How bout them Astros. Win 2-1

Great start for the Astros! Keuchel was lights out tonight. Tanaka wasn't much worse for the Yankees.

Giles must have a drama bonus in his contract, but he got the job done to close it out.

Astros win astros win again. Double by correa scoring altuve from first on dropped ball by catcher!!!!!!

(10-14-2017 06:11 PM)texowl2 Wrote:  Astros win astros win again. Double by correa scoring altuve from first on dropped ball by catcher!!!!!!

Great game
Astros winning makes it sweet.
Yankees losing... REALLY sweet.

124/93 for Verlander...very Gibson like performance and a treat to watch.

2 very low scoring games at Minute Maid. I suspect the games at Yankee Stadium will be much higher scoring. Verlander's CG shows you how little faith Hinch has in the Astros pen.

Hard to believe Los Angeles hasn't been to the World Series since 1988. That will be a fun series to watch too.

Boss Verlander pitches to 32 batters and threw a total of 31 balls.

(10-14-2017 06:38 PM)greyowl72 Wrote:  Great game
Astros winning makes it sweet.
Yankees losing... REALLY sweet.

This Bahstonian living in Houston approved

(10-13-2017 10:31 PM)texowl2 Wrote:  How bout them Astros. Win 2-1

So nice, let's say it twice.

(10-14-2017 08:57 PM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  2 very low scoring games at Minute Maid. I suspect the games at Yankee Stadium will be much higher scoring. Verlander's CG shows you how little faith Hinch has in the Astros pen...

The irony is that we beat the Yankees' bullpen.

But, yeah, the Yankees' relievers have been very good. And we're going to need good innings out of our bullpen, which is not as consistent but can certainly do the job. While in NY, we simply need to do the same thing we did most of the year: get 5-7 quality innings out of our starters, score some (>> 2) runs, and pitch well enough out of the 'pen.

My guess is that Hinch will move Peacock back to long relief, and start McCullers after Morton, then McHugh if there's a Game 5. I think we're safe from seeing him bringing in Keuchel or Verlander into these games in relief, avoiding his one genuinely boneheaded move from the ALDS. I expect him to manage aggressively with the intent of maximizing the chances of winning at least one game in NYC, knowing that he'll have a fully rested Keuchel and Verlander at home for insurance.

I don't know about boneheaded. He's made two moves that could very well have backfired--Verlander in relief and then Giles for the long save--and both of them worked out very well. Maybe, just maybe, he's got a better feel for what his players can do than we have. Of course, the main reason both worked is Verlander, which makes that look like the best mid-season acquisition ever by the Astros.

(10-15-2017 07:28 AM)sts60 Wrote:  

(10-14-2017 08:57 PM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  2 very low scoring games at Minute Maid. I suspect the games at Yankee Stadium will be much higher scoring. Verlander's CG shows you how little faith Hinch has in the Astros pen...

The irony is that we beat the Yankees' bullpen.

But, yeah, the Yankees' relievers have been very good. And we're going to need good innings out of our bullpen, which is not as consistent but can certainly do the job. While in NY, we simply need to do the same thing we did most of the year: get 5-7 quality innings out of our starters, score some (>> 2) runs, and pitch well enough out of the 'pen.

My guess is that Hinch will move Peacock back to long relief, and start McCullers after Morton, then McHugh if there's a Game 5. I think we're safe from seeing him bringing in Keuchel or Verlander into these games in relief, avoiding his one genuinely boneheaded move from the ALDS. I expect him to manage aggressively with the intent of maximizing the chances of winning at least one game in NYC, knowing that he'll have a fully rested Keuchel and Verlander at home for insurance.

I find it hard to believe he wouldn't start Keuchel on full rest in game 5, if there is a game 5. I think Hinch has done a great job this season with the team.

As far as Verlander goes, I was the one on this board pleading the Astros to make a significant move for the postseason (and it was obvious from the start that Liriano wasn't that move). But I'm not sure you can call him a mid-season acquisition (like Randy Johnson in 1998). Verlander was an August 31st acquisition, at the waiver trade deadline, a month after the normal July 31st deadline.

