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2019 Houston Astros Thread

Planet Houston

By Planet Houston
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My mom was diagnosed with breast cancer 3 weeks ago. Tomorrow she starts her treatment. She's been a wreck ever since the diagnosis. I mentioned a few pages back how a friend of the family manage

Rustic Horn
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Mez2
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Newest Astro fan was born earlier today at 12:09 am Mez3, holla!

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DaysOff

DaysOff 7947

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Yeah, me too. Perfectly put. 
I’m just glad I lived to see the day that the Astros are the big swinging dicks of baseball. 
Of course, we may well not win this World Series, but after the decades of fandom when we virtually had no chance to play in one, this is awesome. 
I still have nightmares about Game 5 of the NLCS in 1980, though. 
I held it against Enos Cabell for making the final out for far too long. Thought we'd never get over the hump.
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Iceman

Iceman 2699

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7 minutes ago, runthebone said:

Correa’s 94.5mph throw was the hardest on a 6-3 putout since 2015.

The injuries and missed games have been frustrating as hell, but plays like that cobra strike and the 474' bomb he hit in Baltimore this summer just demand respect.

 

He is a special player when he's in the game. When it comes time to work his contract, it's going to be about durability, not talent.

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Pimphand

Pimphand 5735

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45 minutes ago, DaysOff said:
14 hours ago, Victor Lazlo said:
Yeah, me too. Perfectly put. 
I’m just glad I lived to see the day that the Astros are the big swinging dicks of baseball. 
Of course, we may well not win this World Series, but after the decades of fandom when we virtually had no chance to play in one, this is awesome. 
I still have nightmares about Game 5 of the NLCS in 1980, though. 

I held it against Enos Cabell for making the final out for far too long. Thought we'd never get over the hump.

1980 was just such torture across the board... Joe Morgan and Nolan Ryan come home then JR Richard has the stroke and we lose the best pitcher in the game. We then go out to LA needing one win to clinch the west only to get swept and have to play Game 163 in LA which we do but it fucks us on rotation and rest as we had to fly to Philly. We get handled by Carlton in Game 1 but scratch out Games 2 & 3 in extra innings both but nowwe just need to win one of the last two at the dome.  We score the thing run in game 4 to force extra innings but faceplant in the 10th.  Headed into the final game we had a 5-2 lead with the indomitable Nolan Ryan on the mound in the 8th then the Hindenburg caught fire we gave up 5 runs. We tied it up at 7 all in the bottom of the inning to force extra innings for the 4th consecutive game only to fall for good in the 10th.

I thought for sure the Oilers were finally going to exorcise the city's sports demons with the Steelers having a down year and Stabler at the helm as we had finally gotten rid of the Pastorini interception machine only to find out that Stabler was equally as good at throwing interceptions. Even though the team would go 11-5 in the regular season they would get the 5th seed in the playoffs. Had they won just one more game the road to the Super Bowl would have had to come through Houston. Instead we lost to two 4-12 teams none worse than the best down the Seahawks put on us due to Stabler's five fucking interceptions. We also lost to the pedestrian Chiefs at Arrowhead by a point largely due to the crippling pick 6.  Just like the previous two seasons the Oilers would lose to the eventual champion but it would be in the first round. Earl would never see the postseason again and Bum would get fired.

Fuck everything about how agonizingly close 1980 was to winning it all for my two favorite teams....

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Brisketexan

Brisketexan 105095

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Also, waking out of the park, was reminded why I love Houston.
Dudes rapping.
Low riders popping and honking.
Cowgirl-types whooping and hollering.
Hell, there’s even an Altuve polka:



Every kinda folks you can imagine, all happy and fist-bumping each other, and happy to enjoy what other folks brought to the table in celebration.
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Mo Horn

Mo Horn 8832

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The home run ball bounced off the giant wall and back on to the field. Yankees leftfielder Brett Gardner picked it up. He saw Houston bullpen catcher Javier Bracamonte walking past him toward the pile of Astros gathering at home plate.

“Here,” Gardner said, handing him the ball. “Take this. You guys are a great team. Now go win the World Series. Represent the American League well.”

Said Bracamonte, “It was so classy. And Aaron Judge gave me a hug and said the same thing. I have so much respect for those guys.”

Bracamonte later gave the ball to an MLB authenticator.

