ALCS IST: Yanquis - Astros

[Frayed Knot]

By virtue of the Indians losing, Houston gains the home field edge in this one.

Game 1: Tanaka vs Keuchel -- 8:00 (or thereabouts) Friday, FS1

Game 2: Saturday 4:00 -- Severino vs Verlander

Game 3: Monday 8:00

Game 4: Tuesday TBA

[MFS62]

When the Mets and Astros (nee Colt 45's) entered the National League in 1962, Houston beat the Mets all season long (curse you, John Paciorek). And they won a large percent of the games between the two teams for many years. Their winning percentage is still only .455 against Houston, the second lowest against any all-time opponent (.443 Los Angeles).
I really, really, didn't like them.
The pain finally went away in 1986.
But this one's easy for me.
Go, Houston!

Later

Edited October 13, 2017 by Guest

[Frayed Knot]

Yeah, Houston was my least favorite team in my first years of baseball following.
I had absorbed the idea that the expansion Mets were at a disadvantage when it came to competing against all those established teams, but the fact that they kept finishing behind the
Colts/Astros bothered my little brain each season. 1969 plus hopefully a bit of maturity (though I doubt it) cured some of that and, as Rick might have said to Ilsa, we'll always have 1986

It still seems wrong that they're in the AL and they went from a dull and dark crockpot of a ballpark to one that seems too tricked-out by half. But Selig pretty much used their ownership
change to force them into the league swap and I suppose either ballpark beats their original one where the flights of fly balls were in danger of being altered by mosquitos.

[Guest Mets Willets Point]

There are two things I believe about the Astros:

1. They should play in the National League
2. Their uniforms should be based on the classic "Tequila Sunrise" design:

[ashie62]

The Astros are too young and have too much talent for the MFY's

[Guest d'Kong76]

'stros in four.

[Fman99]

Go 'stros!

[Frayed Knot]

Keuchel's pitches are rarely even near the middle of the plate; he just hits corner after corner.

[Edgy MD]

Dallas, if I was your manager, I'd still be riding you.

[Frayed Knot]

I was hoping the Astros would kick ass in this game AND rake the Yanx bullpen.
Instead, they're giving most of the pen an extra day off after their heavy workload vs CLE

[Edgy MD]

I'm excited about this Beltran guy. If he has a good post-season for Houston, maybe the Mets can sign him in the offseason.

[ashie62]

Altuve is the bomb.

[Frayed Knot]

OCT 13, 2017: an 8-1/2 inning game where 3 runs were scored in total on 11 hits and 4 walks; 5 pitchers were used to pitch to 66 batters, only once was there a mid-inning pitching change
Game Time = 3:20

OCT 13, 1960: game ended on the 2nd pitch of the bottom of the 9th after 19 runs on 24 hits and 5 walks; 9 pitchers were used to face 77 batters, there were five mid-inning pitching changes,
and then there was the delay where they had to carry the injured SS off the field.
Game Time = 2:36

Just sayin'


btw, on that Yanqui/Pirate game, how's this for a quick hook by Stengel (on what would turn out to be his final game managing for the MFY):
1st inning (Bob Turley pitching): Fly-out, Pop-out, Walk, 2R-HR, Pop-out
2nd inning: leadoff single - GONE. The reliever (Bill Stafford) allowed 2 hits plus a walk to score both the inherited runner plus one of his own before getting out of the inning.
Casey then went to a new pitcher for the 3rd inning.




[u:3dbts4r8]Game 2 at 4:00 EDT on FOX network (not FS1)[/u:3dbts4r8]

[Edgy MD]

The Committee on Combatting the Length of Games, assuming there is one, should take the time to view those old games.

I tend to think that the powers that be have mixed emotions. On one hand, longer games mean less concentrated action and lower fan retention from year to year.

On the other hand, longer games mean more beer sold in the ballpark, and more beer ads run during commercials.

[Frayed Knot]

The thing is, even if we just want to cite the between inning commercial breaks which were probably more like 60 seconds back then and nearly 3 minutes now (2:55 is supposedly the limit for post-season
games) that still only accounts for maybe 3/4 of the extra 44 minutes [1:55 minutes x 16 breaks].
But that ignores that these were hardly identical games. The 1960 game managed to get in an extra 11 plate appearances, 14 more runs, 13 more hits, 1 more walk, and 4 more pitching swaps in some
13 fewer (non-commercial) minutes.

