Friday Morning Hot Links

The Houston MF Astros were down 3-0 thanks to Ramon Laureano before scoring 11 of the next 14 runs to take the ALDS against the Oakland Athletics. Houston is now 6-8 against Oakland in 2020 and they won't have a chance to even that season series up. Such a shame. Houston is now 34-32 on the season. The Astros averaged 2.5 runs in the regular season against Oakland, and then averaged 8.25 runs against them in the ALDS. The Astros will face the winner of the Yankees/Rays series in the ALCS, which begins on Sunday in San Diego on TBS. It's the only game that day, so the lights might actually need to be on, which would be a change. I might have to stay up past 9:30pm, and I'm not so sure how I feel about that.

Since the League Championship Series was introduced in 1969, five franchises have made it to the LCS at least four years in a row:

2017-2020 Houston Astros

2011-2014 St. Louis Cardinals

1998-2001 New York Yankees

1995-1999 Atlanta Braves 

1971-1975 Oakland Athletics

Professional Mourner Jon Heyman:

The Astros beat the A's and are back in the ALCS. Everybody is happy for Dusty, nobody outside of Houston is happy about anything else about this.

10 out 10 hoes are, in fact, mad.

*A's manager Bob Melvin:

We just couldn't do enough on the pitching end to hold them down. And then you start to press a little bit, even though our guys had a good attitude every inning - even going into the ninth and getting some guys on. We battled to the end, as you would expect, but just not enough.

Since last winning the World Series in 1990, the A's are 2-12 in postseason series. 

*The alphabetical 14-man pitching staff of the Oakland's ALDS roster, with innings pitched/pitches thrown in this particular series:

Chris Bassitt: 4.0IP, 73 pitches

Jake Diekman: 3.0IP, 53 pitches

Mike Fiers: 0.0IP, 0 pitches

Liam Hendriks: 3.0IP, 37 pitches

Jesus Luzardo: 4.1IP, 73 pitches

Sean Manaea: 4.1IP, 65 pitches

T.J. McFarland: 2.0IP, 32 pitches

Mike Minor: 3.2IP, 52 pitches

Frankie Montas: 3.2IP, 71 pitches

Yusmeiro Petit: 2.0IP, 26 pitches

Joakim Soria: 2.0IP, 36 pitches

Lou Trivino: 2.0IP, 31 pitches

Jordan Weems: 0.0IP, 12 pitches

J.B. Wendelken: 1.0IP, 34 pitches

Mike Fiers is the No Pitches All Bitches winner of the ALDS.

*Liam Hendriks, September 25:

For us, it doesn't really matter who we play obviously. As a vindictive kind of thing, we want to take out the Astros, but I don't care who we play as long as we beat them - that's our biggest goal.

I'll say this for the A's: that's a good team with a lot of good, young players, and a good front office. The next few years are really going to draw out this little brewing rivalry with the Astros. 

*2020 ALDS Game 4 was the first game the Astros won as the home team since 2019 ALCS Game 6, a span of 12 games (H/T to my dude Steve for that one).

*ESPN's Alden Gonzalez:

The Astros scored 33 runs in 35 innings and slashed .322/.388/.594 at Dodger Stadium - the site where they secured a World Series championship many now consider tainted. Correa, Altuve, Bregman and Springer - a foursome that went from celebrated to vilified with one investigation - batted a combined .419 with eight home runs.

*Houston home runs in the 4-game ALDS: 12. Oakland's home runs in the 4-game ALDS: 12. It's the most combined home runs in a Division Series ever. 

Houston solo home runs: 6

Houston multi-run home runs: 6

Oakland solo home runs: 9

Oakland multi-run home runs: 3

Given that the run differential was Houston +13, this seems important.

*The top six in the lineup from Game 4 had a batting average of at least .368

*Michael Brantley: 3x5, 2HR, 3RBI. Michael Brantley had hit exactly one postseason home run prior to Game 4, 31 postseason games. He hit two. He had nine career postseason RsBI prior to Game 4 (and eight of those were with Houston), and he had three yesterday. You will have to wind your way through all the statues to get to your gate at Minute Maid Park within ten years. And Cleveland didn't want to pay him! Brantley:

I don't know if we made any certain statement, but I know we played great baseball, and that's the most important thing. We played a great team over there, and we played a competitive, clean series, and we got the win today.

