I have said this ad nauseam: I would rather lose like last night than by 2-1 or like we did in Game 1. This team is resilient, and it is time to prove it. Javier is capable of shutting them down, and the offense must emerge from its coma. Get this back to 2-2, and all will be well. The Phillies are damn good and are playing with great confidence. Time for the Astros to show up.
PS Baker-haters beware. His post-game interview is full of the same old excuses. Not getting someone up and throwing in the 5th after Marsh’s leadoff single to turn the lineup over is inexcusable. The game was still winnable at 4-0, imo, but not so much at 6-0 then 7-0. “We could not get someone loose” is lame. Managing these games with a sense of urgency is required in a short series, and one cannot lose today because one is saving things for tomorrow.
Tonight is an absolute must win. Verlander is going to get his shit kicked in tomorrow, that’s pretty much a guarantee. They must win tonight and get the series back to Houston with Framber. Javier has to throw strikes.
But the bigger issue is the offense. The difference in this series is when the Phillies got down quickly 5-0, they immediately fought back. When the Astros got down 4-0, they immediately curled up in the fetal position and whimpered. There was no life whatsoever at the plate last night. They were defeated after the first inning, and they looked like they just wanted to cry and go home. Altuve must be more patient. Alvarez MUST find a way to unfuck himself and drive in a run or two. And whomever DHs has to contribute…SOMETHING. It can be done, but they must do it. They have to reach down and find a pair.
I completely agree. In this series so far, the Phillies are the better team. The Astros can change that tonight, and they must or be the bridesmaid again.
Last night’s game started giving me 2021 ALCS vibes. The Astros were down 2-1 in the series after two games where the starting pitching got absolutely shellacked. In game 2, they gave up 8 runs in the first two innings. Game 3 was somehow worse, losing 12-3 after giving up 9 runs in the first three innings.
But the next three games, the Astros handled their business and ended the series in 6.
Now, I’m not making any predictions or anything, but I know these guys are capable of wiping the slate and finding that extra gear. Here’s hoping they manage to do that tonight.
Could be. But the difference is last year when the Astros got down in Games 2 and 3, the offense showed a little grit, even though they eventually lost those games. Last night they just laid down and died. We’ll find out in a few hours how much grit this team has.
This offense is so hot-and-cold and off-and-on, I’m not going to read too much into a single game, especially one pitched by a left-handed (relative) junkballer, who seem to have been hard on Astros teams forever. Hopefully tonight’s Phils’ pitcher is somebody who will try to beat us with velocity.
Given the home/road splits that somebody posted the other day, can you imagine how bad last night’s McCullers would have been in MinuteMaid?
He is simply not an elite pitcher any more. Sad that injuries seem to have robbed him of his talent, but his pitches last night were flat and slow. He had worse than nothing stuff.
There was no tipping. He has no fastball, and I don’t care how good your breaking stuff is, it will get hammered if there’s no fastball to differentiate it.
ETA: I know Jim wasn’t saying he was tipping, I was talking about the general conversation out there this morning.
Totally agree re no fastball. The Phillies seem to have a bit of trouble with a fastball at the top of the zone so maybe Javier will have some success. Have to score more than 0, though.