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2018 Houston Astros Season Thread

Planet Houston

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TexArcher
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Bregs is going Crawford Boxes right here.

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Prior to the footage being edited by Bender:

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Two Diamond Club tickets available for the Sunday night game.  Free.  Need to pick them up from me in 77027. Rules: Poster must be a big contributor to this thread/last years shag thread.  No gue

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I dislike the Indians...because they don't have anyone to hate.  Even Bauer's just a usable bitch.  Bregman said he didn't even remember how Bauer was pitching him before he blasted the HR.

 

Not even memorable.

 

Go Astros!!!

N-E-

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UDontKnow

UDontKnow 10446

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8 minutes ago, Fudge Nuggets said:

Can’t believe they started Price.  The Yankees absolutely own that dipstick.

The more the Yankees and Red Sox beat up on each other, the better it is for us. Actually, we should be rooting for the Yankees to win so that we'll have home field if we can take care of business against the Indians. I am worried with Keuchel on the mound on Monday though. 

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TonyTexas

TonyTexas 10515

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I’ve been following this Cleveland reporter this series. He’s pretty good

ordan Bastian

MLB.com’s Indians reporter. Go right through for MSU.

Oct 6

Covering the Bases: ALDS Game 2

 

Notes and quotes from the Indians’ 3–1 loss to the Astros in Game 2 of the American League Division Series on Saturday at Minute Maid Park.

FIRST: Josh Donaldson swung through an elevated fastball from Gerrit Cole and, as the Houston crowd roared, the Indians third baseman flipped his bat in disgust, sending it bouncing to a stop in the dirt in front of the plate.

Donaldson then tossed his helmet aside, wearing a look of disgust after his strikeout punctuated a series of three straight for the Astros’ starter. Cole went to the upper reaches of the zone three times with his heater in the battle and Donaldson could not connect.

“He had that up-shoot heater,” Donaldson said. “As a hitter, it’s a little bit deceiving, because it looks like it’s going to be in there for a strike and it just keeps going up.”

From Cole’s perspective, the sequence against Donaldson was a thing of beauty:

1. 89-mph slider in the dirt: Ball one

2. 98-mph fastball high inside zone: Swinging strike

3. 99-mph fastball away, above zone: Swinging strike

4. 101-mph fastball low, away, in dirt: Ball two

5. 84-mph curve low, away, in zone: Foul ball

6. 99-mph fastball up, above zone: Swinging strike three

From the Indians’ perspective, it was a glimpse into an approach by Houston that has helped limit Cleveland to a 6-for-60 showing through the first two games of this American League Division Series. That paltry offensive showing has put the Tribe in an 0–2 hole as the series shifts to Cleveland.

Specifically, it was an approach by Justin Verlander in Game 1 and then Cole, who has a similar arsenal, in Game 2. Combined, the two hard-throwing righties pounded Cleveland’s lineup with four-seamers, focusing on high-velocity heaters in the upper-third of the zone or elevated out of the zone.

13a993c5bc8d48ad5fd11b0e4708e420.jpg

What is interesting about this approach is it goes against what Cleveland has faced for the bulk of this season. When the Indians’ lineup has struggled, it has typically been against pitchers who center their attack around offspeed and breaking pitches.

During the regular season, the Indians saw 57.8% fastballs, marking the second-lowest rate in the Majors. Why? Because Cleveland slugged .491 (second in MLB) against all varieties of fastballs. The Indians saw 33-percent four-seamers (fourth-lowest in MLB). Why? Because Cleveland slugged a Major League-leading .522 against four-seamers.

Verland and Cole combined for 121 four-seamers within their 200 pitches, or 60.5% of their offerings over the past two nights. Yes, the starters have executed their secondary pitches to help make the heaters more effective. Even with that said, though, it has felt like a here-it-is, see-if-you-can-hit-it challenge on the part of Houston’s arms.

