Imagine Hader is used to save a game tomorrow (or a tie game) and then Sunday we are up 1 in the 9h and Hader isn't available and Sousa blows the save.
At the end of the day once again we had 11 hits, one being a 2 run homer after a HBP. So we scored 1 run off the other 10 hits. Our $20M man continues to be pathetic.
Not here to defend Espada on his Abreu move tonight, but with the 17 straight games without an off day and the starters not going deep the last two nights, the pen isn't exactly full of great, rested choices. Just not our night tonight, need more from the offense.
Espada makes some truly baffling decisions. Wasted Hader in a sure fire loss. He did this in the last Mariners series. We lost the series because our best arms weren't available and the rest of the bum arms couldn't hold a big lead and gave up like 6 runs. And the Mariners seem to have B. Abreu's number. He's given up multiple games spanning back to last season.
Ok. They weren't going to go 162 games without blowing a few when leading by 1 in the 7th inning. Also - Abreu has been awesome so I get Espada bringing him in And he should have closed the door. But entering the season, the team announced reducing Abreu's innings and over 1 inning outings was a priority of the season. King has been great and Abreu was still going to be needed for the 8th inning - let King finish the inning. King pitched yesterday, so he's out of Saturday anyway but if Abreu can keep his pitch count down he can pitch Saturday when he's needed. Just keep him to 1 inning. It's stupid for Espada to take King out in that spot. And its even worse to put Abreu in expecting him to get 4 outs, possibly losing him for Saturday when King also won't be available.
Abreu hadn’t pitched in like 4 days. He will be available today regardless of whether he got 3 or 4 outs. None of you guys would have said a word about this had Abreu just done his job. In fact, he got 4 outs his last appearance against the Rays and we won. Didn’t hear any complaints then… And I already posted Julio’s numbers against Abreu but FYI Cal was 0-8 with 5 Ks coming into that AB against him. It’s very reasonable to say Abreu was the better option against their two best hitters last night. Complaining about using him to get 4 outs instead of 3 because of his season workload when you are trying to get a W against the team you’re chasing in the division doesn’t make sense to me. FWIW he’s on pace to throw less innings and appear in less games.
Abreu is one of your two true dominant relievers, I have no problem bringing him in there. Using Hader was ignorant None of it is going to matter though if we only have two starters that can get through 5 innings
I absolutely agree Abreu needed to be in that game, just like Hader did. But I questioned the move immediately, though I know none of you were there to hear it. And yes, if Abreu had gotten 4 outs in less than 25ish pitches without giving up the lead I would not say a thing. But that didn't happen. It's 2025. We all see what is going on with pitcher's injuries. There is absolutely a scenario where he can't pitch Saturday if he ends up throwing 25+ high stress pitches Friday. The Astros publicly stated that reducing the stress and use on Abreu's arm, specifically citing asking him to get more than 3 outs, was a priority for 2025. King had thrown 22 pitches Thursday, so pitching him Friday meant he wasn't going to be available Saturday, regardless. He had only thrown 10 pitches Friday and RH hitters have a .379 OPS against him. Absolutely no reason to take him out of that game. It's risky, stupid over managing. Making a move for the sake of making a move.
