moonslav59

Kinda like the 2019 Sox. High expectations- near .500 ball.

While Verdugo has been in a somewhat long down trend.

Tomorrow's NY Post headline: "Fork Inserted!"

On paper, this should be the hardest game to win in this series. Cole struggled a bit before his last start, but with the Yanks hobbled by injury and disease, we should be the faves. I'm hoping the bats wake up after a few days off and a low hit game, last night. GO SOX!

You expected big things from Houck back in 2019?

In my head, several times, only.

Damn Rays won in 10, after scoring 2 in the 8th to tie the Braves. Astros beat the White Sox. Oak-CLE 3-3 in the 6th.

Looking at just the numbers, Houston is better than us, before we even look at defense. That's scary, but we are playoff warriors, and I'm not in the "Playoffs are a crap shoot" club.

Plus, there is Cora being all gah-gah over Kike's 2B defense. I was all gah-gah over his CF play, especially of late.

Actually, yes, but no inbreeds that I know of.

ERod is not pitching like an 84, anymore. With a 4 man rotation, we stack up a bit better than looking at their 7 starters. Sale Eovaldi ERod Pivetta/Perez/Houck Our top 6-7 pen guys blow theirs away. Our top 3 hitters are much better. .930 JD .924 Bogey .911 Devers We need to see continued growth from the rest of our line-up, and many are trending upwards: .794 Arroyo (.857 since May 31, 80 PAs- not counting tonight) .774 Renfroe (.860 since May 1st- 224 PAs, but has dropped, recently) .761 Verdugo (downward trend) .741 Kike (.999 since June 19th- 94 PAs) .672 Dalbec (.830 since June 10th- 85 PAs- went up tonight, too) .650 Vaz (.723 since June 24th- 57 PAs) .582 Marwin (.798 since June 28th- 24 PAs) OPS is updated after tonight, but trend does not include tonight's game.

Speaking of Deliverance, I white water rafted down that same river, the Chattooga River) this summer on my way to Maine.

I read some where, Houck was going to start a game in Toronto.

When they lost Verlander after not re-signing Springer, I had my doubts. You called it. They are up7-1, tonight on a very good White Sox team, but before tonight, they had these numbers... 6 of their top 7 PA players were over .800! 7 of 8 were over .787! Out of the 12 players with 100+ PAs, 10 are over .748. Their only 2 low hitting players are ... Myles Straw at .680 (Their 4th OF'er is at .829) Martin Maldaonado at .548 (Jason Castro, the other catcher is at .748) Their top starting pitchers by GS'd have these ERA+ 121 Greinke 142 Garcia 148 McCullers (ERA went down, tonight from 2.94 to 2.80) 129 Urquidy (10 day IL) 121 Odorizzi (10 starts) 146 F Valdez (9 starts) 145 C Javier (9 starts) For reference, our rotation has this... 127 Eovaldi 108 Pivetta 115 Perez 95 Richards 84 ERod (ERA went from 5.52 to 5.19, tonight) The big Astros weakness is the pen. 21 saves (60%) 14 blown saves 40% inherited runners scored .705 OPS Against (better than I expected) 1.318 WHIP 4.09 ERA The Sox pen... (before tonight) 29 saves 14 blown saves (67%) 31% IR scored .710 OPS Against (worse than HOU!) 1.368 EHIP 3.57 ERA (Andriese really killed our pen numbers. He had the most PAs Against and a .942 OPS Against Our main pen guys have these OPS Against: .518 Barnes .574 Ottavino .618 Whitlock .674 Taylor .712 Sawamura .678 DHern ??? Houck Tough team to beat!

The Astros are looking more and more like the AL team to beat. Not that the CWS or Rays are push-overs.

Well deserved. Isn't it nice having a pen arm that can go three?

This could be one of the first signs our new guys are changing the tune on finding and developing fine young pitchers. I'm not sure, if they should get credit for "developing" or putting the finishing touches on Houck, but did anyone expect anything from him back when DD and his farm crew were in charge?

Next Roster moves: Marwin will replace Chavis. Sale will replace Workman or Rios. Andriese may not return, or he may replace Rios or Workman. Cordero, Brasier & Valdez wait in the wings.

Verdugo is lobbying for a platoon. (It shouldn't be Duran.)

Max is the ace. I'm just the stopper.

TB just tied up the Braves in the 8th.

3-4-5-3 That's how many wins the Sox have had after I started a game thread. It's up to one, now. Will we hit 4 and keep the pattern going, or will I "regress to the norm?"

What a great start to the second half of the season. All the attention was on Duran, yet Houck sneaks in a masterpiece.

Agreed, and with double headers on the horizon, let's give Barnes and Ottavino another breather.

So many of our off season questions are being answered in good ways. We tend to hear more about the ones that are not, but such is the way of the world.