As T.J. Zuppe of The Athletic noted, the Indians produced a .426 slugging percentage on four-seamers in the upper-third of the zone and above, compared to a .591 slugging on four-seamers in the lower two-thirds and below. That plays into the elevated-heater approach by Houston’s starters.

“I had a pretty decent feel for the zone, but I think that came more from the fastball,” Cole said. “If you can constantly just put pressure on all four quadrants, it gives you a little more leverage to be able to fill the zone up with breaking balls in fastball counts, or with breaking balls when guys are maybe sitting on the fastball that you’ve established.

“I had good command with it. I was able to throw strikes with all four pitches, but I really just kept trying to pound the zone and stay aggressive.”

Cole struck out 12 over seven innings, with his lone setback being a solo homer by Francisco Lindor, who drove a 2–2 slider out in the third inning.

Verlander might very well take home the AL Cy Young Award for his work this season. Cole was a leading candidate for that accolade for much of the summer. The Houston rotation set single-season MLB records this year with 10.37 K/9 and 1,101 strikeouts overall, and finished 22nd all-time for single-season fWAR (22.5).

So, it’s important to keep things in perspective when considering that Cleveland has scored one run via a wild pitch, one on a groundout and one on a homer — and nothing else — in the first two games of this season. The Astros’ pitching staff is ridiculously good.

Does that make this 0–2 pill any easier for Cleveland’s hitters — let alone this title-starved fan base — to swallow? No, not at all, especially given that the Indians hit .171 with a .550 OPS in their ALDS debacle against the Yankees last year.

The Nos. 3–6 hitters, in particular, have been handcuffed by the Astros. Jose Ramirez, Edwin Encarnacion, Donaldson and Yonder Alonso have combined to go 1-for-28 in the two losses at Minute Maid Park.

“They locate. They execute. They’ve done a very, very good job,” Lindor said. “As the offense, we’ve got to do a little better job.”

SECOND: Over the past two games, Indians manager Terry Francona’s decision on when to pull his starting pitcher loomed large in the aftermath of each defeat.

In Game 1, ace Corey Kluber labored through a 35-pitch fourth inning, but was trusted to return to the mound in the fifth. He promptly allowed back-to-back home runs and Houston was on its way to a 7–2 romp.

In Game 2, Carlos Carrasco cruised for the first five innings, but then ran into trouble in the sixth. Jose Altuve reached on an infield single (more on that in a moment) and Alex Bregman walked. Following a flyout by Yuli Giurriel, Francona called Andrew Miller from the ‘pen.

“He’s the manager. He made the right decision,” Carrasco said. “He took me out. There’s nothing I can do about that. Yeah, I just want to continue to pitch, but if that’s the call from Tito, I respect that.”

We now sit here with the benefit of hindsight.

Miller entered and his command did not enter with him. He misfired on an 0–1 fastball — sending it up and away — and Marwin Gonzalez shot it into right field. Two runs scored on the play, giving the Astros a 2–1 lead. Miller then walked Carlos Correa and, while facing Tyler White, fired a wild pitch behind the batter that allowed two runners to move up a base.

After an intentional walk, Trevor Bauer took over and escaped the jam, but the damage had been done. After the loss, Miller got dressed, waited for Bauer’s interview session to end, and then walked over to reporters and made no excuses.

“I blew the game for us,” Miller said.

Francona’s reasoning for going to Miller was two-fold. First, Gonzalez had two hits off Carrasco in two at-bats. Next, the Astros outfielder was 1-for-8 with six strikeouts in his career against Miller.

“We got to a point in the game where,” Francona said, “oh boy, with a one-run lead, and with Gonzalez coming up — the way he had swung the bat against him prior — and Andrew’s history, I felt really good about it. It didn’t work out the way we obviously planned.

“We wanted Andrew. That’s what we wanted right there.”

THIRD: Altuve’s infield hit to start the sixth-inning rally was a roller up the third-base line. Donaldson charged in and, for a moment, it looked like the ball had a chance at spinning into foul territory.

