This thread and the Astros have killed my Astros mojo for today. Hopefully, we can get back our mojo tomorrow. What a waste. I'm glad it was a day game so I got to work through this mess.
The ump sucked, lane's fielding sucked, and overall everything sucked. Glavine never throws strikes but was getting them all day. At least beltran didn't jack a game winner.
Yeah he is one sorry piece of s***. It kinda reminded me of the playoffs when it seem like you had to bring Lidge in the 7th inning to win the game.
Wheeler continued his scoreless streak dating back to the beginning of last year's playoffs. Springer though - days like this make you remember how bad he sucks.
You guys are talking about this one game like it was the freaking playoffs... jeez. It was nice to see some of you guys back, after not posting much about this team during the first week. Looks like the bandwagon is going to be fluctuating big-time this year. Anyways, it was nice to see them battle back and get the lead again... they did that on Saturday against Cincy, and they did that again today. The mark of some of the past teams was that if you got them down in the later innings, they would never come back... so far, this team is showing great abilities to scrap together innings, and not just settle for the HR (which has ALWAYS been a complaint of mine). We'll try again Wednesday... man, now it will be almost two full days w/out baseball... that's gonna suck!
My math professor finished his lesson early today but didn't let us go because he didn't want to get in trouble. So we sat there talking in class and he checked the score on his pc. And it was in the 8th and we were winning. Then he checked again, and said uh oh. It wazs then 6-4 and I guessed that Springer was pitching! I was right. Got to my truck and it was 8-4...... Now I have to think about Beltran's team beating us for 2 days before Wed game.
I assumed that they had come to this conclusion the second time the Astros willingly parted way with Springer...
Why Garner no give ball to Lidge? No more Springer, please. I'm just curious as to why Qualls wasn't in the game to start the 8th (I was following on game zone). I would imagine Burba may be getting a call from Purpura fairly soon. Edit: (I had no desires to see Lidge pitch 4 days straight in April....maybe in September, maybe.)
Look... I'm giving Garner, Pupura, and everybody else involved in this organization the benefit of the doubt when making these moves this early into the season. They have to see what they've got w/ guys like Springer and Harville, otherwise they're essentially dead weight, and they shouldn't even be on this roster. What good are these guys if they can't come in for you and get quality outs. Springer, for most of ST and so far this season, has done nothing but throw strikes and get people out. Confidence is A HUGE part of this game, and I'm sure Garner was trying to build that in Springer. He already knows what he's got from Qualls and Wheeler... two guys who have been there under the bright lights, and been very successful in their breif Astros tenure. The only good thing about losing a game like this is that its still early enough in the season to make adjustments and continue to re-evaluate roles and make sure guys find their niche.
has springer really sucked that bad? i thought he was alright last season and if lane or biggio catches that ball he only gives up 2 runs. that definitely isn't great, but then again he's not even our 7th inning guy. for the role that he has on a normal basis he's servicable. of course someone with actual stats could prove me wrong.
Forget about Biggio's play... he was a split-second away from getting an inning-ending, no-runs allowed, double play... but Reyes beat it out. Springer ranks behind Lidge, Qualls, and Wheeler in the bullpen. Had the Astros not scored in the top of the 8th, and had a big inning where they had to pinch-hit for Wheeler, Garner would have preferred Dan to stay in. Wheeler had come in already because Garner trusted him the most to get us out of the jam in the 6th inning for Pettite. This isn't like Dierker falling in love w/ Mike Jackson at the wrong time of the year... this was just a situation that happened to come up on the one day a week we were giving our closer a rest (a much well-deserved one... i'm a LOF too! )
While I'm thrilled to be 4-2, I cant help but think that yesterday's game was a microcosm of things to come this season. 1- We get 6-7 strong innings of starting pitching 2- We strand runners in key situations 3- Other than Lidge, we don't have anyone to come in and put out a fire 4- We just don't score enough runs Hopefully a guy like Springer, Qualls, or even Astascio (if they bring him up) can eventually be that "bridge to Lidge" because I have a feeling we are going to have more games where we scrap for 4-5 runs than we are where we hit a couple of long balls and blow anyone out of the building.
What has Qualls done (this year and last) to not earn a little more confidence in him... especially enough to not be included in w/ Russ freaking Springer, and a guy who has never thrown a MLB game before, in your statement. Quall Call, NJ... QUALL CALL!!! Anyways, the problem yesterday was not the "bridge to lidge"... because there never was going to be a Lidge. We're not going to win many games when we're not pitching our closer in a close game... but this was just one of those flukey occurnces early in the season. I honestly believe that this year's bullpen will be less shaky than last years... Dotel was just so bad for those first two months... nobody could ever sit easy. Also, I agree w/ u on the offense assesment... they really haven't had one bust-out game yet... but they have made a couple comebacks while trailing in the late innings (not a mark of past astro teams, who just had the long-ball to get them back in games)... and we're still forgetting that they'll be getting back Berkman eventually.
