Its not the fact he blew the save... its HOW he blew it. You'll never see good closers just start walking guys, or losing command without a moment's notice. And if you do see guys do that, then they're not good closers.... even if they have great save numbers. This season, I've watched Rivera, Percival, Isringhausen, Wagner, and Smoltz blow some huge saves. But, all of these guys got beat with their best stuff. Dotel got beat by himself... that does cause more worry.
Im frustrated with Dotel, only because he couldn't throw strikes. For the most part though, I am flat out disgusted with the bats. No clutch hits (besides Bags) the last 2 games. IMO, this was a huge series. Against the defending WS Champs and its kind of (kind of) a way to gauge where we are at, whether we have what it takes. We went up against a solid lineup and 3 VERY good pitchers and we lost 2 out of 3. Disappointing. The only saving grace is, they faced our #4 and #5 starters.
Why is everyone so in love with Lidge? Yes, Dotel blew the save, but he's still only blown half as many saves this year as Lidge. Lidge is only 1 for 3 in save situations this year, yet people still think Dotel's 6 for 7 is worse. Lidge has already blown 2 saves this year! This was only Dotel's first! Give him a break!
This one hurts. I know that Penny, Willis and Pavano are three very good starters to go up against but our bats need to wake up! We cant keep relying on the pitchers to keep it close. Besides Tuesday late in the game, its been a while since our pitchers have had any sort of comfort. Our bats need to come alive in this series against the Mets. Although we have our top 3 going, maybe the pitchers and batters can take a little pressure off of each other. Mets Series: WWW
It's disappointing to lose two of three, but I'm not taking it too hard. If you take away the weird play at 3rd, or we got one or two bounces, we easily could have taken 2 of 3 from the Marlins. Given the way Penny, Willis, and Pavano pitched, that's pretty good. The other positive is that Redding was able to keep us in the game with another solid start. He's still having trouble finishing hitters off when he's ahead in the count, but he didn't freak out and let up the big inning he so often does. If he can keep it up, the astros are going to win a lot of games.
Freakin' Dotel sucked last night...I know he can't get them all, but damn, do something... I'm not saying we didn't have our opportunities, but that is his job, to close...
I know this isn't baseball related, per say, but watching the game last night, I heard the announcers say that Pavono (?) the Marlins pitcher last night was dating Alissa Milano...She's hot... But also, that Josh Beckett was dating Leeann Tweeden of Fox Sports...I love how Josh plays and being from here and all, but c'mon, Freakin' Leeann...It's good to be an athlete...
Another thing not really game related, does their reliever, Benitez (sp) have 6 fingers on one hand? I thought I heard that somewhere.
That's Antonio Alfonseca, now with the Bravos. And yes, he has 6 digits on each hand/foot. Word of the day: polydactylism.
Did they explain on tv last night why they pulled Lamb for Viz? I was at the game and was quite surprised to see him pinch hit.
I'm pretty sure it was because they put in a lefty to throw to Lamb, and Jimy will never hit Lamb against a lefty. On the other hand, I feel more comfortable in Viz's batting (although he hasn't done much this year to justify it) from the left side as well... thus, I was hoping Lane would get a chance.
Nick, my thinking there was that he didn't want to burn 2 bench players with the specre of extra innings there. Debatable. You could make the argument that he could have pinch hit someone other than Ensberg in the 7th with Pavano on the mound. Palmeiro, maybe. But I have no problem sending your hottest available hitter up there with 1 out and a guy on base in a tie game.