The catch was that Altuve stumbled out of the batter’s box and Donaldson saw that. Normally, a third baseman might let that ball go, especially with a good runner like Altuve. If it rolls to a stop in fair ground, chalk it up to a tough-luck hit. If it rolls foul, well, then the pitcher gets a second chance.

Donaldson made a judgement call given Altuve’s delayed departure. In the third baseman’s view, the bigger issue was his wild throw. It wasn’t ruled an error, but the errant toss ensured Altuve reached safely.

“He didn’t get out of the box particularly well,” Donaldson said. “Normal circumstances, if he got out of the box well, I let it go every time. But, with the circumstances, I feel right now I’d still make the play, I would just make a better throw. I felt like if I made the throw, it’s an easy out.”

HOME: The next stop is Progressive Field, where the Indians will hope to feed off their home crowd and make this a series, beginning with Game 3 on Monday. Consider Cleveland on the verge of three consecutive must-win Wild Card games.

In the history of five-game series with the 2–2–1 format, teams who win Games 1–2 at home have taken the series 89% of the time (24-for-27). The 2017 Indians are a part of the 11% exception.

Maybe it’s not a comfortable thing to think about, but the Tribe’s players can at least look back to only one year ago for a glimmer of hope. Cleveland was up 2–0 and then watched New York rattle off three straight wins.

“It might be a little unfortunate that we know it can be done,” Miller said. “We have a day to regroup. That’s how I’m looking at it.”

 

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UTexasFight

UTexasFight 9454

Posted
Posted

More Stark greatness.
This time on Altuve.
94-44 with Tuve in the lineup this year.
30-9 since he’s been back
Man



By Jayson Stark 13m ago
HOUSTON​ –​ Five feet​ from​ home​ plate,​ the​ MVP was​ on his​ hands and​ knees, trying to avoid a face​​ plant … trying to pretend his knee wasn’t throbbing … trying to pretend he’d just hit a rocket up the gap instead of a dribbler up the line.

Little did José Altuve know he’d accidentally started the craziest game-winning postseason rally of his life. Little did he know that, simply by picking himself up and staggering toward first base, he was going to cause an October baseball game to spin in a whole different direction.

And most important of all, little did he know that just the sight of him falling down in front of the batter’s box was threatening to send the entire roster of the Houston Astros to the coronary-care unit.

“Everyone’s heart stopped for a second,” said Carlos Correa.

“I panicked,” said George Springer.

We often grope for the words to describe what Altuve means to baseball’s defending champs. But on Saturday afternoon at Minute Maid Park, it was all summed up in just a few brief moments.

A swinging bunt, a messy tumble, a painful trip up the first-base line … and its powerful impact on, well, everything that happened next in Game 2 of the American League Division Series.

“Every time he’s on the field,” Correa would say of Altuve, after the 3-1 win that gave the Astros a 2-games-to-none lead, “he makes special things happen.”

This hasn’t been Altuve’s greatest season. He’d be the first to tell you that. And in a related development, it certainly hasn’t been his healthiest. So it was almost fitting that Saturday, on another magical October day in Houston, Altuve’s game-altering impact was eclipsed by the 12-strikeout brilliance of Gerrit Cole, the four hits of Marwin González and another Alex Bregman long ball.

But let’s take a step back from those headlines and remember something important. It’s now about seven weeks since Altuve returned from the disabled list after an extended battle with knee soreness. The Astros’ record since he got back on the field?

Only 30-9.

Yessir. That’s the best record in the whole sport since then. Of course it is.

Or how about this: In games Altuve has started this year, counting the postseason, the Astros are 50 games over .500 – yeah, 50. As in 94-44.

And in the games he hasn’t been in the lineup? They’re five games under .500. As in 9-14.

You think this is a coincidence? You think this is just fun with numbers? You think this is merely circumstantial evidence disguised as some sort of trend? Sorry, not buying it. And Altuve’s teammates aren’t buying it, either.