More Brantley:

This is a special team that has been here before. We have young guys that are leaning on the veterans and the veterans are taking care of them right now. No one guy has to carry this team when you have so many special players in the locker room like we do.

*Jose Altuve: 1x3, HR, 2BB, 2RBI. He had never had a line like that in a postseason game before.

*Carlos Correa: 3x4, HR, BB, 5RBI. It was Correa's 3rd 5RBI game of his MLB career. He has hit 4 home runs this postseason, with 12 RsBI. Correa now has 15 career postseason home runs, five behind JEETS for most all-time by a shortstop. Litos has 102 postseason games to hit five home runs to catch the Marlins' slimy owner and the one who sullied Lyla Garrity. 

Correa's Game 4 was the 78th postseason instance of a player driving in five runs. It's the third time in franchise history an Astros player had 5RBI (Bregman 2019 World Series Game 4, Morgan Ensberg 2005 NLDS Game 1) Correa:

We're motivated because we want to win, we want to be able to bring another championship to the city of Houston. We know what it feels like, so we want to be able to have that feeling once again...We're one step closer.

*Kyle Tucker was 3x5: Tucker:

I mean, this is just our normal offense. We didn't show this too much during the season, but this lineup can do this every night. We were doing that this series. This lineup, one through nine, can produce at any moment, and we were doing it this entire series.

Kyle Tucker's 2019 postseason (15 PAs): .167/.333/.167, 0XBH, 7K:2BB

Kyle Tucker's 2020 postseason (26 PAs): .400/.400/.400, 0XBH, 1K:0BB

*On the opposite end of the spectrum, Yuli Gurriel: 2x23, 1K:1BB in the 2020 postseason. Gurriel hasn't had an extra-base hit since he homered against the A's on September 9. That's...that's not sustainable.

*Josh Reddick robbed hisself a homer and it was v good.

*Zack Greinke: 4.2IP, 5H/4ER, 4K:1BB, 2HR. All earned runs and home runs were courtesy of Ramon Laureano. Greinke said his arm felt better in Game 4:

If it feels how it felt today then there will be no issues.

Greinke's first five starts (through August 18): 29.1IP, 22H/6ER, 25K:4BB (1.84 ERA / 0.99 WHIP)

Greinke since (August 23-Game 4): 46IP, 52H/29ER, 47K:9BB (5.67 ERA / 1.33 WHIP)

Did Greinke signal his pitch when Ramon Laureano launched a short-lived 3-run home run? Former Astros Great Ramon Laureano said he didn't pick it up, if he did.

*Dusty Baker is now 6-17 in series-clinching/elimination games as a manager. Dusty:

I'm glad for the city of Houston and (thankful to) Jim Crane for trusting me with the leadership of this team and I'm glad for the whole Astros organization and the players.

More Dusty:

It's been a long, tough road, but we're halfway there. I'm thankful and happy, but I've still got some happiness left to get.

Even More Dusty:

I've been a villain most of my life, you know what I mean? So I might as well join the rest of the group.

*Richard Justice: Five ways the Astros pulled off the near-impossible.

*Ramon Laureano did most of the damage to the Astros in Game 4, hitting two home runs for 4RBI. As a reminder, the Astros traded Laureano to Oakland in November 2017 for Brandon Bailey after deciding to protect Dean Deetz instead. As a reward, Dean Deetz almost got stabbed by Reymin Guduan and tested positive for a PED while Ramon Laureano has hit .270/.343/.475 for the A's in the regular season since he got called up in August 2018. 

*Gerrit Cole will pitch on short rest tonight to try to send his mercenaries to the ALCS, where he would face his old buddies. Less than a year ago Carrot Goal wore a Boras hat after Houston lost Game 7 to show that he was Way More Pissed than anyone else in the clubhouse. Joel Sherman, quoting Former Astros Great Aaron Boone:

To be able to hand the ball to probably the best pitcher in the game, there is some comfort in that. I am excited to see him go compete, like he always does.

*I called a Cleveland/Houston ALCS with Cleveland winning. "Never try to predict anything" is the lesson.

*A German goalkeeper was banned for eight years for attacking a referee. I mean, I'd like to see the video.

