Astros continue their winning ways against playoff bound teams beat Red 5-3
by Timothy De Block on Sep 17, 2010 10:17 PM CDT
in Houston Astros News
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PrintAs Hunter Pence said on twitter:
Time to get at the reds, and make their road a lil tougher! :)
Wandy Rodriguez had a little bit of everything going on tonight.
He had a no-hitter going through the fifth inning, but gave that away on a Joey Votto double to begin the sixth. Shortly after that he gave up a 3-run homerun to Johnny Gomes. He also walked six but struck out 10. Regardless of all that he was able to get through sixth inning for his 11th consecutive quality start.
Carlos Lee was able to tie the game in the sixth inning. Angel Sanchez continued to get the big hit driving in two with the bases loaded in the bottom of the 7th. The pitcher Sanchez drove in those runs off of were none other than Aroldis Chapman, who allowed his first earned runs since being called up to the majors, and took the loss.
This was a bad game for the Red's who allowed two errors. Overall defensively they rank first in errors allowed and in the top 10 in both UZR and UZR/150.
The Astros defense on the other hand was all over the place, both Pence and Jason Bourgeois made outstanding diving plays.
Brad Mills pieced the bullpen together using five relievers to conserve the win.
This brought up a bit of discussion in the game thread about Mills use of matchups and using relievers for one or two outs at a time. Obviously the results have been good but there is some concern with the use of relievers taking into account the warm up pitches required to get a reliever ready.
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I'd say "mildly" concerned
So I voted Yes, but I don’t want to misconstrue it as me thinking it is a huge issue.
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I think the use of pitchers for short stints is intended to minimize the waste of warm up pitches. Those pitchers would be warming up whether they entered the game or not. If you don’t use them at all, it increases the strain on the bullpen over time. That was a criticism of Cooper—that his abuse of the bullpen was exacerbated by getting guys up all the time without using them. I’m not certain if Mills’ practice will work as intended, because it is somewhat unusual. But I think it may be a bullpen saving technique. So, I voted no, because I think it is likely to reduce bullpen abuse.
Bourn interviewed by Footer after the game..
Although Chapman has a good slider, Bourn says you have to sit on his fastball and try to hit it. On the successful bunt, Bourn says he was just trying to make contact.
Bourn made a point of praising Pence’s catch and pointing out that Bourgeois’ defense has saved a couple of games in the 9th inning.
Why would anyone be concerned
Are we saving our bullpen for a playoff run I haven’t heard about?
Because our relievers are working too frequently and I’m a little worried it could cause injury. I feel it’s important to have a chance to rest after pitching and not come out virtually every day like some of the guys have been doing. Even if it’s just for a couple batters, what’s important to me is not necessarily the workload as the chance to recover from it. Plus, if we wind up in an extra inning game, it could be bad if we’ve already depleted our relief corps sending out 2-3 pitchers per inning.
http://www.crawfishboxes.com
Compared to Cooper
And how he really overworked guys I think we are all mostly pleased with Mills. It is curious how he has been using just about everyone during this stretch but if this team has any depth it’s in the bullpen. And if we burn ’em out, Ed will just pluck another one outta some softball league somewhere…
This may just be part of the way Mills like to manage, he seems to like to keep everyone involved so they are constantly prepared to contribute. While it can be maddening (i.e Feliz getting any playing time over anyone) i think we are seeing the positive effects especially with the young guys in the second half.
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Astros lead the series 1-0
| Fri 05/25 |
WP: Lucas Harrell (4 - 3)
SV: Brett Myers LP: Clayton Kershaw (4 - 2) |
3 - 1 win |
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Houston Astros
Saturday, May 26, 2012, 9:10 PM CDT Bud Norris vs Chad Billingsley Mostly clear. Winds blowing out to right field at 5-15 m.p.h. Game time temperature around 65. |
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| Sun 05/27 | 3:10 PM CDT | |
NL Central Standings
| W | L | PCT | GB | STRK | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Cincinnati
|
25 | 20 | .555 | 0 | Lost 1 |
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St. Louis
|
25 | 21 | .543 | 0.5 | Lost 2 |
|
Houston
|
22 | 23 | .488 | 3 | Won 4 |
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Pittsburgh
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21 | 24 | .466 | 4 | Won 1 |
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Milwaukee
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19 | 26 | .422 | 6 | Won 2 |
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Chicago
|
15 | 30 | .333 | 10 | Lost 10 |
(updated 5.26.2012 at 6:14 PM CDT)
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