Thursday, October 15, 2015

Thursday Morning Reset

Man, that was frustrating. When Valbuena jumped on that 1st pitch to make it 2-0 because Gattis beat out a tough throw by Moustakas, I thought the Astros had Cueto exactly where they wanted him - rattled early. Turns out Cueto would simply turn in one of the more dominant post-season performances in the last 60 years, retiring 19 Astros in a row at one point in the game.

*As the game entered its death spiral, you could see the Astros pressing, trying to do too much. Note, Cueto's pitches by inning:

1st: 12
2nd: 19
3rd: 14
4th: 15
5th: 14
(Royals take lead)
6th: 5
7th: 15
8th: 5

Altuve-Springer-Correa-Rasmus-Gomez, Game 5: 0x17

*Here's the Masked Marvel's final game recap of the season.

*And here are some immediate post-game/season thoughts on 2015.

*The 2015 ALDS, in series win probability:

*One game too late, Hinch tried to get creative with how to find outs late in the game:
As far as Keuchel goes, we had to try everything we possibly could to keep that at 4-2. And he was one pitch away from doing that. I knew going into the game Keuchel was going to pitch late in the seventh and eighth and try to bridge it to Gregerson. How we got there was going to have to be creative, but I'm proud of Keuchel. He gutted it out. He was one pitch away from getting out of it. And Morales, obviously, was the separator. 

Oh, also, if you see and/or hear anyone complaining about using Keuchel - consider this your license to kick them directly in the johnson.

*Chron: Five Reasons the Astros Lost Game 5

*Tony Sipp:
You always want to think of anything you could have done different. I'm sure we'll all do that. We could have nipped it in the bud then. It definitely wasn't from a lack of effort, so I can live with it and sleep well. But it still hurts.

Keuchel:
One of the biggest things is, some of these guys aren't going to be back. The team is never gonna be the same. It's just tough ending the season and saying goodbye to some of these guys.

*Rob Neyer: Watch out for the 2016 Astros