Boy oh boy that was not the best Astros game I've ever watched. But, even with all of the mistakes, Alex Bregman was still about 2 feet away from tying the game in the 9th. Lucky enough for us, I truly doubt that we play that sloppily again. The upcoming three games being at home probably won't hurt either.
-Despite Gerrit Cole's less-than-ideal outing, he still outpitched Price.
Cole: 6 IP/6 H/4 ER/2 BB/5 K
Price: 4.2 IP/5 H/4 ER/4 BB/4 K
(Between you and me, if we decide to use some common sense, Cole gave up 5 ERs. If the pitcher causes the error, it should count as an earned run. Who wrote this rule?)
-Astros hitters in the first three innings: 5-9, 4 RBIs
-Astros hitters in the last six innings: 2-18, 1 RBI
-Alex Bregman has a borderline ridiculous statline of .000/.700/.000 in the ALCS so far.
-Unfun Fact - This was the first time a team has won a postseason game with David Price starting on the mound.
-Another Unfun Fact: Martin Maldonado allowed two official passed balls tonight. He has had 13 during the entire regular season and only 3 of those with the Astros.
-Yet Again With The Unfun Facts: Marwin wasn't doing great after hitting the straight up metal wall Boston decided to drop into their stadium.
-AJ's full postgame presser can be found here, where he talks the passed balls, Cora, Bregman, and more.
Well, lets check into the predictions:
-FiveThirtyEight:
Game 3 chance to win (Eovaldi vs. Keuchel): 55%
Pre-Game 2 chance to win the series: 70%
Current chance to win the series: 59%
Current chance to win the World Series: 38%
-FanGraphs:
Change to win the series: 52.4%
Chance to win the World Series: 35.2%
-Charlie Morton has been officially announced as the game 4 starter. He has not pitched in a MLB game since September 30th.
-A lot of teams who need a manager want Astros brand new bench coach Joe Espada.
-Verlander is not thinking about retirement. Verlander also immediately got better once joining the Astros, and Ted Berg dives in to tell us how.
-Here's your daily article of just how good Alex Bregman has been.
-Here's your daily article asking if the 2018 Houston Astros are the best team in franchise history.
-How dumping Ken Giles transformed the Astros bullpen.
-Astros and Texans fans tailgated together, and somehow the Texans were the team that delivered.
On This Day in Baseball History
-In 1892, Reds pitcher Bumpus Jones throws a no-hitter against Pittsburgh in his first career start. It was also the latest date a no-hitter was thrown in an MLB season.
-In 1964, Mickey Mantle played his final postseason game, hitting his 18th career postseason home run.
In 1982, Cardinals rookie Willie McGee became the third rookie to hit two home runs in the same postseason game.
In 1986, the Mets defeated the Astros in the longest postseason game ever played (16 innings, 4 hrs. 42 minutes) to advance to the World Series. Reminder, you don't have to click the link.
In 1988, Kirk Gibson hit a home run that you might have seen before.
We didn't come out here to play tiddlywinks, son.
-Hal Smith