*Discover Magazine: The quantum internet will blow your mind - here's what it'll look like.

*Wired: The True Story of the Antifa Invasion of Forks, Washington.

*A Musical Selection:

Thursday Morning Hot Links

Well that was less than ideal. Not the end of the world, but not ideal. Houston had a 7-4 going into the 7th, which translates into a 91.1% win expectancy via FanGraphs. And now the A's have hope, which is the worst possible thing a Team Like That can have. Game 4 is at 2:35pm Central on TBS. 

*FiveThirtyEight still has it 80-20 Astros. It's 78-22 Astros via FanGraphs.

*It was the 22nd time in franchise history that the Astros have scored 7+ runs in a postseason game. They're now 19-3, the last such loss coming in Game 1 of the 2004 NLCS.

*It will be Frankie Montas vs. TBA today. We'll find out who takes the mound later this morning. Is it Cristian Javier, and that's why Javier didn't pitch in Game 3? Or will it be Zack Greinke? The pressure mounts! Montas is coming off a 2020 regular season in which he posted a 5.60 ERA/1.51 WHIP with 10HR in 53IP. He has thrown 2IP (Wild Card Series Game 3) since September 27. In 15.1IP against Houston in 2020 he allowed 14H/7ER, 14K:3BB, a 4.11 ERA / 1.11 WHIP. 

*Chandler Rome: We still don't know what's up with Zack Greinke.

*Dusty, post-game:

I look at it like we're still in the lead. This team's been there before. These guys don't seem really worried about it. We got beat today. We made some mistakes. Hopefully, we don't make those mistakes tomorrow.

*Houston's opponents have scored first in four of the five 2020 playoff games. Houston is now 3-1 in those games. 

*The Astros were 3x8 w/RISP, Oakland was 1x6. Oakland's one hit was just a back-breaking 3-run home run from Some White Guy Who Looks Like He Sells Insurance. Josh James hadn't pitched since September 22. It's debatable on whether or not this was the time to do it, but it was a three-run lead, and I don't know that there was a better option than Raley to clean it up. Just one of those games. And a guy named Chad hit it. That's ridiculous. As to leaving Raley in, I know you try to win every game, but I'm okay with letting him work through it because it saved some arms you'll need today and (hopefully not) tomorrow. It wasn't my favorite move to leave James in, but I can justify it to myself. Josh James:

It's tough, but everybody wants to get put in that situation. You always feel like you're the right guy for the job. You go out there no matter how long it's been, and you compete. Today, I got beat. It's part of the game.

You know who didn't pitch in Game 3? Enoli Paredes, Blake Taylor, Cristian Javier, Ryan Pressly. 

*Our Dude Brian Arbour with the immediate reaction: Dusty played for tomorrow, and lost today.

*Liam Hendriks threw 37 pitches (26 for strikes) but said he'd be ready today.

*SI's Emma Baccellieri: The bad Astros bullpen has been good, and the good Oakland bullpen has been bad.

*Jose Urquidy: 4.1IP, 5H/4ER, 3K:1BB, 4HR. He had given up 4HR total in 29.2IP in the 2020 regular season. He had given up 2HR in a single game three times in his entire professional career, the only MLB start in which he gave up two or more home runs was July 31, 2019, and twice in 2016 when he was with Lancaster.

*Brooks Raley walked the leadoff batter, who later became Oakland's go-ahead run. It dawned on me recently that I have absolutely no idea how Brooks Raley ended up on the 2020 Houston Astros, so I looked it up: he was acquired on August 9 from the Reds for a PTBNL. Putting Osuna on the 45-Day IL was the corresponding move.

*George Springer was 0x4 with 3Ks, the 5th 3K game of his postseason career. In each of the last three times he's had a 3K day, the game following was a 2+ hit game, so that's good news for today.

*Jose Altuve was 3x5 with an RBI. His seven 3+ hit postseason games are the most in franchise history, and tied for the 5th most in AL postseason history.

*Alex Bregman was 2x4 with an RBI. The Astros are now 8-3 in the postseason when Bregman gets 2+ hits. 

*Aledmys Diaz hit a massive game-tying two-run home run, and it was the first postseason home run of his career. 

