Author Topic: ALDS Game Four: David and Goliath face elimination  (Read 519 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline EasyAce

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 10,385
  • Gender: Male
  • RIP Blue, 2012-2020---my big, gentle friend.
ALDS Game Four: David and Goliath face elimination
« on: October 09, 2019, 03:58:17 pm »
Justin Verlander on too-short rest was too vulnerable. So were the Astros to the Rays' glove and other corps.
By Yours Truly
https://throneberryfields.com/2019/10/09/david-and-goliath-face-elimination/


“They played beautiful defense, especially in that play
right there.”—Jose Altuve, about the relay that nailed him
at the plate above.


Sometimes you can’t afford to respect your elders. As in, when they’re on the mound on short rest, their less-than-well-rested arms and bodies refuse their lawful orders, and it’s still now or never until your American League division series is over.

There probably isn’t a Rays player or fan alive who doesn’t have a world of respect for Justin Verlander. There isn’t any baseball person alive lacking in such respect. Even at 36, the man has skills, the man has brains to burn, the man has no fear, the man has class, and the man has heart.

And when he says he wants the ball no matter how much rest it wouldn’t be on, nobody says no to Verlander. Not his manager. Not his front office. And sure as hell not Astroworld. Saying no to Justin Verlander with his cred is like it once was telling Evel Knievel the Snake River Canyon wasn’t going to be his new best friend.

But when even a Hall of Famer elects to take the mound in a bid to kick his team into the League Championship Series no matter how fully rested he isn’t, no matter how obedient his slider isn’t, there isn’t a Ray or anyone else alive either who’d spot him with his command gone AWOL and refuse to get the drop on him before he finds a reserve tank.

These Rays seem like nice guys. So do these Astros. But do you think the Astros would stay nice guys if they faced even a Hall of Famer with his tank down to its final fume? If you do, I have a freshly purchased Taj Mahal I’d like to sell you at cost.

Powerful teams are fun to watch when they dominate as these Astros have done all year long, and the Astros are fun to watch even on their very occasional off days. But there’s nothing like a band of upstarts that nobody else wanted pushing them to the equivalent brink of elimination as the Rays did Tuesday night.

Their 4-1 win over the Astros was as good as blowing almost anyone else out by three times that margin. That’s how tough the Astros are. And that’s how stubborn the Rays are proving to be.

Even if Gerrit Cole takes the mound Thursday back in Houston, delivers just half of what he threw at the Rays in Game Two, and sends the Astros to an American League Championship Series with the Yankees—you want to talk about E.R. vs. St. Elsewhere?—there isn’t a soul to be found who’d say the Rays didn’t prove they could hang with the big boys after it looked at first as though they’d get hanged.

So the Rays got cute sending Diego Castillo out to open, and Castillo got cute striking out the side in the first. And impressing the hell out of Astros manager A.J. Hinch. “Castillo, thank God he was an opener and not a regular starter,” he said after the game. “Having him out there for four, five, six innings would be devastating for anybody.”

The Rays got even more cute after Verlander opened the bottom of the first with a three-pitch strikeout of Austin Meadows. Tommy Pham was cute enough to work Verlander to a 2-2 count including one swing at a pitch missing the low and away corner, then send a slightly hanging changeup into the left center field seats.

A walk (to Ji-Hin Choi) and a single (to Avisail Garcia) later Travis d’Arnaud, whom the Mets thought expendable very early in the regular season, expended a base hit into left center field to send Choi home, and Joey Wendle expended a double down the right field line to send Garcia home. Verlander got rid of Kevin Kiermaier with a swinging strikeout to prevent further disaster but the Astros were in a 3-0 hole.

He’d survive first and second in the second and a man on third in the third, but he couldn’t stop Willy Adames (it almost rhymes with “Adonis”) from hitting the third pitch of the fourth over the center field fence. A strikeout, a line out, and a walk later, Hinch had to admit Verlander’d been had on a night when his spirit was willing but his arm and body demanded the rest of the night off.

For a second night running, the Astros got Rayed.

“A good approach for those guys in the first, and then honestly, I need those infield singles to be caught,” said Verlander after the game, referring to balls the Rays hit just past the Astros’ infielders. “When you don’t have it, you need the balls that are put in play to go your way, and they didn’t. Obviously, not the way you would script it. You know, it sucks.”

