I guess I see the glass half full or something... I don't see a team that has choked... a team that chokes would have lost game one 7-1 (but our bullpen kept us in it)... a team that chokes would have lost game two 6-4 (but Baggy, Burke and Viz pulled through to tie it)... a team that chokes would have lost tonight 5-4 (but lane drove the tying run home).... a team that chokes would have withered away and died when it seems the whole world is against us. What I see there is a team that fights hard even when their backs are to the wall...but just can't find a way to break through no matter how hard they try. To me that's not choking, but that's just me I guess.
i haven't been one to second guess garner but pulling taveras for palmeiro in the ninth should have been a no-brainer. maybe it doesn't work out but no one in the world questions that move, considering willy's performance in those situations. i hope we make the greatest comeback ever, which might be somewhat fitting considering where we started, but realisticaly i just don't want to be swept. in the end i don't want this series to be looked at as lopsided when at the minimum i feel like we should be up 2-1. this thing has been way closer then 3-0 and i think that's why it's stinging real bad right now.
I forgot to mention: Bud Selig's a dick. I constantly question why my interest in baseball is so high when such an incompetent man is running it. Instead of spending your time ordering the Astros to open their roof (something they complied with not because they had to, but because they didn't want to rock the boat) why don't you go do something useful like catch the steroid abusers in your sport or help another charity. The blunders you do have you don't even address, but as you drive by in your Hummer you yell at me to close my sunroof because my music's bothering you. While you're at it, why don't you teach your umpires the most basic tenet of the sport, the difference between a ball and a strike. It changes with every umpire, if not with every pitch. Maybe somehow you can trick this batch of incompetent pricks to resign like you did the last group. Or maybe because you accepted resignations that they begged you to give back, we're now in the era of watered down officiating. Either way, good God man. Every other job in this world has standards and measures to make sure the employee is doing what they are supposed to. Apparently major league umpires can screw up as often as they like and not worry about the consequences. They're not weathermen predicting the future. All they are asked to do is watch a little ball get thrown and smacked across a field and make consistent, accurate calls of what they see. Yet my half blind 90 year old grandma could call a more consistent game then they do.
We're down. We're down real far. But we're not out. I honestly cannot sleep tonight, thinking about what this series could and should be at right now. Drooling over the thought of being down 2-1. That being said, call me hopelessly optimistic or whatever you want, I can still see a game 7 in my head. I think it all hinges on tomorrow's game though...obviously we need it to move on, but I think if we win tomorrow we can push it to 7. They have to come out tomorrow with confidence and just grind out a win. Backe needs another spectacular playoff performance. If we can do it tomorrow, you've got Clemens/Pettitte/Oswalt due up again. I don't care who the other team has on the mound, I like our chances of winning all 3 with those guys on the hill...especially when they know our backs are against the wall, and they know it is their last start of they year. Even with a hampered Clemens. I just hope to God that they come out with that mentality tomorrow, and not a "well it was a great season" mentality. One thing I would love to see is everyone in the lineup besides Berkman and Ausmus to stop trying to jerk the ball to LF on every swing. It has to stop. You don't manufacture runs and knock in runners on 3rd with one out by pulling the ball. Put it in play for God's sake. Make the other team play some defense. Biggio, Taveras, Ensberg, Lane, Everett...that's who I'm talking about. Especially Taveras and Ensberg. Taveras needs to keep his back foot steady and use it to generate a bit of power and keep his balance...this is basic hitting, nothing special. He could learn that from a Tom Emanski video. He was doing it in game 1 and 2, and now he's back to hacking at the ball off balance. Ensberg just flat out needs to learn to hit the ball to the right side. I don't blame this on Gaetti...but I have a feeling he is not helping with any of these guys problems. Here's my game 4 lineup: 2B Biggio CF Taveras LF Berkman 3B Ensberg RF Lane 1B Lamb SS Vizcaino C Ausmus I just cannot watch Adam Everett strike out, or pop out, or hit a weak grounder with men on again. 0 for 14 with RISP does not deserve to be starting, unless you are Ozzie freakin Smith...which he's not. All we really needed to win game 3 was some contact in key situations...a guy like Viz makes contact. As soon as Garcia comes out, I yank Lamb in a double switch and put Palmiero in LF.
The one thing that upsets me most about this team is that every game that we've played, we should've won, if we had executed properly. The white sox didn't play better than us, we just didn't execute. If the white sox had beat us plain and simple then I would tip my cap to them and say they're the better team but it just hasn't been this way. Too many times we had a runner on 2nd and failed to move him over by a bunt. Too many times, we had a runner on 3rd with less than 1 out, and yet we can't drive him in. If we had executed when we needed to, I truly believed that we should've won 2 of these 3 games.
I'm a die hard Stros fan. I will always watch them no matter what happens. If they lose the next game, I will never be a fan again.
