After that at-bat, the Astros were up 2-1 going into the 8th inning with a supposedly elite bullpen. If you knew the season was over at that point, that means you had already decided the Astros bullpen couldn't hold any leads. If that's the case, the Astros weren't going anywhere in the playoffs anyway so it didn't matter.
Tucker’s place in Astros history sits among of the group of “really good players” such as George Springer, Ken Caminiti, Richard Hidalgo, Glenn Davis, and Kevin Bass. Just above guys like Hunter Pence, Morgan Ensberg, and Luis Gonzalez. But well below the top 10 all time position players in franchise history.
Another season would have made it interesting. His 23 WAR is currently 16th among position players. 7.7 WAR behind Joe Morgan who is 10th. His projected WAR over 150g last year was 9.0. 38 HR away from 10th He's 5th all time in OPS+ He didn't have a chance to get into top 10 of most counting stats.
of course, I had a feeling it was over when we got swept by the Reds. This team had a whole lotta quit in them.
That's fine - but if you believed that, it really didn't matter if they won or lost that game. If the elite members of the bullpen can't be expected to close out a game against the Tigers, there was no way they were going to win 12 more games against better teams regardless.
