That is what you call a gorgeous, ugly save! You've got to give credit to Valverde their despite the rough outing. Closers will have their shaky outings. Tells a lot about a guy that bends but doesn't break.
There's been absolutely no drama with Jose for the last month. This outing was drama at the absolute fullest, though.
Hey, come on! What about the jumping up and down and fist pumping while the ball's still in the air lol and his other crazy antics. That's the kind of drama I prefer tbh, tonight's kind of drama is a bit bad for the heart. The guy's a character, never know what's going to happen when he goes out to pitch.
Yeah, that's the bad kind of drama that we don't want. It certainly wasn't meant as a slur on Valverde, as in "Gah, this guy always gives up hits and eeks it out" because obviously that's not true. I meant it in the best possible way. That he's entertaining to watch in almost every outing in one way or another. He's just a character. I like him
well i saw him tonight... other then the incident everyone's jumping on his lap for... he seemed.... eh... just all right... not quite confident in him yet.. and I finally saw him throw a pitch that was above 93mph.. but it definitely wasn't a four seam fastball.. looked like a sinker or two-seamer.. with mediocre movement.. not sure if that's good or bad.. since his splitter is 83.. with a more significant drop.. and who knows how fast his four seam heater really is.. as far as I know.. it's still flat..
you have unrealistic standards if you don't trust him after 17.2 innings of scoreless work prior to tonight(17 appearances).
Aside from his two homers, Hunter Pence deserves a gold star. If he doesn't cut that ball off in the 9th inning, Bruntlett scores the tying run.
Lol what is your deal? He's not Billy Wagner, he's not Brad Lidge. He's Valverde and his stuff is getting the job done JUST FINE. A 94+ mph fastball, and 80-85 forkball that fools the hitters. He's fine.
Just got back from the game, here are some random thoughts. My allergies are acting up and I just took two benadryl, so the thoughts may get more random as I go on. The 9th inning was scary, I couldn't believe it when Valverde got back up and finished. He is a huge competitor. The crowd was so into the game. I love being part of such a high energy crowd. After Valverde got hit, everyone was so fired up. The Phillies board must be going nuts over Howard. 204 batting average and batting clean up, WOW. Bases loaded, two outs and Howard up, Astros crowd is not worried. I have never seen a shift like they put on for him in the 5th when he came up with nobody on base. Wiggy was playing close to 2nd, Tejada is playing 2nd base spot, and Kaz is playing middle rt field. The whole left side was wide open. It was crazy, then sure enough, he hits it to Berkman. Berkman is a great base runner. Enough said there. Pence and his 2 homers. Enough said again. Even Towles had a hit. We had two almosts tonight. A foul ball came right at us and my husband had it until the jerk below us interferred. All was good because a kid two rows down ended up with the ball. Our seats were sec 222 row 5, seats 1&2. seat 11 won an autographed Biggio minihelmet. BTW, we did get there early and got our minihelmets. The club section had Philly Cheesesteaks for diiner, so I had one. The fireworks were great.
WOW! I absolutely LOVE Valverde and how he wears his emotions on the outside. He's like our Bobby Sura of the MLB. So much FIRE. LOVE IT!
I forgot to mention the "little Pumas" section. Two down from where the Los Caballeros stand is a new section of fans in puma costumes. Does anyone know how long this had been going on? It is the first time I have seen it.
Funny side note here from the game recap on CBS Sportsline: "After getting Berkman to pop up for the final out in Thursday's game, Lidge got a text message from the Astros slugger that said, "I hate you." Lidge played for the Astros from 2002-07. He also got text messages after the game from catcher Brad Ausmus and former Astro Jason Lane, who now plays for Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, the New York Yankees' Triple-A affiliate." http://www.sportsline.com/mlb/gamecenter/recap/MLB_20080523_PHI@HOU
Were they any good? I remember having one before when the Phillies were in town and thinking they put CheezWhiz on top or something. It was pretty crappy.
This has a TJ-esque quality to it now. I think you're keeping up a schtick now to have fun with people.
It was actually pretty good. Club level, and the guy put extra meat. The meat had a great flavor and the cheese was not CheezWhiz. Melted some kinda white cheese. I had to eat with a knife and fork, because there was no way it was getting picked up. On another side note, George and Barbara need to put someone in charge of making sure their tickets are given away to a deserving soul when they can't make the game. Their empty 1st row seats looked pretty bad from my angle. I will gladly volunteer for the position.
