And still batting in the bottom half of our lineup.

I get that it worked in the regular season but it's desperate times and we need him moved up.

They will know his name when he hits the walk off HR to send us to the WS in game 6

Big Al 1992 said:

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Carlos is gonna have a monster game tonight.

“He did a great job. I approve the celebration.” - Carlos Correa.

“Let the kids play.” - Bob Watson.

Amenpic.twitter.com/8y5RbN858M

— Dinn Mann (@mooseoutfront) October 19, 2021

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I would like to think "we got em right where we want em" but good lord, I don't feel so hot after the last two games. We need to take one at Fenway to survive, but I would feel a whole lot better if we took two for insurance.

Umpire: Bill Miller
Final: Red Sox 12, Astros 3#DirtyWater // #ForTheH#BOSvsHOU // #HOUvsBOS pic.twitter.com/U2VBFMAzRJ

— Umpire Scorecards (@UmpScorecards) October 19, 2021

That's a pretty awful job by Miller

Starter Zack Greinke has pitched twice in the month of October. He hasn't thrown more than 28 pitches in either appearance. Cristian Javier got up to 56 pitches in the ALDS and will probably need to cover the bulk innings.

— Chandler Rome (@Chandler_Rome) October 19, 2021

There is an argument to be made that Siri needs to be removed from the ALCS roster for another pitcher

My computer was spazzing out on me.

Farmer1906 said:

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bearkatag15 said:

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Starter Zack Greinke has pitched twice in the month of October. He hasn't thrown more than 28 pitches in either appearance. Cristian Javier got up to 56 pitches in the ALDS and will probably need to cover the bulk innings.

— Chandler Rome (@Chandler_Rome) October 19, 2021

There is an argument to be made that Siri needs to be removed from the ALCS roster for another pitcher

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Doesn't work that way. You can't just take someone off because you set your roster poorly. It has to be an injury or Covid.

But, I do agree, we need more arms. This is why I wanted Solomon on the team. He's fully stretched out. Sox have never seen him. He can throw 50+ pitches easily. Much more if he's effective.

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Just say Siri's finger is bothering him?

Ah well never mind. I assumed to could remove someone and they just wouldn't be available in the next series.

bearkatag15 said:

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#OTD in 2019, Jose Altuve sent us to the World Series. pic.twitter.com/J06q9dmdJt

— Houston Astros (@astros) October 19, 2021

Good vibes today...

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Buck's original call was actually.

"Altuve! The support he's received from Aaron Judge all year is sending the Astros to the World Series where he'll face 21 year old Juan Soto!"

bearkatag15 said:

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Ah well never mind. I assumed to could remove someone and they just wouldn't be available in the next series.

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It has to get approved by MLB from what I understand. So no fake injuries to get out of a jam.

I hope we're finally willing to take a different (more creative) approach to our pitching this series. We should have done it last night. We let Urquidy ride way too long. But hopefully last night was the final/conclusive evidence that a conventional pitching strategy isn't going to fly against this Red Sox offense.

With Cora, the Red Sox are a super elite offense at home (.831 OPS at Fenway this year) and have an ability to ambush teams early in the game. They've done it to us all three games this series. They did it to the Rays every game (except g1). They did it to Cole in the WC game. I'm not sure how they do it, but at this point it doesn't matter.

I get that we're also a good team and we belong here, but given the state of our pitching right now, I don't think status quo is going to fly. We can't let the Red Sox settle in against any of our pitchers. We have to constantly be on the lookout for hot hands, let the hot hands ride, and get a new arm in the game when a pitcher runs into any sort of trouble.

With the exception of Framber, all hands should be on deck tonight. Quick hooks need to be utilized whenever we have a pitcher in trouble. We'll worry about tomorrow tomorrow. We gotta win tonight.

I think it's possible that Greinke might be able to dig deep into his bag of tricks and keep the Red Sox hitters off balance just enough to give us a couple innings. But if he runs into trouble early, we gotta get him out. I want to see Graveman and Stanek as the next two up. If one of them is hot, let them go two innings. My hope is that Greinke + Stanek + Graveman can get us into the fifth. Then we turn it over to Javier in the 5th and cross our fingers. At that point in the game, hopefully we'll have a lead and the pressure will be on the Red Sox bats. Then Pressly needs to be ready for the final six outs. IMO that's our best path to victory tonight.