Thus the Astros joining up to the Rays bullpenning, which began with two out in the second and Rays manager Kevin Cash lifting Castillo for Ryan Yarborough. Whom he’d lift for Nick Anderson with Jose Altuve on second after maybe the single most important play of the game. Maybe even of the Rays’s season.

Yordan Alvarez, the Astros’ uber-rookie, sent a double to the rear of the yard. Kiermaier picked it off the wall hop and fired a perfect strike in to Adames out from short on the grass behind second, and Adames fired just as perfect a strike home to d’Arnaud at the plate spinning to tag the road-running Altuve about a split second before the Astros’ second baseman’s hand touched the plate.

And pop went the Astros’ best rally while the Rays were at it.

“That,” said Kiermaier of Adames’s strike home, “was probably the most incredible relay throw from an infielder I’ve ever seen. That was such a huge moment for us, huge momentum shift, and it just doesn’t get any better than that.”

Not even Choi turning Michael Brantley’s line drive into a single-handed double play in the sixth, bagging George Springer returning to the pillow while he was at it. That was child’s play compared to The Kiermaier-Adames Show.

And Kiermaier gets no argument from Altuve himself. “We’ve been playing aggressive all year long. I don’t see why we shouldn’t do it right now. But sometimes you have to give credit to the other team,” the Astros’ impish second baseman said after the game. “They played beautiful defense, especially in that play right there.”

“You have to tip your cap to those guys,” said Astros catcher Robinson Chirinos, whose just-passing-by solo home run off Chris Poche in the top of the eighth provided the lone Astros scoring. “The relay was perfect. It was textbook. They needed a perfect relay and they did it to throw Jose out at home plate. That was a big difference in the game tonight.”

When Jose Altuve himself gives you a five-star review, you’re being more than—what’s that overcooked word deployed about the Rays?—resilient.

Face it. On one postseason day when the Rays and the Astros had the nation’s baseball stage to themselves, the un-glamorous, un-beautiful, un-sexy, un-bankable Rays stole the show all for themselves. The Beatles themselves couldn’t have upstaged these No-Rays Tuesday night.

They were supposed to be about as deadly as babies in strollers at the plate. They were supposed to be a pitching staff full of anonymous relief pitchers with the occasional token starter and even Cy Young Award winner who couldn’t possibly keep getting away with all that bullpenning jazz.

Never mind that said Cy Young winner, Blake Snell, had Altuve on third and MVP candidate Alex Bregman on first with one out in the ninth when he went in from the pen Tuesday night, then struck Alvarez out swinging before coaxing Yuli Gurriel into the game-ending ground out right up the pipe, where Wendle just happened to be waiting to throw him out.

They have a manager named Cash for a team whose overseers seem allergic to spending any. They play their home games in a toxic waste dump that looks like a warped pressure cooker on the outside and an abandoned landfill on the inside, playing baseball on the last of the sliding-boxed zippered-billiards table surfaces.

And they are resilient, these No-Rays, even if the word “resilient” may turn into something less than a compliment before too long. “We’re good. Everybody uses the word resilient and that’s great but we’re also very good,” Cash told a reporter. “You can use that word resilient over and over and in a way it’s kind of knocking us. The truth is this is a very good team.”

The truth is also that the Astros are finding that out profoundly. The Rays may have finished with the American League’s fifth-best regular season record and the Show’s seventh best, but somehow, some way, the Rays have out-scored the Astros 17-13 in the division series so far. Somehow, some way, they’ve out-homered the Astros six to four. Somehow, some way, they have a better on-base percentage, a better slugging percentage, an OPS slightly over a hundred points higher, and more walks.

The Rays may not survive Game Five, after all, but they won’t leave the Astros thinking it wasn’t a battle royal even if Cole does go second-verse-same-as-the-first. Even if Cole will pitch on regular rest as opposed to Verlander asking to go on three days for the first time in his life and Zack Greinke getting nuked on eleven days’ rest.

“We have a great pitching staff, we play great defence and our bats are starting to come together,” said Pham, with all due modesty.