I'm one of the first to say fuck the Yankees, but this is pure class at a really tough time. Fuck the Yankee fans, but the players are great ballplayers. 

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Js1

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9 minutes ago, Fozzz said:

Urquidy was clutch in that game. It would have been really tough to survive against them for nine innings if Urquidy had gotten knocked out quickly. 

He was awesome. He deserves either a start or a tandem with someone. If he gone one more, i think we win in the top of the 9th 

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UTexasFight

UTexasFight 9431

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Rosenthal on Altuve
Great read

HOUSTON — About seven minutes before The Moment, Gerrit Cole spotted José Altuve in the Astros’ video room.

Cole would not reveal exactly what Altuve was looking at on Saturday night, but he was struck by what he called his teammate’s “indifference to success and failure.” Altuve, of course, is anything but indifferent, but Cole was talking about another type of nonchalance, an “I can beat anybody” confidence.

The way Cole saw it, Altuve’s approach to Yankees closer Aroldis Chapman was the same as his approach to any other pitcher, his look in the ninth inning of Game 6 of the American League Championship Series the same as the look he would have in May.

“It takes a lot of preparation and a lot of guts to be able to have that type of cool mentality,” Cole said.

The score was tied, 4-4, after DJ LeMahieu’s remarkable 10-pitch at-bat and two-run homer off Astros closer Roberto Osuna in the top of the ninth. Chapman retired the first two hitters in the bottom half with minimal difficulty, then walked George Springer on five pitches and fell behind Altuve 2-0.

Cole, back in the dugout, turned to Wade Miley.

“Man, if he throws anything down and in, it’s going out,” Cole said.

“It’s going out to right,” Miley replied.

Cole was having none of it.

“It’s not going out to right. It’s going out to left. And it’s going deep,” he said.

In another corner of the dugout, Astros manager AJ Hinch was bracing for a different outcome, thinking Altuve might hook a ball into the left-field corner, wondering aloud whether Springer could make it from first to home.

The count ran to 2-1. Chapman threw a slider, but not down and in as Cole anticipated. No, the pitch was up and away, a back-door hanger.

“I was only right on like two-thirds of it,” Cole said later, smiling.

He was right about Altuve pulling the ball to the left. And right about him going deep. Off the bat, Hinch knew Altuve’s drive was no double. The thought hit the manager immediately: He got it. He got it. He got it.

In the delirious aftermath, Cole ran around the field, bragging that he called Altuve’s homer, the two-run walk-off shot that gave the Astros a 6-4 victory on Saturday night and sent them to their second World Series in three years.

Verlander begged to differ. The Moment found Altuve. Altuve found The Moment. And while this one was bigger than most, Altuve’s teammates had seen this type of thing before, and so had other admirers of the 5-foot-6, 165-pound dynamo.

Altuve, 29, is the longest-tenured Astros player, and perhaps the most beloved player in the sport.

“I almost thought the whole world was calling it,” Verlander said.

The Moment, of course, never should have happened, sort of like Altuve’s game-winning run in Game 2 of the 2017 ALCS never should have happened.

Remember?

Altuve probably should have been out by 10 feet after racing from first to home on Carlos Correa’s opposite-field double, but Yankees catcher Gary Sánchez could not handle shortstop Didi Gregorius’ throw.

That’s Altuve, always making his own luck, always finding a way. Cole recalled how Altuve practically had “to beg” a team to sign him out of Venezuela before joining the Astros in 2011 for the grand sum of $15,000. In the ninth inning on Saturday night, Altuve never should have gotten a pitch to hit, not with two outs and the light-hitting Jake Marisnick on deck after entering the previous inning as a pinch-runner for Michael Brantley.

But Altuve got one, anyway.

Hinch said, diplomatically, “Chapman is so good, he can throw just about any pitch to anybody.” That is mostly true. Chapman pumped his usual 100-mph fastballs on Saturday night, and prior to Altuve’s shot he had given up only two homers on his slider all season. The last one was July 15 to the Rays’ Travis d’Arnaud, according to Inside Edge. Hitters since then had been 3-for-33 against Chapman’s slider.

But here’s the thing: Marisnick had batted just .233 with a .700 OPS during the regular season, and had only three at-bats in the Astros’ 10 previous games this October, singling and striking out twice.

