Some of it is just law of averages stuff though. Here's how we ended up against the other 3 AL East contenders:
Yankees 10-9
Jays 10-9
Rays 8-11
Total 28-29
We beat the Jays after the Yankees lost to the Guardians in a shocker, and when the Jays made their last out Dick Stockton said "And we go to tomorrow!"
Not really buying the 'good old days' stuff.
I've been watching since the mid-Sixties, and there were plenty of relatively s***** teams and players back then too LOL
The bottom line is they have 88 wins with 7 games left. They're on target for 92 wins.
The real question is, is 92-93 wins good enough?
We know it's going to be close, at least.
I know this won't convince you either, but here are their career splits against LH hitters (only about 79 MLB innings for each)
Houck .653 OPS
DHern .571 OPS
While I agree that $7 mill is a lot for Vazquez, I really don't think it's the back-breaker you guys are making it sound like. It's a one year commitment. I'm not sure there's a slam dunk replacement for him.
My guess is they keep him. Bigger fish to fry.
Hernandez had been pitching very well though. And he normally doesn't give up a lot of hard contact either, with a .338 SLGA, virtually identical to Houck's .332 SLGA.
Totally logical move by Cora that didn't work out.
A large segment of "sports fans" are selfish, miserable, hateful pricks. They only love the team when it's winning.
At least baseball players who mess up don't get killed the way soccer players do, I guess...
Disagree. Houck issued 4 walks. in less than 2 innings. That's not indicative of a pitcher who's on his game.
Hernandez just had to get Rizzo. That was his job. When he plunked Rizzo that opened up the possibility of what happened.