“People before this series started talking about David and Goliath,” Kiermaier. “I understand they are really good on paper and we might be the team that is not as appealing, but don’t ever count us out. We got guys feeling really good about themselves and we are clicking as a team all year. That is a dangerous recipe for success.”

Sounds a lot like what they once said about the Astros, doesn’t it?

After shoving the similar but slightly less obscure Athletics to one side in the wild card game to get their chance with the Astros—who have all the reputation and intimidation you could ask for in pushing 107 regular season winning chips to the middle of the division series table—the No-Rays and the Astros are equals for standing on the brink of elimination in Game Five.

Even with the Astros holding what they hope is the home field advantage trump. Not that the Astros are worried, necessarily, even if almost to a man they can’t wait to escape the Trop. (The Rays may not necessarily love the joint, either, but their 2019 season record shows ambivalence at best: they were the same on the road as they were at home, 48-33.)

The Astros opened the regular season against the Rays in the Trop and beat them once before losing three straight more. Aside from Games One and Two, they tangled in Minute Maid Park for three in late August. The Astros won the first two of that set; the Rays won the third. It’s not unheard of for the Rays to win in Minute Maid.

“We have done it years ago, when we have the home field. We win at home, then we lost on the road, then we come back home and make it happen,” Altuve said after the game. “So we’ve been here before. There’s no pressure right now.”

Altuve, one of the most intelligent as well as talented players the Astros have ever yielded up, also needs nobody to remind him there was no pressure on the original David, either.
--------------------
@Polly Ticks
@AmericanaPrime
@andy58-in-nh
@Applewood
@catfish1957
@corbe
@Cyber Liberty
@DCPatriot
@dfwgator
@EdJames
@Gefn
@The Ghost
@goatprairie
@GrouchoTex
@Jazzhead
@jmyrlefuller
@Mom MD
@musiclady
@mystery-ak
@Right_in_Virginia
@Sanguine
@skeeter
@Skeptic
@Slip18
@Suppressed
@SZonian
@truth_seeker
« Last Edit: October 09, 2019, 04:03:30 pm by EasyAce »


"The question of who is right is a small one, indeed, beside the question of what is right."---Albert Jay Nock.

Fake news---news you don't like or don't want to hear.

Offline catfish1957

  • Laken Riley.... Say her Name. And to every past and future democrat voter- Her blood is on your hands too!!!
  • Political Researcher
  • *****
  • Posts: 31,360
  • Gender: Male
Re: ALDS Game Four: David and Goliath face elimination
« Reply #1 on: October 09, 2019, 06:31:12 pm »
Justin Verlander on too-short rest was too vulnerable. So were the Astros to the Rays' glove and other corps.


One compelling description about this juggernaunt Astros team is that a good portion of the time, their offense can either be unstoppable, or goes into unexplicit  slumps.  Many of us knew that if the timing in this "hotness" universe didn't favor the Astros, they could exit early, and if this trend Thursday, we could be through.

Now for an editioral on my part.....   My opinion is not too popular with my fellow Astros fan, but I will come out and say that Verlander may have costs us a WS. 

Fact 1- JV insisted that he started Tuesday.  I am a huge Verlander fan, but we pay him to pitch, not make mangerial decisions.
Fact 2- There has been much made on how playoff pitchers have faired poorly with short rest.  The percentages just didn't favor us.
Fact 3- We now have to use Cole for G5.  If we win, and that is a big if based on how we are hitting right now.  Cole and Verlander will only be able to be used once in the ALCS  Thus 5 games without our top 2 starters.
I display the Confederate Battle Flag in honor of my great great great grandfathers who spilled blood at Wilson's Creek and Shiloh.  5 others served in the WBTS with honor too.

Offline EasyAce

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 10,385
  • Gender: Male
  • RIP Blue, 2012-2020---my big, gentle friend.
Re: ALDS Game Four: David and Goliath face elimination
« Reply #2 on: October 09, 2019, 07:03:46 pm »
One compelling description about this juggernaunt Astros team is that a good portion of the time, their offense can either be unstoppable, or goes into unexplicit  slumps.  Many of us knew that if the timing in this "hotness" universe didn't favor the Astros, they could exit early, and if this trend Thursday, we could be through.
I'm still amazed that George Springer hit a slump in this division series so far.

