Mid game report (after the 5th): Offense has been phenomenal so far, that's the Dodgers that I remember in the previous series. Kershaw... struggled to throw strikes and too many walks. Maeda has finally been broken with that Altuve HR; we need this bullpen to somehow pitch some clean innings. I saw an article today about the balls being more slicker and harder to throw sliders (probably why Darvish and Giles struggled badly) and we just saw Maeda struggling to locate that slider. On the bright side, Houston's bullpen has been unreliable so far. This umpire has been just crazy with the strike zone. He's been so generous to the right side of the plate and the Astros keep getting calls on that corner.
wow... this has been a stupid crazy game. I'm not even sure what to feel about whats going on. down 11-8 right now. I absolutely believe we will tie this game up tonight. This game has extra innings written all over it
It all comes down to 3 outs. We can put up 3 or more runs but they got to do it one good hit at a time. This is like game 2. They got the better of the late hits in that one where we looked like we were clearly going to win. Might be wishful thinking but I am banking on a little payback on our end
my heart can't take this.... This is game 7 vs the C Bags down by 13. This is 01 vs the Blazers. This is 2014 LA Kings being down 2 goals 3 times only to win in OT against the Blackhawks. Holy crap this is an amazing game. We need Jansen
I couldn’t handle this series if I were a Dodger fan, my heart couldn’t take it. The highs and lows are insane.
That was a really hard game to digest. The offense did everything they could, they were just amazing. I hope that, if there's one thing that they can take from yesterday's game, is that they can hit the Astros pitchers just as much as they can hit our pitchers. The pitching let us down badly and the bullpen looks gassed and overused. Watching Kershaw falter again hurt; everyone will keep talking about how he can't deliver in the playoffs. The "slicker" baseballs has had a big effect on both teams' pitchers. On the flip slide, we're back at home and the Astros aren't as good away from home. Anything can happen, remember our last NBA title? We were 2-3 down going back home in 2010. Vin said it best:
Honestly I think this series is over. The Astros have the momentum and they've robbed us almost every time we had victory in our hands. They hit better than us and our best hitters are just not coming through on this stage. Where's Turner? It feels like he never comes up with the hit we need now. I think this baseball issue is more serious than people realize and it's in the head of every pitcher. Kershaw relies on his slider and he can't throw it. Of course he's going to get teed off on when all he can throw is his fastball against a home run hitting team. It was painful to watch because we all know Kershaw isn't like that. He's had great games so far in the playoffs. What bothered me most yesterday was the umpire's ridiculous, roaming strike zone. When Kenley didn't get the strike on that high fastball that was CLEARLY on the edge of the zone, a pitch that was called a strike all f***ing night, I knew it was over. Right now our bullpen is 100% taxed and even if they're better than the Astros, they're too tired to come through. Not to mention, Roberts was incredibly stupid last night. Kike to bunt with a guy on first or second and no out (one out?)? Why the f*** would you do that? He's not a bunter, has only one successful bunt all year long, let the guy swing you idiot! Then later on he uses Morrow for the third day in a row?? Now we can't use him at home when we need him a**hole! Maeda is overused. Now we're stuck relying on Cingrani and Stripling with maybe Watson, but if he goes tomorrow he probably can't go Game 7. The only good news is that it's colder now and hopefully that means less home run balls. I don't know what it was about Houston, but our bats just could not hit home runs out there. There were at least 3 off the top of my head I can remember that should have been homers but just died in the air (Turner, Bellinger twice, and even Puig a couple times). The Astros had no problem doing it, but we just couldn't. Now we're home hopefully there's less homers. I don't see us winning the series. If we even up the series we've got Darvish on the mound with Wood out of the pen... I don't have a ton of confidence in that right now. We'll see. I'm going to go in expecting the worst so I'm not so devastated when they lose.
This is Yasiel Puig's 2nd at-bat: You can hardly see it, but Pitch 4 is right behind Pitch 5. It was a called strike. Puig struck out swinging at the exact same pitch when he should have taken it for a ball, but couldn't because this umpire needs to be fired.
I was thinking the same thing. I'd have had to take something stronger than alcohol to deal with the insanity.
I was at Game 7 vs BOS, at halftime, I may have had to call in an ambulance. Was also at the LA Kings Game 5 Double OT in 2014, by far the most nerve wrecked I've ever been at a sporting event. So...if we take this to 7, I'm going to need to be there for a trifecta.
I wanted to say this before the game started but i still want to say it before the end of this game. (we are down 0-1 but we bout to tie this up in my heart) No matter what happens today win (I F'n hope so) or lose I am proud to be a Dodger fan with how these guys have played this year and this world series. Both these teams deserve to be the Champion. Yes, there are things we can look at that could of been done differently (hindsight is 20/20 we all know that) but I think Roberts managed a great series overall. It will suck if we don't finish the job but we can say we left it out there we battled punch for punch with the best the AL had to offer. OK... Rainy game let lady luck finally be on our side.
It's looking not great so far for us guys. Verlander looks dialed in. Roberts....I just can't understand why he would take out Hill again before the 5th. Why can't he trust him to pitch this situation? I know its bases loaded with 2 outs but we needed to keep him in as long as possible with how gassed out bullpen has looked so far. Thankfully, Morrow got us out of that jam. The offense has not shown up at all so far.