“He’s our leader. He’s our captain. And he’s our guy,” Springer said, without much prompting. “When he’s in our lineup, it makes everybody kind of slow down and relax, because he’s our mainstay.”

You don’t need to program any complicated algorithms to analyze why that is, either. It’s pretty frigging obvious, isn’t it? He’s one of the best hitters in the entire sport, right? Is that a basic enough analysis?

He became a regular player for the Astros seven seasons ago. He has the most hits in baseball and the highest batting average in baseball over the last three, four, five, six or seven seasons. Pick a time span. He’s still That Guy.

And this season was going to be no different until the last week of July, when he fired an RBI double to right center at Coors Field, tried to accelerate to beat the throw to second base and came up limping.

At the time, he was leading the league in hits, was second to Mookie Betts in batting average and was hovering around the league-leader board in on-base percentage, stolen bases and doubles. He then missed the next 21 games. The Astros had a losing record without him (10-11). And their lead over Oakland shrunk from six games to 1 ½.

Then back he came in late August, at around the same time as Correa and Springer. The Astros got the band back together. They’ve been a behemoth ever since. So you do that José Altuve math. It’s not a difficult equation.

“He’s a superstar,” said veteran catcher Brian McCann. “He’s the MVP. He’s one of the best players in this game. And when he’s in there, there’s a difference – a huge difference. It’s what he brings in the clubhouse, what he brings on the field. He gets a lot of rallies going. He’s a big piece that we were missing.”

But what happened Saturday was a reminder that he’s still not the healthiest player in baseball, even now. Asked to describe his current state of health on a scale of one to 100 percent, Altuve grinned. That wasn’t happening. Not now.

“You don’t know,” he said. “I could tell you that after the season. But in the playoffs, there is so much adrenaline or something that right now I feel 100 percent, because of the adrenaline in my body.”

Well, whatever it is that’s keeping him going, it allowed him to leave his mark on a pivotal postseason baseball game. The Indians held a 1-0 lead as Altuve stepped in to lead off the bottom of the sixth against Carlos Carrasco. Until that moment, no team that scored first had lost a game in this postseason. In fact, there hadn’t been a lead change – in eight games.

But not for long. Altuve topped a 1-and-2 changeup down the third-base line. The exit velocity of this mighty blast was a whopping 56 miles per hour. It was the softest ball hit off Carrasco all day. It had a hit probability, according to Statcast, of 22 percent. And even that seemed high.

But whatever that hit probability it was, it plummeted precipitously when Altuve got one step out of the box and then found himself on his hands and knees. His cleats must have gotten “a little wet,” he theorized. But this was no time to analyze why he was slip-sliding in the dirt. This was a time to struggle to his feet and start running.

If he hadn’t fallen, Indians third baseman Josh Donaldson wouldn’t have done what he did next, either. He would have just let this ball roll foul. But merely by making the effort to pick himself up and keep running, Altuve caused Donaldson to make a game-changing decision his team could wind up regretting all winter.

Under “normal circumstances,” Donaldson told the Athletic’s Zack Meisel, “I let it go [foul] every time.” But under these circumstances, he thought he had “an easy out.” So he grabbed the baseball, fired it to first base and wound up heaving it halfway to Galveston. It was scored a single. But that’s a debate for another time.

What seemed to matter most at that moment, though, was that Altuve had seemed to pull up as he approached the bag, then limped around uncomfortably as his manager and athletic trainer sprinted out for a visit, their blood pressure skyrocketing.

“I was a little sore after that play,” Altuve admitted. “I was a little scared … I mean, you don’t want to be hurt during the playoffs.”

But what were the odds of him coming out of that game in that moment? About the same as Nolan Ryan popping out of the box seats to pitch the last three innings. And by that we mean: zero.

“For him to leave a game like that, he’d have to die,” Springer quipped. “Die. That man’s a warrior. He’s not coming out. He’s like all of us. If I can walk, I can play.”

