almagest

Astros won game 1 easily with McCullers going 6 2/3. Winning game 4 with McCullers only giving up 1 in 4 innings. Giants have a 2-1 lead because their starters are shoving, and you can't tell me the Dodgers don't have a top 5 offense in the league. Same with the Braves beating the Brewers. The Sox only pulled a starter with a lead once because the other ones all gave up a ton of runs. Lucas was the only one to be halfway decent and yes LaRussa blew that one, but the entire bullpen has given up runs except Tepera and Hendricks because they've thrown a TON of innings.

Second base, right field, maybe another starter. This postseason is scaring me for the top 4 next year.

Good starting pitching would be covering a lot of these holes. The whole idea of a strong bullpen is getting to them with a lead in the 5th or 6th. We haven't done that all series - starters have given up a ton of runs before the 5th. We need good starting pitching to be successful in the postseason, period.

I feel like riding our reliever hot hands could've kept this game a lot closer. That said, this is the same scenario as game 3 last year - starter is ineffective and leaves early so you need to fill a lot of innings. We're losing this series because of starting pitching.

I get the "lol only singles" discussion but they've scored 16 runs in 11 1/3 innings against pitchers not named McCullers.

Putting runners on without getting a hit will KILL you in the postseason. Every damn time.

Slider outside x infinity right now

How many of the strikeouts were due to Hallion's zone and the Astros plate discipline, vs. how many were swinging/taking obvious strikes?

If he's tipping it might help to mix in other pitches to keep them more off balance (maybe he has an "offspeed" tip and that keeps them honest), or it might help to stop throwing the slider and rely on pitches he doesn't tip. If his slider just isn't good... stop using it.

Bummer and Tepera got some nasty swings on their sliders, and Kopech got basically none. Either he's tipping or his slider just isn't good. I also think he needs to mix in the curve and change more. If there is a tell, it might not be so apparent if there are two other offspeed pitches coming in.

Yeah. This is a rowdy as hell crowd.

Dusty's gloves keep cracking me up

POUR IT ON BABY HAHAHAHA HOW DO YOU LIKE IT TRASH CANS?!?!

Like I said, just gotta play well enough to bring the Baker Effect into games

Eh, we got that all game. Not much you can do.

Eloy's strike zone judgement can use some work

Hopefully the bullpen is showing the starters that they can challenge these guys and don't have to be perfect.

This is the bullpen we hoped for tonight. Keep it up for the last 4 outs and tomorrow please.

That was a good pitch on 3-2.

As bad as Kimbrel has been we can't have 1/3rd of a bullpen and expect to last. Someone besides Tepera (and Bummer now hopefully) needs to figure it out.

Javier's velocity down to 92

Oh that slider tonight. I'm half mast.

He swung for the fences there it looked like.

I don't want to be right.