2019 ALCS - Yankees vs. Astros - General Gamethread

Monbonthbump

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Nov 6, 2005
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Happy schadenfreude day everyone. The game last night was the most enjoyable non-Red Sox game I can remember. Reading this thread today has been a pleasure.
 

Murderer's Crow

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What's surprisingly bad is his having passed balls and contributing to wild pitches in the playoffs. Effort stops most of 'em.
Well, sure. The timing was terrible, no arguments from me. But Sox fans are carrying their impression of Sanchez's defense from last year into what they saw from him in one game. The equivalent would be if Yankees fans saw Devers make 2 errors in a game during the ALCS and started making stupid statements like "will the Sox move on from him?" This forum is better than that.

During the ALCS threads, I made a comment along the lines of needing to create a thread to discuss Gary Sanchez. Why? Because of inconsistency, injuries, and 3 years in not knowing whether he's a hall of fame offensive catcher or whether he's three 500ops months from being a backup catcher.

Edit: I'll add that being defensive about Gary Sanchez is nothing new but he's going to be the catcher through 2023 and there are other places Cashman needs to focus on, including his backup (Romine is a FA). The post mortem on this ALCS is going to surface a lot of negativity about flaws and reasons they lost but the reason they lost is because Houston is a godamn powerhouse. They barely outhit us, they mostly outpitched us, I think they probably outmanaged us, and they definitely outdefended us. Houston in 6 was a pretty safe bet going into this one.
 
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InsideTheParker

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Jul 15, 2005
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I think it goes either way. You have your closer on the mound and you don't expect your closer to pitch around anyone. The call to pitch to Altuve is one thing but the truth was that he just didn't have his stuff. He was back to hitting 102/103 in September. I think we saw 100 a couple times this series but he just didn't have it after the 2nd out. Just gotta shrug I guess.
They went through the AB on mlbn, and contended that Chapman "had fallen in love with his slider and had had good results with it," and then when he tried to go back to the FB, the velocity was there, but he'd lost command, and couldn't throw a strike. Then he went back to the slider, and Altuve was waiting for the second one after he missed the first one.
EDIT: in a later post, I see that you covered that. That's the problem with replying as you go.
 
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Murderer's Crow

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Jul 15, 2005
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They went through the AB on mlbn, and contended that Chapman "had fallen in love with his slider and had had good results with it," and then when he tried to go back to the FB, the velocity was there, but he'd lost command, and couldn't throw a strike. Then he went back to the slider, and Altuve was waiting for the second one after he missed the first one.
The second slider was a bad decision for sure but I doubt he was the one who called it.
 

Soxfan in Fla

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Jul 30, 2001
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Stud was a strong word. The topic at hand was whether the team needed to move on from him, building on the premise that he’s an abysmal defender. They don’t, he isn’t.
If “stud” translates to “mediocre” in some language then “stud” was spot on.
 
Jul 5, 2018
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I was pleased with Altuve's reaction to the homer; instead of "Look at me!" it was about the team. I saw a quote from him last night that I couldn't find this morning, where he said the team won the game and not just him. Him showing some class did not detract from the excitement of the moment and actually enhanced it for me.
 

Soxfan in Fla

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Well, sure. The timing was terrible, no arguments from me. But Sox fans are carrying their impression of Sanchez's defense from last year into what they saw from him in one game. The equivalent would be if Yankees fans saw Devers make 2 errors in a game during the ALCS and started making stupid statements like "will the Sox move on from him?" This forum is better than that.

During the ALCS threads, I made a comment along the lines of needing to create a thread to discuss Gary Sanchez. Why? Because of inconsistency, injuries, and 3 years in not knowing whether he's a hall of fame offensive catcher or whether he's three 500ops months from being a backup catcher.

Edit: I'll add that being defensive about Gary Sanchez is nothing new but he's going to be the catcher through 2023 and there are other places Cashman needs to focus on, including his backup (Romine is a FA). The post mortem on this ALCS is going to surface a lot of negativity about flaws and reasons they lost but the reason they lost is because Houston is a godamn powerhouse. They barely outhit us, they mostly outpitched us, I think they probably outmanaged us, and they definitely outdefended us. Houston in 6 was a pretty safe bet going into this one.
He had passed balls in 3 straight games in the series.
 

E5 Yaz

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If the Twins, Dodgers or Yankees win 100 next season and don't make the WS, that list will grow
 

bankshot1

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Before the Dodgers lost to the Nats, the MFY's had a chance to beat 3-100 win teams (the Twinkies, Astros, LAD). I'm not sure if that's ever been done.

'18 Sox sort of did it with wins over MFY, Astros, and a 100-win** LADS.

** including post-season wins
 

SirPsychoSquints

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Jul 13, 2005
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Of course, if you scale it down to 95 wins for the 154 game season, you get more examples.

48-49 Sox

And 86 wins for the 140 game season:
15-16 white Sox
15-16 tigers
12-13 senators
11-12-13 cubs
10-11 tigers
08-09-10 giants
07-08 white Sox
04- - - 08 pirates
04-05 cubs
04-05 white Sox
 

uncannymanny

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Jan 12, 2007
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Of course, if you scale it down to 95 wins for the 154 game season, you get more examples.

48-49 Sox

And 86 wins for the 140 game season:
15-16 white Sox
15-16 tigers
12-13 senators
11-12-13 cubs
10-11 tigers
08-09-10 giants
07-08 white Sox
04- - - 08 pirates
04-05 cubs
04-05 white Sox
How do you all find this stuff so quickly?
 

E5 Yaz

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It's quite possible that Sanchez improved his defense this season but reverted, under pressure, to bad habits at a critical moment

because that would be even better, if every time they get into the postseason, they have to worry whether he's going to come a'cropper
 

Max Power

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Jul 20, 2005
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I was pleased with Altuve's reaction to the homer; instead of "Look at me!" it was about the team. I saw a quote from him last night that I couldn't find this morning, where he said the team won the game and not just him. Him showing some class did not detract from the excitement of the moment and actually enhanced it for me.
I'd rather see them hire Jose Batista as assistant hitting coach to teach him how to flip the bat into the Yankees' laps.
 

Doug Beerabelli

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I went to the AZ- Giants game today (my son is a Cards fan). Was a tough 18 hour stretch for many fans in the stadium, especially since it rained the entire game. At one point, a fan in my section out on a poncho on with Yankee “NY” logo on it.

The symbolism and symmetry of the raindrops running down that poncho and the tears running down the cheeks of Yankee fans throughout the area was not lost on me.