I don't think too many people would call two sweeps and a six-game series in which you no-hit the other team and won the final 3 games by a combined score of 12-3, a "grind."
Astros win this series if they can get Montgomery out by the 4th. Key to series will be Bochy's hook on his pitchers. The Stros are Teeing off on that bullpen.
Astros hitters are going to roll Montgomery such that we as fans will want Bochy to keep him in longer.
I think we see Montgomery better today and make some adjustments. We tag him for 4 runs in 5 innings. Astros win 6-3.
I don't know - but I would be surprised if he isn't. Framber cares about performing well and winning as much as anyone in that clubhouse. He can fall apart sometimes, some of that is command but I do believe some of it is mental as well. I can be defensive of him at times because his issue isn't effort - or desire, it is that he cares and worries too much.
How you guys feeling about the lineup today? Same guys and order? I think I would. Different look (order-wise) from Game 1 after they struggled against Montgomery, and clearly the lineup last night worked.
yeah I can see that. Game 2 you could see it kind of unravel after bloop hips and mistakes. Those are the things that really do him in a lot of times.
The Astros are the better team. The calls that he's made that are likely out of the normal are playing Dubon over Chas, playing Maldy, and maybe not having as quick a hook (though Astros bottom of the pen is not close to as good as the back end). Dubon has been great (of all the gut calls of Dusty on players, there may be actual real improvement here over the last 3 months instead of random luck). Chas has been good. If one believes in the hot hand, Dubon should be playing over someone besides Chas. Maldy has not hit well. Diaz hasn't either, but it is only 10 ABs and he's not hit well as a PH all season. If Diaz was the catcher for all the games against RHPs, I'd expect he would have outperformed Maldy by a lot. I don't have much issue with Dusty's handling of pitchers in the postseason. I worry a little on Dusty keeping a starter in too long, but that is maybe a couple of innings at most so far. Going forward, I mostly worry that Dusty won't pull JV if JV doesn't have it in a game and Dusty being slow to pull Javier if Javier has one of his starts where he's gassed after 4 innings, but pitched great for 4 innings.
Yeah, the Rangers really need Montgomery to go at least five if not six so they can get to their leverage guys. Hopefully the Astros have some adjustments in mind or Montgomery is off his game today as Montgomery handled us with relative ease last time around.
Definitely need adjustments from most of them, but Yordan needs to have made the most swinging at those breaking balls so badly in game 1. He looked lost.
