It's not Garner's fault that Miceli served up those gopher balls. Miceli should have some more pride.
both games -- really piss poor execution by the astros. its all the small things that the astros arent doing thats adding up. a well place bunt here, an executed double play there, occasionally driving in some runs with runnners in scoring position and they could have taken this game. the cardinals did all the small stuff right plus they had some luck on their side. hopefully miceli will be benched for the rest of the series. i'm sure every astros fan saw that coming. i hope they dont bring him back next year
I understand venting... venting is "crap"... or "damnit".. or "arrgh." Saying "oh well, screw the astros... this is a basketball site anyways..." seems a little rough... especially from bandwagoners who didn't watch this team when they were down. I guess I have to understand that there will be a lot of fair-weather-fans when a team has success... that's inevitble. (it's also made the Rockets part of this forum unreadable) For me... its: 1. Rockets, Texans, Astros.... 2.----- 3.----- Enough said.
Yea you're right, Garner didn't make the pitches; he just made the call to put a below average bullpen pitcher in to face some of the best and most feared hitters in the game. He didn't "manage" to win this game. No excuses.
Exactly. Especially with Roy and Roger the guys that would pitch games 6 and 7. Fact is, the Cardinals MUST beat Roy or Roger at least once. If Backe can pitch us to win in game 5, they'll have to beat either Roy or Roger twice. We've definitely got a mountain to climb, but we've got two aces in the hole.
MAN! I' am sooo freeekin pisssed right now. Burn Miceli!!!!! Who else other than me saw that Pujols homer coming right after Miceli took the mound?
Right now the Astros focus needs to be on getting this series sent back to St. Louis any way they can ... IT IS going to take some relief pitching from our bullpen regardless of who is the starter. Astros can still do it
Sucks that we're down 0-2, but we've got our two horses possibly pitching 4 of the next 5 games. The Cards have got the upper hand, but they'll have to beat our best to finish us off.
DaDakota is not a bandwagoner. Hes been venting since he was just a sperm back in the days of the Colt 45s.
Watching Miceli pitch is like watching Elarton after he lost his velocity. He just is a shell of his former self..his velocity is 5-6MPH less and at that speed he is a pedestrian pitcher. EVERYONE !! Do yourselves a favor, forget about this...go see "Shaun of the Dead" and get ready for Saturday night. DD
Dang tooten, and I was a baby when they were the Colt 45s....what is your obsession with man paste? You peeking out from behind a closet door or something? DD
Definitely. This series is far from over. I'm not discouraged at all, everything has gone as expected, if anything, we've overacheived. We were supposed to lose these 2 games - we had Pete freaking Munro and a rookie starting. The offense is still mashing and that leaves alot to be encouraged about with R&R Cy-Young 2004 going 4 of the next 6. With who was starting, and the pathetic state of this bullpen, it's encouraging that we were within striking distance atleast in these 2 games.
Cabbage, I look at it like this. Percentages for wins on our starting pitchers. 1. Clemens - 80% chance to win 2. Roy O - 75% chance to win 3. Backe - 50% 4. Munro - 30% I just hope Roy and Rog can hold serve. DD
Hey ....you were the ones who said you were watching the Colt 45s before you were born, not me. Relax. Using gay references as an insult, not only makes you look childish, but also makes that vein in your forehead appear.
Ok, let's play Devil's Advocate. Lidge goes in. He sets down the Cardinals heart of the order. Astros go down without scoring in the 9th (as they did). Lidge is in his 2nd inning, and best case scenario is extra innings. Either way, you're going into extras with the Lidge has gone 2 innings. Where do you go from there? Lidge for a 3rd inning? Miceli/Qualls, etc. in extras? Fact is, at some point to win this game, we were likely to need an inning of quality relief work from Miceli etc. I didn't like putting him in against the heart of the order, but I don't think Garner was planning on back to back gophers. That "below average bullpen pitcher" is our top setup man for Lidge. We're forced into starting a guy who started the year in the bullpen and the minors as our 3rd starter and pitching him in game 1 on 3 days rest, and a guy who was a starting in the minors for the Twins at the beginning of the year as our 4th starter this series. Beyond Lidge, Roger, and Roy I'm not sure we have ANY available pitchers who could be considered anything more than average.
Who said anything about it being an insult? Not that there is anything wrong with it. Guilty feelings Codell? DD
We had a better choice than miceli. If your choices are "put lidge in now, and if we score in the top of the inning we win the game, otherwise miceli has to come in and hold down the fort" and "bring in miceli now, and if he doesn't give up 4 runs, we have a chance to bring lidge in just in case we happen to score more runs than he gives up". So yes, assuming the Astros offense does nothing in the 9th inning, it's a wash, but IF the astros offense does something in the 9th, it's very much NOT a wash as to who you bring in first, because if you bring in Lidge, and the astros take the lead, the game is over.
