up and the Yankees delivered. The Twins on the other hand kept on trying to hit it out of the park on every swing and consequently couldn't deal with all of the breaking balls the Yankees pitchers delivered. The Yankees hitters narrowed the strike zone while the Twins enlarged it. This is pretty much what we saw the Rays do to us. They showed amazing plate discipline and were rewarded whereas in the two losses and game two the Stros hacked away. I expect the Yankees to do a lot of the same to us and I hope we're ready. This is playoff baseball and teams unable to make adjustments are going to be out.
Well, I made my rounds in seeking out predictions for tonight. The general outlook seems to hinge on tonight. If we win, most think we will take the series. If NYY win, many think they can win it in 5 before Cole and JV pitch games 6 & 7.
