Yeah I think Roberts got cute in the 8th and cost us the game. Should have left Morrow in, he was pitching well and only had a guy on first with our 2 run lead. Too early to get greedy with Jansen and then he didn't have it in the 9th to shut the Astros down. Bummer.
Roberts got cute with the bullpen all along. He pulled Rich Hill a little early for Stripling of all people (struggles under pressure). Brought in Morrow too early and then Jansen too early. That was an absolutely incredible game to be at. They really should have come away with a win and now they're going to Houston with their bullpen dinged up. I'm now a little nervous about the series. If they could have finished this game off, I'd say it's a sweep. Now this could easily go seven.
After a night of thinking on it. I think Roberts made really one major mistake which was pulling Marrow too quick. I understood, though I'd like to have him out for another inning at least, pulling Hill because I thought Hill wasn't in command of his stuff like we needed. I was a little nervous a couple times but even so I don't think I'd kill Roberts for that move. Morrow though was his big mistake. He didn't need to pull him. He panicked for the first time I think and that forced him to empty out the pen. That being said, these boys showed me a lot yesterday. Being down to the last out they still made great hits. The only bat that pissed me off was Grandal who didn't even swing. WTF. Puig got out on a great pitch after a tough at bat. I can live with the loss because I think the Astros need to be damn near perfect to beat us. They can score and we can score. This should be a great series. I had us winning in 6 at home. Lets get game 3!
What makes me nervous is their 14 hits to our 5. We only stayed in that game with home runs. The guys aren't having the kind of at-bats we need to win the series: make the starting pitcher work and get to the bullpen. They didn't do it against Kuechel and they didn't do it against Verlander. I like that we can hit these guys, but let's focus on getting through the order as much as possible. The more at-bats we have, the better. We need a great game out of Darvish tomorrow. We need to knock McCullers around and get through their bullpen like they did to ours.
That Stripling appearance was painful to watch. I was actually thinking he was going to hurl it over the backstop on that last pitch.
It was terrible. The kid is clearly intimidated by this moment. He had no business being in the game there. Roberts burned him unnecessarily and then took Morrow out too soon after that. He was quick with Hill, he was quick with Maeda, he was quick with Morrow, and that put too much on Kenley. Obviously Kenley needs to not throw a pitch right down the middle to some bum at the back end of the rotation, but still I'm blaming Roberts for that more than Kenley. We've got to shake this off and we need to get Turner and Bellinger back into the game.
Yeah, that was mismanagement of the pitchers. Hill could have gone longer, Maeda could have gone longer, Morrow could have gone longer. Also, Utley's error ultimately lead to the first run. Don't remember if Chase has done anything worthy this post season, I'd much rather have Culberson or Forsythe play out the rest. Need the order to be put with guys who can get on base (Seager, Bellinger, Puig), followed by sluggers like Turner, Taylor. I'd go: Seager Bellinger Taylor Turner Puig Kike Forsythe Barnes Culberson - Pinch Hit
McCullers is right handed so Kike isn't going to start. What we'll probably see is: Taylor Seager Turner Puig Bellinger Forsythe Pederson Joc Ethier (maybe Culberson, he deserves it) I have no problem with the first four. I switched Bellinger and Puig, but I'm not sure Doc will do it. Bellinger hit a ball really hard yesterday that should have gone out but died somehow in the air. He's now 0-7 with 3 strikeouts though and needs to take it easy on himself. You simply cannot be in a slump in the World Series. The team needs him too much. Right now Turner and Puig are our most locked in at-bats. If Taylor or Seager gets on, those two are the guys we need to drive in runs. I'd honestly love if Roberts rewarded Culberson with a DH spot, but he's been so married to his veterans thus far I sort of expect Ethier to get the call.
I think we might have Seager as the DH so that his back doesn't get any worse and we'll play Culberson at SS. Hope that's the case.
Hopefully Yu can temper their bats today. But our success will be dependent on getting hits and runs, it always has.
Yeah I'm not worried about Yu as much as I am about our guys beating up McCullers. He's not too dissimilar from Hill, but he throws even more curves. Breaking balls in a hot ball park should mean homers for Turner, Bellinger, and Puig. We need to crush McCullers and get Yu a solid 6-7 innings of ball. If we win game 2 I'll feel a heck of a lot better about the series. Dropping a Yu Darvish game would be tough to handle.
I won't catch the start of this game prob won't get home til after 7 but here is my thoughts. This series is going 6 or 7 in my opinion. Hou has some explosive bats but I think we have just as many if not more dangerous ones. Unlike everyone else I thought the real mismanagement of game 2 was Morrow. Kenley got two choppers up the middle that just went over his head and snuck through. Grandal threw Mayben (sp?) out at second but we don't catch the ball so he is safe instead of out. We had several guys tattoo the ball and got nothing for it. They got the bounces we did not. Even with that our guys didn't quit. So many small things happen in a game and it showed in game 2. Our bullpen was due for a let down and our bats almost picked em up. Tonight, I'd love to see us get on their pitcher early and get to their bullpen and beat them up a bit AND win. Also be great to have Yu be able to go 7 or 8 innings to give the BP guys another rest day. We get to their bullpen on the 1st game of 3 straight we will be sitting pretty damn pretty. That small park favors Turner, Taylor, Puig, Seager, Bellinger, Joc and even Grandal if he makes contact which at this point I am not sure he remembers how. Andre could be big too. This is an exciting series already I see more slugging it out with us eventually coming out on top. I 100% believe we are the better team overall. That loss is a great reminder to these guys that ain't nothing easy.
I pinpointed taking Morrow out too as Roberts getting cute or greedy with Jansen coming in for 2 innings when Morrow was pitching well and they only had a runner on first with a 2 run lead. Unnecessary change and unfortunately the wrong call.
What a sloppy game from the team so far. No cohesive plan on how to approach the pitcher, I've seen way too many swings at first pitches. They're lucky that it's only a 2 run deficit right now. On the other hand, one could argue that it's been quite unlucky with the hitting/fielding (Seager DP to get McCullers out of the bases loaded jam in the 3rd; Watson's bad throw). Bellinger has been dreadful; everyone knows McCullers is going to spam the breaking ball down and yet he still offers to swing at it. Doc has also been questionable this game. Yes, Darvish tanked badly, but Doc needs to trust with the hot hand (Maeda) to go more innings.
Yu couldn't handle the hot bats from Game 2 and this team keeps swinging for the fences rather than get base hits. Always leaving so many RISP. Tomorrow is a BIG game. I'm not sure I trust Wood up next. I would throw Kershaw up again. It's the World Series, man up and carry the team to a good position.
Alex Wood is an all-star. If you can't trust an all-star in the World Series, then what's the point? Using Kershaw down 2-1 is a desperation move. Even if it works, they still have to win 2 more games. I'd rather use Kershaw when we're up 3-2 or tied 3-3.
https://www.yahoo.com/sports/yuli-g...al-gesture-directed-yu-darvish-044606714.html What an a**hole. Hope this gives the team more fuel to destroy them.