So because Altuve somehow found himself standing on first, a comatose ballpark suddenly rocked back to life. Alex Bregman worked a walk. Carrasco was exiting. Andrew Miller was entering. Gonzalez sliced a two-run double into the right-field corner. And guess who suddenly felt so much better, he was able to sprint home from second to score? Yep. The MVP.

So think about this. Think about what just happened here. Jose Altuve has started many rallies in his day. But it’s safe to say none were as crazy as the way he started this one.

“Yeah. Crazy,” he said. “But for me, it feels the same as getting a line drive or homer, because I just wanted to get on base – and I did.”

It was almost as if he willed himself to reach that base. Whereupon his team willed itself to turn this game and this series upside down. And that, friends, is the José Altuve Effect. When he’s on the field, stuff just happens.

On Saturday afternoon, somehow or other, it happened to the Houston Astros and Cleveland Indians. And now this ALDS might never be the same

 

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UTexasFight

UTexasFight 9454

Posted
Posted

Gotta finish them off but through two games, this looks like a matchup of a team that followed up winning a World Series by setting a franchise record for wins against a team that had the fewest wins of any playoff team(save the Braves) in the worst division in baseball (and who was 2 games under .500 against all MLB teams not named Twins, Tigers, White Sox and Royals)

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Gut Wagon

Gut Wagon 8079

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Those were two phenomenal starts for JV and Cole. I don't have confidence Keuchel will match them in Game 3, perhaps because he always seems to be on the verge of getting hit hard. But whenever I go into a big game expecting him to get knocked around, he seems to do better than I was fearing. (Besides, it will be a road game...so that's pretty much a guaranteed win, right?) And having Pressly and Osuna to clean up the leftovers makes us much stronger late than we were at this time last year. 

Our offense doesn't seem fully armed just yet, but we're showing signs of getting there. Gonzalez of course was tremendous yesterday. Bregman, Altuve and Springer seem to be heating up again, and the ball is starting to jump off Correa's bat much better than a few weeks ago. If he can keep getting healthier without another back tweak or other freak problem along the way, it obviously makes our offense way better. And Straw looks like a serious weapon in close games.   

Put it all together, and things couldn't be much better than they are at the moment. Let's roll. 

 

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Mez2

Mez2 4023

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39 minutes ago, UTPhil2006 said:

7-0 playoff record. Still waiting for that apology Mez. Also Mez is a vagina when it comes to supporting his team. I found him wandering aimlessly in the 3rd and he said he was scared about the game. Told him we got this and the rest is history. 

I was finding a shorter beer line

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Scraps

Scraps 13561

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Posted
7-0 playoff record. Still waiting for that apology Mez. Also Mez is a vagina when it comes to supporting his team. I found him wandering aimlessly in the 3rd and he said he was scared about the game. Told him we got this and the rest is history. 

7-0? An astros fan since last year? Thats cute.

 

Jk

 

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AtticusFinch

AtticusFinch 155

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16 hours ago, UDontKnow said:

The more the Yankees and Red Sox beat up on each other, the better it is for us. Actually, we should be rooting for the Yankees to win so that we'll have home field if we can take care of business against the Indians. I am worried with Keuchel on the mound on Monday though. 

I would start Morton.  I'm not a Keuchel fan but perhaps he can hold them to 3 runs or less through 5.

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Guadaloopy

Guadaloopy 10973

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Posted

Clevinger has not started a postseason game.  All of his prior appearances in 16-17 were in relief.  He has a 6.45 postseason ERA.  

Keuchel has made eight postseason starts with a 3.24 postseason ERA.  

Indians have struggled against off-speed and breaking balls this season.  They do their damage against fastballs in the upper third of the zone.  Keuchel ain’t throwing anything in the upper third of the zone.  If Keuchel is getting the strike called at the bottom of the knees tomorrow, he’s throwing a shutout   

Y’all chill.  

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