If we do get an early lead tonight, I honestly don't care if we burn all our arms and have to forfeit game 5. At this point, I just want to make sure this gets back to Houston and we'll take it from there. Fenway is a scary place right now and I'm not saying that in any sort of negative way. It's just a fact that they have alot of momentum in that park right now. We have to do everything we can to not let them settle in and get comfy.

With all that said, I still think we can pull this off. Jekyll and Hyde has been a theme of the season so far. As bad as we've looked the last two games, I'm confident we can turn it around. We've done it all year. We just gotta get it back to Houston somehow.

I want to see an ALCS eephus pitch by ZG.

astros4545 said:

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We let Urquidy ride too long

It was the second inning after a 1-2-3 first

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Conventional thinking. You gotta understand the opponent.

Deluxe said:

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I hope we're finally willing to take a different (more creative) approach to our pitching this series. We should have done it last night. We let Urquidy ride way too long. But hopefully last night was the final/conclusive evidence that a conventional pitching strategy isn't going to fly against this Red Sox offense.

With Cora, the Red Sox are a super elite offense at home (.831 OPS at Fenway this year) and have an ability to ambush teams early in the game. They've done it to us all three games this series. They did it to the Rays every game (except g1). They did it to Cole in the WC game. I'm not sure how they do it, but at this point it doesn't matter.

I get that we're also a good team and we belong here, but given the state of our pitching right now, I don't think status quo is going to fly. We can't let the Red Sox settle in against any of our pitchers. We have to constantly be on the lookout for hot hands, let the hot hands ride, and get a new arm in the game when a pitcher runs into any sort of trouble.

With the exception of Framber, all hands should be on deck tonight. Quick hooks need to be utilized whenever we have a pitcher in trouble. We'll worry about tomorrow tomorrow. We gotta win tonight.

I think it's possible that Greinke might be able to dig deep into his bag of tricks and keep the Red Sox hitters off balance just enough to give us a couple innings. But if he runs into trouble early, we gotta get him out. I want to see Graveman and Stanek as the next two up. If one of them is hot, let them go two innings. My hope is that Greinke + Stanek + Graveman can get us into the fifth. Then we turn it over to Javier in the 5th and cross our fingers. At that point in the game, hopefully we'll have a lead and the pressure will be on the Red Sox bats. Then Pressly needs to be ready for the final six outs. IMO that's our best path to victory tonight.

If we do get an early lead tonight, I honestly don't care if we burn all our arms and have to forfeit game 5. At this point, I just want to make sure this gets back to Houston and we'll take it from there. Fenway is a scary place right now and I'm not saying that in any sort of negative way. It's just a fact that they have alot of momentum in that park right now. We have to do everything we can to not let them settle in and get comfy.

With all that said, I still think we can pull this off. Jekyll and Hyde has been a theme of the season so far. As bad as we've looked the last two games, I'm confident we can turn it around. We've done it all year. We just gotta get it back to Houston somehow.

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I think it should be Greinke for 2-3 with a reliever to come in if he has trouble, Javier for 3 innings, then Stanek, Graveman, and Pressley.

Maybe. I'd just like to see us fire some of our best bullets early to keep them at bay and give our offense a chance to put some pressure on them.

Deluxe said:

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astros4545 said:

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We let Urquidy ride too long

It was the second inning after a 1-2-3 first

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Conventional thinking. You gotta understand the opponent.

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I had thought you meant we let him ride too long without pitching live ball. He hadn't seen live ball game for 2 weeks up to that point.

Yep. Even more reason why he should have been hooked quicker.

astros4545 said:

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We let Urquidy ride too long

It was the second inning after a 1-2-3 first

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No, I think after he had already given up two runs with bases still loaded, you pull him before he gives up a grand slam. We let him ride too long and it was clear that he couldn't get anyone out.