WTF happened?! I go to the bathroom and the game is now tied?! I swear if the Reds didn't have so many late inning comebacks they'd probably be last in the damn division. - and now we're down by a run. F***! The f***ing story of this season. When thing goes right, something else goes horribly wrong.
why has Lidge gotten more scrutiny? expectations vs. results Qualls has been terrible, but we all knew that was a possibility and you even said yourself that he wasn't dominant ever. Of course he is not going to get as much scrutiny.
Qualls is a mental midget... succumbing to the "big pressure" of closing out games in the 7th or 8th inning The guy wouldn't be able to handle a smidgen of what Lidge has had to go through for the last year... the guy would probably quit the game alltogether, rather than face that scrutiny. And he was gonna be our "closer" once we traded Lidge... imagine how much WORSE this season would have gone.
So if we're going by a bullpen by committee why on earth would you leave Qualls in there the moment he sniffs trouble. They can't afford to lose games like this, and it's too late in the season to let a guy work through trouble or give him a vote of confidence. It's all about winning games now.
No... its called pitching. Most of the time, pitchers succeed. Most of the time, pitchers with stuff far less than Qualls succeed. Qualls is good enough to do his job... which is handle the 7th or 8th inning. If he can't do that, he should be criticized... just like Miceli was thrown out of town (for a season's worth of performances that werent' as bad as Qualls was this year). Also, I didn't expect Qualls to blow SIX saves as a set-up man... set-up men don't blow that many saves and live to tell about it.
This season could not be any worse, to lose out on the playoffs because of a lousy bullpen....I mean wow. DD
Because apparently, Wheeler was unavailable... something that I thought was pretty damn critical for a game of this magnitude. I already posted my plan: Qualls for the first batter (Encarnarcion) Miller for Dunn (lefties can get Dunn out) and Lidge/Wheeler for Aurillia... with one of them set to close (preferably Wheeler for a game of this magnitude... but I would have been fine with Lidge and a 3 run lead, with Wheeler for a bail out).
GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Seriously. This game pissed me off more than the last couple of series. I know, it's just one game. But add a game to our WC deficit. UGH. I'm goign to go get drunk. Night.
I didn't say he shuldnt be criticized .. I said he shouldn't be criticized any more than Lidge which is what you said. The thing I can say about Qualls is that at least he gave it up by making the hitters hit it ... Although it sucks, at least we had a chance. Lidge gave up all his by walks and wild pitches which is more unacceptable in my book. Yes Qualls deserves a lot of blame, but NO WAY he gets more blame than Lidge.
and 3 since beginning of last season. throw qualls in there with ausmus and biggio as players i dont want to see on this team this season. and garner. i dont know how ausmus and biggio even look themselves in the mirror. i am so beyond disgusted. this team is sickening.
I am so damn sick to my stomach right now. I swear I should've stopped following the Astros a month and a half ago but I keep watching, torturing myself with this. I feel disgusted. I know it's just a game, but it's like...it's like...I dunno. I just want to hide in my closet and hibernate until the Rockets play. I hope that Andy Petitte will walk up to Qualls tonight after the game and punch him in the nose. Then proceed to pick up a bat and beat the **** out of him. Then others will come and seemingly break up the fight only instead to join him and collectively beat the **** out of Qualls. Then, I want Aubrey Huff to go to Garner and kick his ass for taking him out for Ensberg, followed by Ensberg going to Garner and kick his ass for putting him in.
I said the team had to come out with a killer instinct... and they definitely played with all the intensity of a playoff game for 7 innings. Even Qualls looked like a beast in the 7th... probably was our best pitched inning of the night. But... out of the blue... he collapses (which is his MO). Ironically, had he gotten into a little bit of trouble in the 7th, Garner probably has Miller ready to come in to face Dunn. Pettite pitches his guts out, Huff puts the offense on his back, they have a 3 run lead in the 8th inning (even despite the bullpen's troubles this year, 3 run leads have been relatively safe)... and it all falls apart. Ironically, I thought making the World Series would have eased the pressure off some of these guys in late inning situations... it just seems to have done the opposite.
And yet Garner still seems to fall back on a formula that really hasn't worked this season. He still doesn't use Borkowski as much as I'd like; same can be said of Nieve too (although true he was unavailable tonight). At this point, I'd rather trust Nieve, Borkowski, Springer and Wheeler in those late inning situations than Qualls and Lidge.