*How do you justify pinch-hitting Reddick for Maldonado? With Correa on 3rd, Tucker on 2nd, and two outs, and Maldonado's spot up, Dusty put in Reddick against Liam Hendriks. Also, Liam Hendriks looks like this. Ol' Shrek lookin headass.

Righties (Maldonado) vs. Hendriks (a righty) in 2020: .135/.148/.154, 18K:1BB

Lefties (Reddick) vs. Hendriks in 2020: .200/.243/.314, 19K:2BB.

First off, shoutout to Liam Hendshreks. That's a really good slash line, no matter from what side of the plate you prefer. Now:

Maldonado vs. Righties, 2020: .185/.324/.337, 4HR, 12RBI

Reddick vs. Righties, 2020: .236/.307/.358, 3HR, 13RBI

Neither is a *great* option. You needed a 2-out hit. In his career pinch-hitting:

Reddick: 80 PAs, .176/.225/.189, 1XBH, 22K:5BB

All this is to say...whatever. I don't get it. But what other options were there. Reddick could have been a hero. He wasn't. So it goes. Could Maldonado have done it? Maybe! It was a choice between this, Which Smells Worse: Your Butt, or Your Feet? The world will never know which choice actually smelled worse. 

*Bread Peacock had arthroscopic surgery on his right shoulder on Tuesday, and that will likely do it for Break Peacocd's Astros career. 

*The Yankees need Jordan Montgomery, making his postseason debut, to keep their season alive tonight.

*Even a man down in the 2nd Half, the Dynamo beat FC Dallas 2-0.

*Mental Floss: 35 lesser-known inventions of famous inventors.

*A Musical Selection:

Friday Morning Hot Links

The White Sox and A's had themselves a bullpen game to determine who would face the Astros. The Coward Mike Fiers threw 39 pitches in 1.2IP, allowing 5H/1ER to start it off. Ultimately, the A's string of eight pitchers was slightly better than the White Sox' string of nine pitchers, and the A's won the game 6-4, and the series 2-1. It was Oakland's first playoff series win since the 2006 ALDS. Game 1 is Monday vs Oakland at Dodger Stadium.

*FanGraphs currently has the Houston/Oakland ALDS at 56.5-43.5 Houston.

*FiveThirtyEight has it 53-47 Houston and I'll just cross my leg over my other leg and let you tell me the last time FiveThirtyEight had an outcome wrong in October of an election year. 

*McTaggart: The heated Astros/A's rivalry hits the postseason. Reddick:

We have to grind it out and get our butts in gear. Playing a team in your division is going to give you an upper hand recognizing and knowing how...[bullpen] guys are going to pitch you, and starters, because they've faced you before.

Oakland's Liam Hendriks:

I think there's a little bit of us wanting to make sure they know what they've done and we can prove it to them that they weren't the top team in the AL West. But we also don't want to be petty and let our emotions get the best of us.

Houston was 3-7 against Oakland in the "regular" "season," with Oakland outscoring the Astros 38-35. Five of those losses were within two runs, as were all three of Houston's wins. The Astros took both ends of a double-header on August 29 before COVID forced the rescheduling of the third game on August 30. 

*Chandler Rome: A Best-of-Five-in-Five-Days series is going to require some careful pitching management, but Dusty deserves some credit for how he's deployed the pitching staff this season.

*SI's Stephanie Apstein: Will riding the bullpen help the A's against the Astros?

*ESPN: Looking for some playoff spice? Astros/A's could be for you.

*Justin Verlander had Rob Manfred Tommy John Surgery on Wednesday, and his timetable to return is 12-14 months which [takes off socks] is somewhere between October-December 2021. So unless he signs an extension, his time in Houston is over. 

*Roberto Osuna is happy for his teammates:

I'm very proud of these guys. It's been a tough year for them and I'm so happy for them to go to Minnesota, sweep them and move on to the next round.

Osuna said Tommy John surgery was recommended, but a second opinion said otherwise. Osuna:

I started playing catch about three weeks ago and I've been feeling much better. So at this point right now, we don't believe we're going to need surgery, which is good. Hopefully, it stays this way and continues to get better and better.

Ahhh the old Verlander recovery plan. Worked out well for him, too. 

*In two games (22 Innings) against the Braves, the Reds' "offense" scored exactly zero runs on 13 hits. The Reds were 1x15 with runners in scoring position in two games.

