I was railing against this team taking the division title and we could only hope to take a WC spot, I think it was back during the road series against the Dbacks. Will gladly eat crow this fall if we complete this comeback
I think Hinch makes a lot of questionable decisions. However I am not going to blame him for bringing Lance back out. A complete game saves the pen and could provide confidence and be a springboard to a dominant second half. If the Astros have an ace going into the playoffs it may end up being Lance, he has by far the best stuff on the staff. Let Lance learn to fight through fatigue and be in pressure spots in July to prepare for September. Also as much as I think chemistry is overblown in baseball, the guys know that Hinch will fight for them... and Lance I am sure appreciates the opportunity.
Scioscia is the true bonehead here...Shoemaker was owning Springer all night and he pulls him then Smith gives up the single. That insurance run was crucial, otherwise we could easily be in extras right now. Thanks for the gift Scioscia!
This is spot on. It's a lot easier to feel relaxed and pitch comfortably when you know your manager has your back and trusts you to get it done. It also gives Hinch a chance to see how players react in these situations. I think a lot of people don't consider the other factors and thinks the games should be managed like a video game where there aren't any other intangibles.
I was completely lost when Hinch kept McCullers in there, but I realized that Calhoun had a .143 average against McCullers and Mike Trout had a .111 avg against him. Obviously, that wasn't exactly how it worked out, but Harris has been amazing at getting out of jams all season, so I somewhat understand it.
My concern is how does he bounce back from a career high in pitches? I'm not concerned about saving Harris. By going 8, that meant we only needed to use one reliever across 2 days. Pretty sure that is a well rested bullpen.
I understand--let's see how he bounces back. If he needs an extra day or 2, we have guys that can help. If Harris came in and blew it to the first 2-3 guys, I'd look at their career #'s against Harris vs. LMC, in addition to what LMC did all game and esp. in the 8th, and I'd say, why the hell didn't he stay in for 1 batter just to see?
I don't get why so many are hard and not in the good way on correa. Ops wise he is in the top 5 across the league. Defensively, he makes the difficult plays and at times struggles with the routine ones. He is still 21, the youngest of the top 5 short stops. Great times to be a Houston fan. Astros have so many young studs. Texans acquired the best players at 2 of the most important positions and the Rockets got Prigioni.
Harris seems to pitch better out of jams than he sometimes does with the bases empty. However, the workload on LMJ is the main concern which is I why I wouldn't have sent him out and wouldn't have killed Hinch if it backfired. I'm all for building confidence but don't want to turn LMJ loose for expanded work in July. Still need him around August-October.
Both were pretty stellar. Valbuena making it difficult to move him off 3rd base. As someone else mentioned, props to Tucker for having a huge hit to put us in position to take the lead.