One thing I do know even if the Rays push the Astros out---they're far from through. They've still got at least two or three more years of a solid run in them to go.

Now for an editioral on my part.....   My opinion is not too popular with my fellow Astros fan, but I will come out and say that Verlander may have costs us a WS.
It looks bad now, but I'm going to go out on a limb and say the wrong Astro bats getting quiet at the wrong times---not to mention the Rays' defense---will have done more to prevent a World Series if it's to be prevented. So far.

Fact 1- JV insisted that he started Tuesday.  I am a huge Verlander fan, but we pay him to pitch, not make mangerial decisions.
He's hardly the first and won't be the last well-established veteran with a similar resume to want the ball when he thinks it means getting to the next level. There's as much admirable about that as the result Tuesday night was deplorable. But if Verlander had his normal command and managed to win, we'd all be saying what a genius both he and Hinch were.

Fact 2- There has been much made on how playoff pitchers have faired poorly with short rest.  The percentages just didn't favor us.
Way worse---how pitchers fare on prolonged rest. Remember: Zack Greinke got nuked after not having pitched in eleven days.

Fact 3- We now have to use Cole for G5.  If we win, and that is a big if based on how we are hitting right now.  Cole and Verlander will only be able to be used once in the ALCS  Thus 5 games without our top 2 starters.
That's almost like saying the Astros could win tomorrow only to lose in due course before they might reach the World Series. I'd say Hinch really has his work cut out for him. Especially if the bats not named Jose Altuve or Alex Bregman don't wake up and stay awake.
« Last Edit: October 09, 2019, 07:05:10 pm by EasyAce »


"The question of who is right is a small one, indeed, beside the question of what is right."---Albert Jay Nock.

Fake news---news you don't like or don't want to hear.

Online Bigun

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 51,331
  • Gender: Male
  • Resistance to Tyrants is Obedience to God
    • The FairTax Plan
Re: ALDS Game Four: David and Goliath face elimination
« Reply #3 on: October 09, 2019, 10:19:37 pm »
Baseball is baseball and no one, and I do mean no one, can know what is going to happen in any game.  Ask the Atlanta Braves about that today..

Anytime a ball player starts thinking he is 10 feet tall and bullet proof baseball will soon be disabuse him of that notion. Never seen it fail yet and doubt I ever will.
« Last Edit: October 09, 2019, 10:21:07 pm by Bigun »
"I wish it need not have happened in my time," said Frodo.

"So do I," said Gandalf, "and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us."
- J. R. R. Tolkien

Online Bigun

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 51,331
  • Gender: Male
  • Resistance to Tyrants is Obedience to God
    • The FairTax Plan
Re: ALDS Game Four: David and Goliath face elimination
« Reply #4 on: October 09, 2019, 10:25:05 pm »
Quote
That's almost like saying the Astros could win tomorrow only to lose in due course before they might reach the World Series. I'd say Hinch really has his work cut out for him. Especially if the bats not named Jose Altuve or Alex Bregman don't wake up and stay awake

No hits = no win. Don't care who you are or what the stats say.
"I wish it need not have happened in my time," said Frodo.

"So do I," said Gandalf, "and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us."
- J. R. R. Tolkien

Offline catfish1957

  • Laken Riley.... Say her Name. And to every past and future democrat voter- Her blood is on your hands too!!!
  • Political Researcher
  • *****
  • Posts: 31,360
  • Gender: Male
Re: ALDS Game Four: David and Goliath face elimination
« Reply #5 on: October 09, 2019, 10:34:11 pm »
Baseball is baseball and no one, and I do mean no one, can know what is going to happen in any game.  Ask the Atlanta Braves about that today..

Anytime a ball player starts thinking he is 10 feet tall and bullet proof baseball will soon be disabuse him of that notion. Never seen it fail yet and doubt I ever will.

The baseball gods frowned upon on the Braves for SJW concessions yesterday.  Looks like they are getting "chopped"  up today.

By the Hackers no less.
I display the Confederate Battle Flag in honor of my great great great grandfathers who spilled blood at Wilson's Creek and Shiloh.  5 others served in the WBTS with honor too.