*A reporter for NFL Network tweeted the following yesterday:

A bus driver who drove the Tennessee Titans last weekend in Minnesota also drove MLB's Houston Astros on their trip for a playoff series this week against the Twins, per sources. After the Titans' COVID-19 outbreak surfaced, the Astros removed the driver.

*Human Delight Fernando Tatis, Jr. hit two home runs, becoming the third youngest player to hit multiple homers in a game, behind Carlos Correa and Andruw Jones.

*The untold story of the 2018 Olympics cyberattack, the most deceptive hack in history.

*Psyche: How to wait well.

*A Musical Selection:

Monday Morning Hot Links

Sorry about yesterday's Hot Links, I just...didn't feel like doing it.

The Astros lost Sunday to the Mets, 3-1. Aledmys Diaz, Lorenzo Quintana, Alex De Goti, and Taylor Jones had doubles. Taylor Jones is legit. Justin Verlander left the game with sore triceps after 2IP, Cy Sneed threw 2IP, 2H/0ER, 0K:1BB, and Jose Urquidy had a rough one with 4IP, 6H/3ER, 3K:1BB.

The big news of the day was Verlander's sore triceps. He was scheduled to throw 4IP but left after 2IP. Verlander was not "available to the media." Dusty:
We got to take care of the big horse. Like I said, we sent him for precaution and observation, and hopefully it's not [worse]...We don't know if he is hurt. Like I said, it's precautionary. I was surprised his velocity was down a tick from the last time, but you know Verlander can dial it up when he gets ready. We didn't see anything. I was quite surprised when Strommy came over and told me he had to come out of the game. 

It's not ideal - Opening Day is less than three weeks away. Triceps Soreness cost Verlander two months on the IL (then DL) in 2015. Just gonna have to wait and see what the results show. Beyond the Box Score looked at Scott Kazmir's triceps injury back in 2014.

*Ryan Pressly is hoping to repeat his All-Star Performance from 2019, what with his reconstructed knee.

In that link we also find that Devenski's slider is coming back around, and that there's a new autograph policy in place for the Nationals and Astros based on recommendations from the CDC and MLB.

*This is fun: Joe Smith was asked questions about...Joe Smith. The level of detail that Smith remembers about games in which he has pitched is insane. I could not tell you what I wore yesterday.

*Hahahahaha here's a SUPER-CONCERNING ARTICLE about Forrest Whitley. Brent Strom:
Whitley was not ready to come into camp physically and compete for a position, for whatever reason, in my opinion. So we had to slow-walk him a little bit.

Whitley:
Impressing people right now isn't really what I'm trying to do. I'm just trying to get my work in, stay healthy and do everything I can to have a successful season.

This is the first official "Maybe don't get too excited about Forrest Whitley" article of 2020.

*The Oakland Athletics are ready to take on the Houston Astros for the 2020 season, according to Boob Nightengale. Something called a "Liam Hendriks:"
It's going to be very interesting to see how they handle the day-to-day lifestyle of everything. It's going to be a very long season for them. There are only two outcomes: either it overwhelms them, or they embrace it. I wouldn't want to be in their shoes. Just wait until they come to Oakland. We may not have the most fans in baseball, but we have the most passionate fans in baseball. They're going to be loud, they're going to be obnoxious. And they're going to be wearing guys out. They're going to have no recourse. If they start fighting back, it's going to snowball even more. 

*Yahoo's Tim Brown: For the Astros, forgiveness seems too far away.

This is the same Tim Brown who encouraged the Astros to go full heel, that the Astros didn't deserve to get to hire James Click to replace Jeff Luhnow, that the Astros were letting everyone else take the blame for 2017 (and part of 2018)

*Barry Bonds feels "like a ghost, a ghost in a big empty house, just rattling around."

*ESPN: The incredible history of the Silver Bullets.

*David J. Roth on The Infinite Scroll.

*BBC: The Spy With No Name.

*How to become an international gold smuggler.

*Alabama thinks Yoga is okay, but not them that there Yoga Words.

*Don't Panic: The Comprehensive Ars Technica Guide to the Coronavirus.

*Leeds United is 73% to win the Championship, and 98% to get promoted to the Premier League.

*A Musical Selection: