If it's Garcia (can't remember), he debuted in the McCullers game and pitched well. This time he doesn't have to start the 1st inning with the bases loaded and no outs. edit: NVM, it's DeJong tonight and Garcia mañana
Last doubleheader I just did one for both but this time I'll do them separately. The Good: Uncle Mike went 3-3, drove in our only 2 runs on his dinger. Re-sign him!!!!! Correa and his defense. The Bad: Umpires cost Bregman a 1st inning walk that could have changed the game. Greinke not as efficient. Got hit a lot today. First charged L for him this year. The Ugly: Another game in the Coliseum, another loss. Need to get that crap together. Hoping Springer is fine. Did not look good limping back to the dugout after his last AB, that's concerning.
Zach Greinke, philosopher: His glass is both half empty and half full, and Schrödinger's cat approves.
“This team is on the edge of not competing.” My take is that they already are not competing and haven’t been the entire season. Our players are good, and their talent carries them to a fair number of wins. BUT, they are not playing smart baseball, they don’t act like they want it, and show no fire or energy at all. Think about it, and for example — how many times have we had a runner on second, no outs, and don’t score. Frankly, most of the time we don’t even move the man to 3rd! A batter in that situation has 3 jobs, in this order 1) score the guy, 2) reach base without getting the runner on 2nd out, or 3) move him to 3rd with an out. We hardly ever accomplish ANY of those. Instead we 1) Strikeout, or 2) pop-out, or 3) ground out to 3rd, where the man can’ move up. That’s bad baseball, and we are playing it in virtually every game. I don’t dis-like Dusty, but frankly I’m not impressed. His job is to get the most out of the players, and he is not doing it. He can’t worry about who is not there— he needs to concentrate on who is there, and get their best out of them. Rant over.
Bregman sits, Springer at DH. Said he caught a spike while he was swinging out of his ****ing cleats on that 1st pitch his last AB. Springer still grimacing and limping. Of course he walks and now has to run the bases. Doubt he stays in this one much longer.
Of course it's all going to immolate like a spontaneous combusting mound of compost, but De Jong has thown some really nice pitches early.
The only issue I have thus far with the managing is that Dusty has largely managed this year like a 162 game season vs. a 60 game one. Plethora of scheduled off days. Tinkering with the lineup. We know all about the experimental rookies... which were largely out of necessity. Slow hook for the starters... but again, not much available in the bullpen to relieve to. On second thought, there’s really no way to manage that differently in a 60 game season. These minor injuries that wouldn’t be as impactful over 162 have been killers.
and...just like clockwork. 2nd time through the order for De Jong was a questionable decision on what was decreed to be a "bullpen day".
They still have games against them and control their fate. Mariners won’t end the season without losing a game and Astros won’t end the season without winning one more game.
I have zero confidence in this version of the Astros and I haven’t since Verlander hurt himself. The Astros will be lucky to make the playoffs and if we do, we aren’t going far. I have heard a lot of criticism of the effort of the team and that isn’t the problem. The Astros lost their best pitcher, catcher and half their bullpen before the season started. That was going to be tough but oddly the Astros could have overcome those loses. However they cannot he expected to lose Verlander, Osuna and Alvarez all year. Urquidy for over half the year. Bregman and Altuve for close to half the year. No team is going to overcome those losses. The good news is Tucker appears to be on the cusp of being an all star. Valdez is pitching like a #2 starter as his FIP is around 3.00 and he can go deep in games. Christian Javier has been close to dominant outside of the long balls. Taylor in the pen looks solid. So there are substantial pieces available to add. Also Springer hasn’t really helped his case for getting a contract to large for the Astros. Same with Gurriel. Let’s just hope Verlander doesn’t need what the team has expected he would need since the c-scan. A rotation of Verlander, Greinke, Valdez, Urquidy and Javier can be very good and allow the Astros to spend money elsewhere. McCullers can close with Pressly and Taylor and Smith and Paredes in the pen.