The significance of that trade is that all other teams had a chance to void the trade by claiming Verlander instead of Houston. Now granted Verlander has a $28 million contract for both 2018 and 2019, and supposedly Detroit is paying $8 million of that salary both this year and next year. And if a team claimed him instead of Houston, they would have had to pay all of Verlander's salary (I believe). But if Houston does advance to the World Series, the cash-rich Yankees and Red Sox could have voided that trade, so they have no one to blame but themselves.

It does seem like destiny that this will be Houston's year. After what this city has gone through, and with one of its stars from Puerto Rico (Correa, Beltran too and George Springer also has Puerto Rican roots although it's not quite fair to say he's from there even though his mother and sister have both competed for Puerto Rico in the Olympics).

And happy is back. Here comes game 7 over NY just like 94

Well hopefully the result will be similar to 1994, but that was a championship series and this is still the penultimate series. Dare I say it, this is probably the most anticipated sports contest in Houston since 1986 (my first year in Houston by the way), which of course was another Houston-New York divisional championship series (albeit the Mets and not the Yankees). I sadly was rooting for New York back in 1986, but I'm happy to say three-plus decades later, I have switched my allegiance. It goes without saying we don't want another repeat of 1986 tonight (no Billy Hatcher to save the Astros either).

It's interesting to see the difference in baseball philosophy between 1986 and 2017. In 1986, Mike Scott (and Ryan and Knepper too) was pitching on 3 days rest (with 2 CGs in the series), but you just don't see pitchers doing that anymore for the most part. Dwight Gooden pitched 10 innings in game 5 for New York.

I still think the 1994-95 NBA titles were a bit tainted since Jordan wasn't really playing (in 1994 for sure, I guess he was back at the end of 1995 but he wasn't at the top of his game). There would be nothing tainted about an Astros title this year, but they have to win tonight to even have a chance at a title.

(10-21-2017 07:24 AM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  Well hopefully the result will be similar to 1994, but that was a championship series and this is still the penultimate series. Dare I say it, this is probably the most anticipated sports contest in Houston since 1986 (my first year in Houston by the way), which of course was another Houston-New York divisional championship series (albeit the Mets and not the Yankees). I sadly was rooting for New York back in 1986, but I'm happy to say three-plus decades later, I have switched my allegiance. It goes without saying we don't want another repeat of 1986 tonight (no Billy Hatcher to save the Astros either).

It's interesting to see the difference in baseball philosophy between 1986 and 2017. In 1986, Mike Scott (and Ryan and Knepper too) was pitching on 3 days rest (with 2 CGs in the series), but you just don't see pitchers doing that anymore for the most part. Dwight Gooden pitched 10 innings in game 5 for New York.

I still think the 1994-95 NBA titles were a bit tainted since Jordan wasn't really playing (in 1994 for sure, I guess he was back at the end of 1995 but he wasn't at the top of his game). There would be nothing tainted about an Astros title this year, but they have to win tonight to even have a chance at a title.

You can definitely make that argument about the 1994 championship. I disagree about the 1995 one. The Bulls' problem in 1995 was not Jordan being rusty (he lit up the Knicks for 50 points in the Garden a few weeks before the playoffs began). A major contributor to the Bulls' success during those championships years was to always having a monster rebounder under the boards. During their early championship years that was Horace Grant. In 1994 they still had that presence. In fact, even without Jordan they almost beat the Knicks in the Eastern Conference finals. In 1995 Grant moved on to join Shaq in Orlando. Even with Jordan back in 1995, the Bulls were not nearly as formidable. After the Magic beat the Bulls in 1995, Jordan said afterwards that the key to their defeat was the fact that Orlando had Horace Grant and they didn't. Seeing that critical deficiency, Chicago signed Dennis Rodman the following off-season, thereby filling their rebounding need and setting themselves up for their follow-up 3-championship run.

I was at last night's game. Loved the atmosphere. Go Astros!