chw42

Yoan really took his time there.

The lack of control is concerning. I'm not sure why you'd be scared to throw Fletcher something in the zone. It's not like he can do much more than hit a single anyways.

I remember seeing Renigfo is the least valuable player in baseball this year. Of course Keuchel gives up a hit to him.

Wow we're swinging right through this guy's fastball.

They're lucky Grandal is that slow.

Oof had him 0-2 and then hit him with a cutter.

Junk might not be junk?

He's had scoreless first innings his last 3 times out. It's the 2nd inning that's kind of snake bitten him.

Hoberg doesn't have a big zone so I don't think Keuchel is gonna get the calls he got his last start in Oakland.

Walsh is one of those guys who's a bad matchup for Keuchel. He's really struggled against lefties this year.

Nice pitches to get Ohtani after going down 3-1.

If that first AB is any indication, I don't think throwing out of the windup is gonna help him. He's lucky Fletcher has no pop.

Keuchel is going back to throwing out of the windup with nobody on. I don't know if it'll help him, but I guess it's worth trying.

He started out fine and was actually pretty good for the first few weeks. Then the Yankees series happened and he just fell off a cliff. At first I thought it was maybe because we were playing good teams for that 2 week stretch, but he really hasn't done much against the Cubs, Pirates, Royals, etc since. I'm not sure what it is with this team and the fascination with hitting ground balls. I'm not sure if it's a Menechino thing or an organizational philosophy thing, but I think it's the wrong thing to be good at in this era of the game. I'm not sure if they tried to get Cesar to change the way he was hitting in Cleveland, but the results sure look like it.

All of this could have been avoided had they just picked up Escobar. Sure he went on the IL once with a leg issue, but I'd rather not have someone for 10 days than deal with a guy hitting .220 with no pop being the starting 2B on a playoff team.

What's super weird is that this is the worst Hernandez has probably hit in his career. He's always been at least close to league average his entire career. He's only 31, so it's not like he's about to fall off a cliff due to age. His exit velocity numbers with us are god awful. Like bottom 1% in the league awful at 84.7. He was at 87.5 with Cleveland, which while below average, is at least MLB caliber. For reference, Leury's average exit velocity is 85.8 this year and that's bottom 6% in the league. He was barreling balls in Cleveland but has barely done that with us. He's hitting way more grounders and less line drives, which is probably why his BA is so low with us. The one pitch that he's really struggled against is the sinker, which probably explains the higher ground ball rates. He was pummeling those with Cleveland, but it's literally his worst pitch to go up against with us.

Reylo is a starter now.

Ohtani vs. Mike Wright...what can go wrong?

Looks like Gio game planned for Ohtani and forgot about everyone else.

Polanco whiffed on a routine ground ball and that was basically the catalyst for the whole inning. Twins gonna Twins.

So then why wasn't he available on Saturday and Sunday?

They just put up 7 on the Rays.

We also suck at moving runners over and getting them in from third. 2 things you need to do well with the runner on 2nd rule in extras.

This also means Minnesota is officially eliminated. Suck it Twins! But not the next 2 days please. Beat Cleveland.

I think you go Rodon game 1, especially if he shows you that he can still throw high 90s consistently in his last few starts before the playoffs begin. His numbers against Houston are hard to argue against and he's shut them down twice this year. Lynn just doesn't match up well against Houston at all. If you start him, go with him in game 2. Giolito should go game 3 assuming it's not at 11 in the morning and Cease must pitch at home since his road numbers are pretty bad.