Please limit talk in this thread to this series. Other topics should be discussed in the appropriate threads. Play-by-play is not allowed. If you need that, there are other places to find it. Political discussions belong in the D&D forum not in here. All games are broadcast on Space City Network unless otherwise noted. 8-19 Tanner Houck (R) vs. Yusei Kikuchi (L) 7:10 8-20 Nick Pivetta (R) vs. Ronel Blanco (R) 7:10 8-21 Cooper Criswell (R) vs. TBD (Verlander unofficially) 1:10 MLBN (out-of-market only)
Weird scheduling that our 2 series against Boston and TB happened so close to each other. Blanco had a rough outing against them, and we couldn't get to Houck. They didn't get a look at the new Kikuchi so that's probably a plus.
2 out of three is good for me. I think it's hard to sweep the same team back to back series. But I'll take 2 Astro victories please. Baby David is 4-1 so far! Let's keep it going for him!
One advantage with Blanco 2nd time around is his decreased PC from the previous game. He threw 89 with 5 days rest before playing BOS -- now it's only 73 with 5 days. If he finishes with 85 PC in 5 innings, 2 runs, it's a good performance. Abreu has been performing well, but his league-leading GP has been abusive. He really shouldn't pitch until Wednesday. We might need Scott multi-inning tonight. We're gonna need unlikely heroes from the bullpen this series (12 innings) and Bryan should only get 1 inning (Wednesday). JV isn't going more than 5 innings because his PC should be 75. Hopefully Yordan solves his MMP struggles and Bregman continues his surge because a 4-run lead will make everything easier. Diaz and others' playing well wouldn't hurt at all. Kikuchi 7 innings 2 runs would be awesome. I'd take 6 IP, 2 runs right now. Blanco went 4 innings 3 runs (2 ER) and 88 PC. He wasn't horrible but it was borderline bad.
PLEASE let it be Verlander. I'm surprising my boys for their birthdays and taking them out of school to go to this game. They've never seen Verlander pitch in person.
I read that last sentence originally as they've never seen Verlander pitch in prison. I was like interesting interesting. I dig it.
Everything I have read is that he is ready to go they just have not announced it officially. Unless he has some weird set back the next couple of days I expect he will pitch Wednesday. I don;t knwo when they would officially announce it because I am not sure if they have to make roster moves before it is official or not. I would think we will probably here something unofficially official in the next day or so.
OMG, I just noticed Pena is hitting cleanup. This will be the 19th time this season. He has a .466OPS in the first 18.
