Game Thread: ALDS Game 1

[Millikin]

Another strike against bringing in Ray to face Alvarez (he doesn't care what side pitchers throw from):


Now if Ray had walked Alvarez for Bregman (this surprised me)...
Bregman 2022 splits:

[gil]

If this is true, would have been better off walking him and letting Sewald (or anyone) pitch to Bregman.

But I don't think it's true.
June 6 0-4

[XpertDBA]

Someone please explain to me....Kirby comes in, gets ONE out.

Why can't he still start Game 3 again? Keep hearing this as an excuse, but not getting that argument.

[Michael K.]

Yeah, in that case, who? Swanson? In hindsight Ray was a bad move, but the moves made weren't the problem, sorry, at what point do we expect players making a shit ton of money to make plays? This isn't Bobby Ayala blowing lead after lead, this is a bullpen that was set up for this, or so they thought. Over use? What? Why are they average now? Seems like the Cubs and Dodgers in recent memory have made playoff game five inning events with some serious powerhouses in the bullpen. Wasn't that what we thought we had? At least until a few weeks ago?

[Michael K.]

If this is true, would have been better off walking him and letting Sewald (or anyone) pitch to Bregman.

But I don't think it's true.
June 6 0-4

Twitter doesn't fact check? LOL

[seth8734]

Sewald should not have been in there in the 9th. Should have gone with Swanson. He gets quick outs and throws strikes. That loss is on Scott as well. Horrible managing late and that has been an issue for him. Sewald is your worst reliever and u bring him into start. Horrible move. Poor Swanson. He deserves better. FUCK U SCOTT.

[Juliooooo]

Agree Julioooo, and man, I don't get the excuse making for Sewald. Of all the shit that went wrong, walking that fucking rookie to bring the tieing run to the plate was the worst. What a fucking choke job. That's not on Service. Jesus. He went lefty on lefty....don't go middle in with that fastball and who knows? Or, maybe, don't throw a fastball right after you snuck the first one by...I don't know. BUT, that at bat should have never happened.

The biggest problem with the bullpen was Munoz having to face 6 batters meaning the top of the order came up again.

And he gave up two runs to boot.

Yep, when your best reliever screws up, then its hard to put it on the Manager for mismanaging the game. He does his job, then Seawald faces hitters 5-8.

[Juliooooo]

Someone please explain to me....Kirby comes in, gets ONE out.

Why can't he still start Game 3 again? Keep hearing this as an excuse, but not getting that argument.

It was probably more the righty vs lefty thing.

[mostonmike]

The Astros had been 0-48 in their postseason history when trailing by more than a run after eight innings until Alvarez homered deep into the seats to overcome a 7-5 decifit.

The no-doubt drive was the first walk-off homer in postseason history with a team trailing by multiple runs.

And it was just the second walk-off homer with team down to its final out — the other was Kirk Gibson's startling shot that lifted the Dodgers over the A's in the 1988 World Series opener.

Well we are setting records in this postseason for sure. Let’s hope we get back to favourable ones in the next game.

[GL_Storm]

Haven't gotten much traction on this, but A few times throughout the season I've mentioned that I thought they should steer Emerson Hancock towards the bullpen. There are two basic reasons for this. The first reason is his injury history. Maybe he'll be healthy from now on, but I kind of doubt it and so I think a couple years in the bullpen makes sense and then if he's healthy and still wants to start and there's an opening, then okay fine, make him a starter. But reason number two has to do with what we saw here today, which is the lack of elite arms in relief roles. There's Munoz and that's basically it. Maybe Brash. The others are good, but not elite. But Hancock has frontline starter upside. I think you put that in the bullpen with Munoz and you start shortening games in a way we've not seen yet with this version of the Seattle Mariners.