hankchifan

They needed to close the game in the 7 th.

Isn’t Joe Kelly available. He should be fresh.

Still better than Vaughn, Sheets or Eloy patrolling left field. None of them would have been close to catching Alvarez drive.

The golden sombrero. ?

Whoever thought we could win a close game at Houston with Graveman, Diekman (particularly), and Ruiz trying to shut down the Astros late was delusional.

Worst move was to bring Diekman in.

Six teams were MLB caliber :USA, Japan, DR, PR , Mexico and Venezuela IMO.

Still better than Diekman.

Shades of last year. TLR spirit still lives in the dugout. Exorcism please.

There is always a first time. Diekman should be placed on a one way Greyhound bus ticket to Charlotte.

Too bad we don’t have Crochet available. We don’t have a quality lefty reliever.

Graveman walking Maldonado with 2 outs opened the floodgates.

Diekmann sucks. A fastball right down the middle to Alvarez with the bases loaded. Might as well have left Graveman to walk Alvarez instead. Dickman is only suitable for mop up duties IMO.

Walking Maldonado was a big blunder. You cannot have a reliever walking two guys in a one run game late. Then walking Bregman to load the bases for Yordan Alvarez. And bring Diekman in. Shades of last season.

Astros displayed elite D with Bregman and Tucker. The Benintendi drive was probably a 2 run homer if Tucker did not snag it. Benintendi has been a great acquisition. We have more lefty balance this year and better outfield D.

What good lefty reliever do we have to bring in for Tucker?

Was a bad 2 strike pitch to a left handed hitter on a 1-2 count. Too much of the plate. He did not need to throw Tucker a strike. A shame, but it is what it is.

Pitching in the WBC under stressful conditions helped Lynn get readier for the season IMO.

He is hitting 100 mph speed, that can strike out hitters even if straight.

He is looking better than Hendriks

He looked good in the WBC.

You are right. I guess Leury must be working nowadays as TLR ‘s butler.

Yes the out was confirmed. You could hear it in the background while the ESPN crew was babbling on something else.

Did we win any games at Houston last year?

You spoke too soon. An unnecessary 92 mph slider to Alvarez goes 442 ft. Just go with the heater.