Go Astros!

That was a crazy game. I was expecting Jansen to start the 8th with the heart of the order coming up. Real problem was chicken strip (Stripling) throwing a four pitch walk and moving up the bullpen procession an inning. Dodgers got out hit a ton and didn't get men on base. Seems like the Astros had the lead off man on base very inning.

Wasted opportunity for the Dodgers.

Might have been a mistake for Roberts to pull his starter so early in the game. I realize it had worked out before, but you can't expect any bullpen to keep up such a long streak of scoreless innings. Someone was going to get to them eventually.

Hill didn't have a strong start, but he got it going and my thought is he could have gone one more inning. Sooner or later the 'stros were going to get to Jansen if he went more than one inning. By end of game I don't think there were any bench players or relievers left in the Dodger pen. They were left with McCarthy and a hot hitting Houston.

Could Morrow gone another inning?

On the other side, Houston P Giles was inconsistent.

Cheers to a great series so far. And kudos to the Stros for a gutty offensive effort. I'm sure this is a game that Roberts would like to have back to re-manage. Horrible mismanagement of the bullpen with many questionable decisions that ended up blowing up in his face. But that's just baseball sometimes.

TheSouseFamily said:

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Cheers to a great series so far. And kudos to the Stros for a gutty offensive effort. I'm sure this is a game that Roberts would like to have back to re-manage. Horrible mismanagement of the bullpen with many questionable decisions that ended up blowing up in his face. But that's just baseball sometimes.

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My sentiments exactly. Nobody is perfect and hoping Roberts learns and moves on!

joe yaks said:

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Hill didn't have a strong start, but he got it going and my thought is he could have gone one more inning.

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He'd given up one run and had 7 strikeouts to 3 walks (1 intentional). Only 60 pitches thrown. Seems like he could have continued.

However good your 'pen is, it's a lot to ask them to cover 5 innings (more if it goes extras).

joe yaks said:

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On the other side, Houston P Giles was inconsistent.

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That's being kind. I watched him some in the other rounds and IMO, he stinks. Big difference between him and Jansen.

Giles had an excellent series against the Yanks.

Go Astros!

It was only a few years ago a local sportscaster referred to them as "Your pathetic local team."

A few nights later he said, "Those of you with low expectations for the Astros were not disappointed."

joe yaks said:

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Giles had an excellent series against the Yanks.

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I think you better look again.
http://www.espn.com/mlb/player/gamelog/_/id/32762/ken-giles

The Astros got a lot of leadoff guys on base and out hit the Dodgers something like 12-5 IIRC. Dodgers were feast or famine and it bit them.

That said, they had them right where they wanted them... Jansen pitching in the 9th to the bottom of the order. He can't give up that solo shot on an 0-2 pitch like that. I actually thought that they would bring him in to start the 8th going against the heart of the order, but I can understand why Roberts would try to sneak another 1-2 outs out of Morrow, but that lead off double was big.

The most frustrating thing is beating Verlander, but then our bullpen got beat. Verlander was absolutely dealing.

BTW, that home plate ump seemed to have a very inconsistent strike zone (not blaming for the loss, i think it affected both teams).

rathokan said:

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The Astros got a lot of leadoff guys on base and out hit the Dodgers something like 12-5 IIRC. Dodgers were feast or famine and it bit them.

That said, they had them right where they wanted them... Jansen pitching in the 9th to the bottom of the order. He can't give up that solo shot on an 0-2 pitch like that. I actually thought that they would bring him in to start the 8th going against the heart of the order, but I can understand why Roberts would try to sneak another 1-2 outs out of Morrow, but that lead off double was big.

The most frustrating thing is beating Verlander, but then our bullpen got beat. Verlander was absolutely dealing.

BTW, that home plate ump seemed to have a very inconsistent strike zone (not blaming for the loss, i think it affected both teams).

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Doc almost pulled an ASG run out players (in this case pitchers) thing by pulling Hill so early and getting 1 batter out of Stripling and 1 inning out of Maeda, who are supposed to be your innings eaters. Even had the Dodgers tied it again, McCarthy was going to have to pitch the rest of the game. Why McCarthy is on the roster over Ryu in the first place is a big mystery. I think he must have had less than 10 innings after the all-star break and he makes the WS roster? He looked totally lost out there, not quite the way he was when he had the outbreak of the yips, but real shaky.

KoreAmBear said:

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Doc almost pulled an ASG run out players (in this case pitchers) thing by pulling Hill so early and getting 1 batter out of Stripling and 1 inning out of Maeda, who are supposed to be your innings eaters.

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Yeah, that was another thing I didn't understand, why Maeda only threw one inning after Hill was pulled. Isn't the point of having starters come out of the bullpen to use them for multiple innings?

sycasey said:

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KoreAmBear said:

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Doc almost pulled an ASG run out players (in this case pitchers) thing by pulling Hill so early and getting 1 batter out of Stripling and 1 inning out of Maeda, who are supposed to be your innings eaters.

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Yeah, that was another thing I didn't understand, why Maeda only threw one inning after Hill was pulled. Isn't the point of having starters come out of the bullpen to use them for multiple innings?

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I don't think Doc trusts him against lefties. Maeda is really effective against righties. He's like that lefty specialist that comes in for 1 batter, but for righties. Yet if there are more righties you leave him in for the rest of the inning only. So essentially you only have Stripling (who is inconsistent) and McCarthy (who looks lost) as your long relief.

Truly, the most shocking part of last night's game was seeing how much back and shoulder hair Verlander had when he popped back into the dugout late in the game to deliver a pep talk. I thought he was wearing a sweater but it was far too warm in LA for a sweater. I would have thought that if you're married to a famous model, you'd attend to your personal grooming a bit more. But I guess I was wrong.

TheSouseFamily said:

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Truly, the most shocking part of last night's game was seeing how much back and shoulder hair Verlander had when he popped back into the dugout late in the game to deliver a pep talk. I thought he was wearing a sweater but it was far too warm in LA for a sweater. I would have thought that if you're married to a famous model, you'd attend to your personal grooming a bit more. But I guess I was wrong.

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Well this gives me hope.

TheSouseFamily said:

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Truly, the most shocking part of last night's game was seeing how much back and shoulder hair Verlander had when he popped back into the dugout late in the game to deliver a pep talk. I thought he was wearing a sweater but it was far too warm in LA for a sweater. I would have thought that if you're married to a famous model, you'd attend to your personal grooming a bit more. But I guess I was wrong.

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LOL, I noticed that too. I had no idea that dude was so hairy.

KoreAmBear said:

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rathokan said:

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The Astros got a lot of leadoff guys on base and out hit the Dodgers something like 12-5 IIRC. Dodgers were feast or famine and it bit them.

That said, they had them right where they wanted them... Jansen pitching in the 9th to the bottom of the order. He can't give up that solo shot on an 0-2 pitch like that. I actually thought that they would bring him in to start the 8th going against the heart of the order, but I can understand why Roberts would try to sneak another 1-2 outs out of Morrow, but that lead off double was big.

The most frustrating thing is beating Verlander, but then our bullpen got beat. Verlander was absolutely dealing.

BTW, that home plate ump seemed to have a very inconsistent strike zone (not blaming for the loss, i think it affected both teams).

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Doc almost pulled an ASG run out players (in this case pitchers) thing by pulling Hill so early and getting 1 batter out of Stripling and 1 inning out of Maeda, who are supposed to be your innings eaters. Even had the Dodgers tied it again, McCarthy was going to have to pitch the rest of the game. Why McCarthy is on the roster over Ryu in the first place is a big mystery. I think he must have had less than 10 innings after the all-star break and he makes the WS roster? He looked totally lost out there, not quite the way he was when he had the outbreak of the yips, but real shaky.

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Wait wait wait. You guys call Dave Roberts "Doc"??

TheSouseFamily said:

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Truly, the most shocking part of last night's game was seeing how much back and shoulder hair Verlander had when he popped back into the dugout late in the game to deliver a pep talk. I thought he was wearing a sweater but it was far too warm in LA for a sweater. I would have thought that if you're married to a famous model, you'd attend to your personal grooming a bit more. But I guess I was wrong.

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That was hella funny. It made him look ten years older.

GMP said:

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TheSouseFamily said:

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Truly, the most shocking part of last night's game was seeing how much back and shoulder hair Verlander had when he popped back into the dugout late in the game to deliver a pep talk. I thought he was wearing a sweater but it was far too warm in LA for a sweater. I would have thought that if you're married to a famous model, you'd attend to your personal grooming a bit more. But I guess I was wrong.

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That was hella funny. It made him look ten years older.

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Definitely brought down his swag quotient and wondering how he and Kate go to the beach together.

Kate Upton on manscaping:

"I think grooming is really important in a guy's overall look because it says a lot about someone if they care about their appearance. I like a guy to trim and shave below the neck and guys should definitely care about us girls enough to do that...I mean, we groom!"

Perhaps JV's back/shoulder beard is the baseball equivalent of a hockey playoff beard.

Full quote and some interesting data here (first and likely last time I post a link here to FemaleFirst.com): http://www.femalefirst.co.uk/lifestyle-fashion/stylebeauty/kate-upton-verdict-on-manscaping-496715.html

TheSouseFamily said:

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Kate Upton on manscaping:

"I think grooming is really important in a guy's overall look because it says a lot about someone if they care about their appearance. I like a guy to trim and shave below the neck and guys should definitely care about us girls enough to do that...I mean, we groom!"

Perhaps JV's back/shoulder beard is the baseball equivalent of a hockey playoff beard.

Full quote and some interesting data here (first and likely last time I post a link here to FemaleFirst.com): http://www.femalefirst.co.uk/lifestyle-fashion/stylebeauty/kate-upton-verdict-on-manscaping-496715.html

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I think the full quote was, "I think manscaping is really important unless he just signed a $162,000,000 million dollar contract and can throw a 100 mph fastball.". Lucky hairy *******.

*** is Roberts doing with the bullpen? He keeps blowing through everybody in his pen to the point where he has to use Stripling in a righty-righty matchup because he keeps playing matchup baseball instead of trusting Maeda and Morrow to hold things together. At some point, you have to trust your long guys to pitch deep into games instead of blowing through the pen every single night. He's gonna get to a night where the Dodgers are protecting a lead and all his pitchers will be shot.

Yogi Bear said:

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*** is Roberts doing with the bullpen? He keeps blowing through everybody in his pen to the point where he has to use Stripling in a righty-righty matchup because he keeps playing matchup baseball instead of trusting Maeda and Morrow to hold things together. At some point, you have to trust your long guys to pitch deep into games instead of blowing through the pen every single night. He's gonna get to a night where the Dodgers are protecting a lead and all his pitchers will be shot.

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Hey. Whose side are you on, anyways?

Chirp, chirp, chirp.

If the Dodgers can't find their bats, going back to LA will only be to clean out their lockers.

bonsallbear said:

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If the Dodgers can't find their bats, going back to LA will only be to clean out their lockers.

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That Bellinger sure does have great bat speed. I was feeling the breeze from here.

Yogi Bear said:

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*** is Roberts doing with the bullpen? He keeps blowing through everybody in his pen to the point where he has to use Stripling in a righty-righty matchup because he keeps playing matchup baseball instead of trusting Maeda and Morrow to hold things together. At some point, you have to trust your long guys to pitch deep into games instead of blowing through the pen every single night. He's gonna get to a night where the Dodgers are protecting a lead and all his pitchers will be shot.

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The strategy was maybe more defensible in Game 2, with an off day coming up. With two more consecutive games in Houston coming up, I don't get it here. It's a lot of stress on the bullpen. They better hope Wood can go deep into the next game.

(Double post.)

GMP said:

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Yogi Bear said:

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*** is Roberts doing with the bullpen? He keeps blowing through everybody in his pen to the point where he has to use Stripling in a righty-righty matchup because he keeps playing matchup baseball instead of trusting Maeda and Morrow to hold things together. At some point, you have to trust your long guys to pitch deep into games instead of blowing through the pen every single night. He's gonna get to a night where the Dodgers are protecting a lead and all his pitchers will be shot.

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Hey. Whose side are you on, anyways?

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Mrs. Yogi was born in the L.A. area, so I've seen every minute of the Dodgers playoffs.

sycasey said:

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Yogi Bear said:

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*** is Roberts doing with the bullpen? He keeps blowing through everybody in his pen to the point where he has to use Stripling in a righty-righty matchup because he keeps playing matchup baseball instead of trusting Maeda and Morrow to hold things together. At some point, you have to trust your long guys to pitch deep into games instead of blowing through the pen every single night. He's gonna get to a night where the Dodgers are protecting a lead and all his pitchers will be shot.

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The strategy was maybe more defensible in Game 2, with an off day coming up. With two more consecutive games in Houston coming up, I don't get it here. It's a lot of stress on the bullpen. They better hope Wood can go deep into the next game.

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I know managers have got the whole quick hook in the playoffs thing going these days, but I'm still of the old school belief that you want to have your starters pitch 6-7 so long as the game doesn't get out of control. All these 4th inning pulls add up eventually and then you end up with a dead-armed Robb Nen in Game 6, which I'm happy to say I'm no longer bitter about after three wins to balance the scales.

well, tonight Darvish couldn't get anything done, so hard to blame the manager for giving him the hook and burning through the pen. I think Darvish only went 1 1/3? Gave up 4 ER? You can argue about Hill and game 2, but honestly that game played out perfectly to plan. Kenley Jansen with the save opportunity against the bottom of the order. he can't give up that homer on a 0-2 pitch.

Astros look like the better team. They are doing to the Dodgers what the Dodgers did to the DBacks and Cubs... take lots of pitches, get men on base, get the pitch count up, and get to the bullpen. I heard at one point tonight the Astros had gotten the leadoff man on 11 out of 13 innings.

Game 2 is gonna haunt us.

rathokan said:

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well, tonight Darvish couldn't get anything done, so hard to blame the manager for giving him the hook and burning through the pen. I think Darvish only went 1 1/3? Gave up 4 ER? You can argue about Hill and game 2, but honestly that game played out perfectly to plan. Kenley Jansen with the save opportunity against the bottom of the order. he can't give up that homer on a 0-2 pitch.

Astros look like the better team. They are doing to the Dodgers what the Dodgers did to the DBacks and Cubs... take lots of pitches, get men on base, get the pitch count up, and get to the bullpen. I heard at one point tonight the Astros had gotten the leadoff man on 11 out of 13 innings.

Game 2 is gonna haunt us.

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Pulling Hill was the bigger mistake, but these things add up. Because Maeda was used in Game 2, it's harder for him to go long in this game, so now you have to use everyone again, which makes the next game harder, etc.

That said, I don't think the Astros are clearly better. The teams look about even to me. The Stros are tough at home, as the Yankees learned, and I would worry about that if I were a Dodger fan.