Last night's game had nearly perfect conditions for a quick(-ish) game -- low scoring, one in-inning pitching change, home team won so no bottom 9th, etc. -- and still they didn't get close to getting it in
in under 3 hours and wouldn't have even under regular season commercial break rules either. There's just too much dead time in between 'action'. After the second of Houston's two runs last night it
was another two minutes or so until the next pitch because the Yanx treated it like some existential crisis that needed to be discussed, analyzed, and strategized before they could proceed. It was a
fucking 4th inning RBI single fer crissakes, pitch to the next hitter! Tanaka wound up getting Beltran on a 2nd pitch groundout to end the inning once the committee meeting broke up which meant that,
by the time the top of the next inning started, there had been two pitches thrown during the previous five minutes.
THAT is what needs to change.

[Frayed Knot]

Now THAT is how you challenge a call (Gardner's attempted triple - I'm a few minutes behind here).
Houston's 3B (Bregman) immediately signaled to his bench who immediately took his word for it -- no waiting for microscopic analysis from the eye in the sky -- and it turned out they were right.

If you're the manager and your fielder/runner leads you astray on that then you don't listen to him on the next one
But an instant decision keeps the replay for what it was designed for and not for the ticky-tacky plays at 1st base in the 1st inning.

That trying to stretch with two outs and Judge on deck was a stupid move by Gardner just makes that play a win-win all around.

[MFS62]

Crap!
Its tied 1-1.
Getting nervous.
Later

[ashie62]

GO STROS!!! JUDGE CAN ---- ALTUVE'S ----

[Frayed Knot]

96 pitches thru 7 IP on just 4 hits and one walk ... Verlander should have another inning in him, or at least enough to start the 8th.
With closer Giles (maybe?) unavailable after his heavy workload last night, I'd sure try to get at least one more out of JV.

[Frayed Knot]

Keep that saddle on and ride 'em another lap!!! (but get him a run or two first)

[Frayed Knot]

Hoe-Lee-Shit ... I can't believe he
a) tried that
and
pulled it off!!

On the other hand, counting on Sanchez to bungle a ball thrown to him improves your odds a bit.





and the game was under 3 hours

[bmfc1]

Verlander is gonna get sooooooooo lucky tonight. And deservedly so.

[Fman99]

bmfc1 wrote: Verlander is gonna get sooooooooo lucky tonight. And deservedly so.

His lucky is a whole nother level of lucky that I can only dream of approaching (as in, dream of it, late at night, in the office after the rest of my family has gone to bed).

[Edgy MD]

That bit o' luck just moved his Hall of Fame token about 20 spaces forward.

[bmfc1]

[tweet:35ovg2px]

[/tweet:35ovg2px]

[Edgy MD]

Also nice to see Jigantic Judge outpaced by Abbreviated Altuve.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

Great piece here about the Astro analytic thing, with a focus on Verlander's remaking himself in Houston (bonus Wise Old Beltran cameo). It's awesome to see a late-career renaissance that employs analytical tools smartly (and doesn't involve GNC bulk buys?).

In Houston, Verlander found another tool to improve and modernize his game: a super high-speed camera that shows in clear frame-by-frame detail how a baseball leaves a pitcher’s hand on every pitch. The camera showed Verlander the position of his hand on his slider that needed improvement to give it more tilt. Verlander had always thrown his slider in a way that more resembled a cutter. But with the camera’s help, he began to carve off nasty sliders that bore to the back foot of lefthanded hitters.

https://www.si.com/mlb/2017/10/15/justin-verlander-astros-yankees-alcs

[G-Fafif]

[youtube:1gvmwdzm]G1Kw9dCZq7Q[/youtube:1gvmwdzm]

When Houston versus New York in the middle of October stopped a city in its commuting tracks. Count all the retailers that no longer exist.

[HahnSolo]

The tarmac interviews with Ray Knight and Kevin Mitchell are amazing. Like how did they pull that off to be right at the bottom of the ramp? And all I can think of is how that plane will be totally trashed within an hour or so.

Bonus points for a young and fetching Lynn White.

[Frayed Knot]

So it's back to this series tonight as the scene shifts to the Bronx

Nice for Houston to be up 2-0, but it's not like they've been hitting so far this series -- four runs total and they were lucky to get a couple of those: HR making it over the wall by inches; Altuve's mad dash
home and the dropped throw or he's out by nineteen feet -- but now they're not going to have Keuchel and Verlander to fall back on for the next few games.
I mean, Charlie Morton had a nice year but it's not the same and he goes up against the suddenly rejuvenated CC Sabathia

8:00 -- FS1