Been ruminating on tomorrow's game

There's no other professional sports team you'd want to back in this position than the Astros. This team knows how to get the job done when it matters most. I'll take the postseason experience every time

I expect Astros to win. Any other result will be self-inflicted. Dusty's boys are in control here for better or worse

Go Astros

I do not have high hopes for tonight. I refuse to watch game 7s, they get me too amped up and these 8pm (eastern) games are ROUGH when I have to be up at 5 the next day.

I will wake up in the middle of the night and check my phone and hope we get to play another series

Most frustrating part about last night is the pen exploding in the 9th. Let Leclerc sit down and they also got to let chapman sit.

Go win it tonight. Gonna need the bats to show up.

Off the top of my head, here are some things that were frustrating on the offense side:

B1: Tucker K with RISP (ended up only getting 1 run that inning)

B2: Pena K looking on a ball WAY to close to take (led to a low pitch inning for Eovaldi)

B5: Maldy walks, then Altuve first pitch swinging at a high fastball (out of the zone) and popping it straight up. Brantley follows him with a K. Bregman pops out weakly on a 3-1 count. Inning ends with Maldy at 1B and Yordan on deck.

B8: Dubon wildly swinging at 2 balls out of the zone with bases loaded, 1 out - after Leclerc had just walked Tucker. Then puts a weak swing on a soft liner to SS.


We're either going to have to get an elite pitching performance from CJ and the bullpen, or Tucker and Pena are going to have to join the party. Dubon needs to sit tonight - put Chas in CF. Having Dubon, Pena and Maldy at the 789 is not good at all.

ETA: Yordan needs to move back to the 3-hole.

Maybe it will feel like a road game!?

Bobcat-Ag said:

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Maybe it will feel like a road game!?

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I genuinely think it's more of a stadium issue. Players see those Crawford boxes and play hero ball. On the road we spray line drives to the gaps and go oppo.

Has nothing to do with the fans IMO. Wouldn't matter if it was 100% capacity of Ranger fans

agdaddy04 said:

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First inning should've been a crooked number. That could've gotten Eovaldi pulled quick.

Still have faith it's going to happen tomorrow. Not going to be a repeat of 2019 WS.

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Yeah, you can't blow opportunities like that to jump on them early and I think most everyone knew it at the time.

I trust this team. These dudes have had their backs against the wall all year. They want to do it the hard way then let's do it the hard way...my heart may explode but are we about to win a game 7 in the final 2 innings tonight? I DON'T CARE HOW THEY GET IT DONE, BUT GET IT DONE BY ANY MEANS POSSIBLE.

The problem with needing elite pitching is that the results don't always match the performance. Framber was pretty damn good last night. He had 13 swings and misses (Eovaldi had 5). The Heim home run was just pure bad luck. It was a 336' pop up with an xBA of .120. For a comparison, Dubon's sac fly traveled 337' with an xBA of .120.

As if it isn't bad enough that our team struggles at home, our home ball park is the reason we fell behind 3-1. Framber had a great outing, but his final stat line doesn't show it.

Idk about the rest of yall but i will literally be praying for the astros to win tonight. The power of prayer can have powerul results so why not

Wabs said:

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Off the top of my head, here are some things that were frustrating on the offense side:

B1: Tucker K with RISP (ended up only getting 1 run that inning)

B2: Pena K looking on a ball WAY to close to take (led to a low pitch inning for Eovaldi)

B5: Maldy walks, then Altuve first pitch swinging at a high fastball (out of the zone) and popping it straight up. Brantley follows him with a K. Bregman pops out weakly on a 3-1 count. Inning ends with Maldy at 1B and Yordan on deck.

B8: Dubon wildly swinging at 2 balls out of the zone with bases loaded, 1 out - after Leclerc had just walked Tucker. Then puts a weak swing on a soft liner to SS.


We're either going to have to get an elite pitching performance from CJ and the bullpen, or Tucker and Pena are going to have to join the party. Dubon needs to sit tonight - put Chas in CF. Having Dubon, Pena and Maldy at the 789 is not good at all.

ETA: Yordan needs to move back to the 3-hole.

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The AB by Dubon in the 8th was absolutely brutal. Dubon should've literally just stood still and forced Leclerc to throw a strike. You could tell that Leclerc was frustrated with himself during the Tucker AB, he clearly was not in control of his pitches, and all Dubon did was gift him by swinging wildly.
We CANNOT keep screwing up these bases loaded with 1 or 0 outs situations. Our approach HAS to change, unless your name is Altuve or Alvarez.

I don't have an issue with the AB by Altuve in the 5th. He saw that high fastball coming as if he knew that's what was going to be thrown. It just got a little too far above his hands. You could tell by the expression on his face after he hit it that he knew he barely missed it.

JDUB08AG said:

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There is no way we pull another 2019 right? Right???

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That's the terrifying thing right? Getting swept at home in a 4 game series is highly probable for the 2nd time in 5 years. Especially when its about to happen against your ****ing in-state competition.

They have to show up tonight. Get after Scherzer and get into the pen and score some ****ing runs. Have already had multiple people walk into my office talking **** this morning, which is annoying because I'm not sure they knew Arlington had a baseball team the last 5 years.

What's most frustrating for me with Tucker is it's not like he's hitting a lot of hard stuff that's finding a glove… he's just putting bad swings on the ball

While I realize things are dim....the dang game still needs to be played. Do we suck at home? Yup. We have just under a .500 average there, yes? Well, tonight is game 4 at home. You win 1 and you get a .250 average at home, so perhaps water finds a bit of a level tonight.

LFG win the damn thing and move on.

McInnis 03 said:

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While I realize things are dim....the dang game still needs to be played. Do we suck at home? Yup. We have just under a .500 average there, yes? Well, tonight is game 4 at home. You win 1 and you get a .250 average at home, so perhaps water finds a bit of a level tonight.

LFG win the damn thing and move on.

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We also have a TON more experience in these types of games than they do. If Javier has his invisiball working and we can get some runs across the plate early I hope they will start pressing and we can take advantage.

I just think how hot hitting the Phillies were last year in the World Series and Javier shut them the f*** down.

I'd go with:

Altuve 4
Bregman 5
Yordan DH
Abreu 3
Brantley 7
Tucker 9
Chas 8
Pena 6
Maldy 2

So today you have Javier fully rested. Hopefully he goes 5+ and 2 runs or less

You also have fully rested France, Brown, Pressly, Maton (8 pitches last night) and Neris should be good to go.

On paper, that's a huge advantage for us given the offense has a pulse

Y'all trying to bench Dubon for one Ab:

He also had one of two RBI's in the game with a sac fly on a very good ab. I think he went up there in the 8th guessing and it got him behind early.

Wabs said:

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I'd go with:

Altuve 4
Bregman 5
Yordan DH
Abreu 3
Brantley 7
Tucker 9
Chas 8
Pena 6
Maldy 2

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Brantley has great numbers vs Scherzer. He needs to be in the 2 hole

I have heard the Astros are asking the crowd to get deeply into debt, wax their eyebrows, and consider having a homosexual affair to replicate the feeling of GLF

Barnyard96 said:

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Do we get Abreu?

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No way Manfred lets Abreu play tonight.