If the 2024 season also features a disparity in home/road record like this year, I think the subject will arise again whether we win or not tonight.
Not at all excited about this game. Already stressed out. I don’t trust the bats at home. I do not feel good about this game. Please let me be wrong.
Somebody needs to figure it out. There is always a reason for things. The "Its just baseball" explanation doesnt do it for me. If its the batters eye, fix the phucking thing. If its the field dimensions, change them. If its purely psychological, lets get a fulltime team shrink.
If that were to happen, I know I wont be watching. And if someone posts a link to it, I hope they are crucified unmercifully for it (and the thread/post removed).
Dusty really is a dinosaur. He uses his "gut" and makes decisions that are more intuitive and less analytics driven. He honestly thinks that Maldy's "intangibles" and Dubon's "arm" are more likely to help the team win than statistical evidence. I do not for a second think that Dusty "would rather lose than admit he's wrong." Or " would rather lose his way than win someone else's" He simply thinks his old school ways are better than analytics and modern baseball. I hope he's right at least 5 more times, but eventually he won't be. This organization needs to make sure they don't give him the chance next year.
Why wouldn't Urquidy, Brown or France be on the table? None of them were scheduled to pitch the following game, those are three good starters that are unlikely to even pitch tonight in a game 7. Heading into the 9th you have the top of the lineup coming up and are two runs away from tying the game and 3 runs away from going to the world series back to back and reserving three quality starters is priority? Those three guys might not even pitch again this year because Dusty decides to put Montero in. Truth be told, The Astros closest chance to make the world series might have been last night in the 9th... They have been abysmal at home with players seriously struggling to even get a hit. They have done this before where they get eliminated in the ALCS by losing every single home game and we are supposed to think that magically The Astros will change course and be dominant at home? As a manager Dusty got stuck because he decided to go with someone that has done what he did all year long. No one puts Montero in that situation except Dusty.... Would you have put Montero in?
Dusty was a complete dumbass in yesterday’s game. Did he cost us the game? Probably not. The players went limpdick and lost on their own. Awful showing by basically the whole team.
For those suffering from flashbacks of game 7 in the 2019 World Series. Max Scherzer pitching line that night: 5 IP 7 H 2 ER 4 BB 3 K Didn't Yordan miss a 3 run homer by like 2 feet? 11 men on base, Jesus. Will never let that one go. It will forever sting. Greinke the hero. But alas.....
You could argue he cost the Astros the game when you combine all his moves. Starting Framber again, not pinch hitting for Maldy in the 7th, going with Singleton in the 8th over Chas or Yainer, and using Montero in relief in the 9th. Yesterday was definitely his worst managed game in a long time.
You can't ignore what the ump did for evaldi man, if all those balls on 1-0, 2-0 etc. are actually called balls it's a totally different game. We lost so many ABs to the ump. You can't blame someone for taking a pitch off the plate that gets called a strike AND blame the player for swinging at that pitch and making bad contact. I think it's very fair to say that there's a greater then 50% chance we win last night with a fair ump or automatic strike zone
I was at 2018 ALCS game 3 when Kemp ran full speed into the left field wall to catch a fly, it made a sound like a hundred garbage cans being dropped.
Dustys weakness is making in-game adjustments. I think he’ll manage this game like any other game. Game 7 will be managed like game 3. He’ll try to milk Javier for each out until the 5th or 6th, even if he begins losing it earlier. Then he’ll look at his pitching card and put in Maton, Neris, Abreu (if available) and Press. Their will be no surprises with Dusty. He’s a creature of habit.
I called for a combo start of Valdez and France to get us through, at minimum, the 5th, and hopefully the 6th. At the point Heim came up, had Dusty just had that foresight, I think France gets him out and proceeds to take us through 6 with a 2-1 lead. Oh well. No out the box thinking coming from this old geezer.
While Dusty probably did not cost us the game, he for sure put it out of reach. Its frustrating when all season long he has not given The Astros the best chance to win and last night he punted the game away in the 9th. There is no way anyone who has watched more than a week of Astros baseball this year would think putting Montero in was giving The Astros the best chance to win. While the whole team looked bad, these type of losses shift momentum and there is a big difference going to a game 7 after only losing by 2 runs in a bad showcase to getting destroyed and hoping that some way somehow The Rangers don't feel confident and play poorly because that's the only way The Astros win tonight.... Imagine having all hope that one of the streakiest teams in the league does not get hot after a blow out win...