What’s more, in the dueling bullpen games that made an odd bit of postseason history, the Astros were running out of pitching. Osuna had thrown 25 pitches in the ninth. Héctor Rondón and Bryan Abreu, the two relievers behind him, were not especially attractive options.

The Yankees’ plan should have been obvious: Pitch Altuve carefully, go after Marisnick if necessary, push the game to extra innings.

So, what exactly were they thinking?

“Certainly not a walk, an intentional walk situation, but kind of pitching him aggressively like you’re ahead the whole time,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “And I think Chappy did, he just hung a breaking ball. That’s obviously a pitch he’s trying to not give in and probably get down and out of the zone, see if you get a chase or something and he hung it.”

It might have been Chapman’s last pitch with the Yankees, if he opts out of the final two years and $30 million left on his contract. Altuve had been 3-for-7 against him previously. More to the point, Altuve had batted .320 with a .944 OPS since June 19, when he returned from the injured list after missing more than a month with knee and hamstring issues. And this postseason, he is batting .349 with five homers and a 1.184 OPS, including his home run on Saturday night.

Marisnick, by comparison, represented a far less challenging target.

“No disrespect to Jake. But I thought they were not going to pitch to (Altuve) and then pitch to Jake,” Correa said. “Altuve’s been hot all postseason long. But they pitched to him. And we thank them for that.”

Altuve is more than simply a great player. He epitomizes all that is good about the game, performing with boundless, infectious energy, displaying an endearing combination of humility and humanity, proving smaller players can succeed.

“José Altuve is a giant in every sense of the word except for his height,” Verlander said.

In my postgame interview with Altuve on Fox Sports 1, he did not answer my question about the Chapman at-bat until after he thanked God and all the fans “for the beautiful game and the beautiful playoffs” and praised his teammates for all their hard work.

I asked him why he held onto his jersey as he crossed home plate, preventing his teammates from tearing it off, and he began giggling as he completed his answer, saying, “I don’t know. I’m too shy. Last time they did that, I got in trouble with my wife.”

Finally, he said, “We won the game not because I hit a homer. Yuli (Gurriel) hit a three-run homer. Michael Brantley made a really good play (in left field). Springer just walked and put some pressure on them to get some momentum going. We were working as a team. We don’t rely on one player.”

Hinch’s favorite story about Altuve goes back to 2015, the first of the Astros’ five straight winning seasons after four straight in which they averaged 104 losses, starting with Altuve’s rookie year. The Astros won the wild-card game against the Yankees, then lost the Division Series to the Royals with Altuve going 3-for-22.

“He was so broken up,” Hinch said. “Before I addressed this team, he came in almost in tears, apologizing for his play, apologizing for not coming through. We took it to a Game 5, got beat by (Johnny) Cueto and the Royals. All I could do was hug him and tell him, you’re not the reason we lost. You’re the reason we’re here to begin with. And that we’re going to win for a long time.”

Verlander, who joined the Astros in a trade on Aug. 31, 2017, said the greatest compliment a player can receive is when a new teammate says, “He’s even better than I thought.” Those are precisely the words Verlander uses to describe Altuve — the same words newcomers to the pitcher’s former team, the Tigers, once used to describe Miguel Cabrera.

Yet, it’s not just Verlander who speaks of Altuve with reverence. Inside the Astros’ clubhouse — a clubhouse full of stars, from Cole and Verlander to Springer, Correa and Alex Bregman — the praise for Altuve is unrestrained, flowing as easily as clinching champagne.

Bench coach Joe Espada said that early in Saturday night’s game, Altuve told him, “I want to come up in a big spot, I want to get a big hit for the team.” It was typical Altuve, eager to accept responsibility, even more eager to leave his mark. “He wants people to remember how great he is,” Espada said. “He takes it upon himself to be the guy.”

Verlander said he could not have picked a better person to hit the series-clinching homer. Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow called the walk-off “one of the best moments in postseason history.” And then there was Cole, struggling in an interview with FS1 to find the right words to summarize Altuve.

“I don’t know if we can sit here and talk about that guy and really describe actually who he is,” Cole said. “You talk about some of the greatest players who have ever played this game. You talk about probably the most talented, best player in Mike Trout in this game right now. A lot of credit goes to Mike. But there is nobody I want up in that situation rather than José.

“He’s just got a gift from God.”

 

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