- Musgrove needs to pitch multi. - Peacock needs to regain form and throw multi. - Harris and Devo are on an upswing. Thank God only 5 more games max this season.
Hinch had to use multiple relievers last night because of the 9th spot. That won't be the case in Minute Maid Park. It's one reason I hated the switch to the AL at the time. The games are way more strategic(especially in the postseason) in the NL.
Giles - 7th Harris(maybe Musgrove) - 8th Devo - 9th Should be the order going forward. These situations have been too big for Giles, and he definitely shouldn't go more than an inning now. Hinch is just going to have to play it by ear with the bullpen. If Devo starts to falter again try Musgrove in the closer role.
There's not much nuance to his game. He's not a guy who can pitch with his fastball and move inside/out or up/down. He really needs to learn how to pitch from JV. Learn that he doesn't always need to throw a fastball for a strike to get guys out. Move off the plate, get people to chase the fastball. Know when he needs to challenge hitters inside or when he can blow it past people.
I see people that suddenly seem to believe in Devo again. I don't know about you, but I think Giles vastly outperformed him last night. Just because Devo got lucky and had 2 absolute rockets that got caught for outs just before the HR he gave up. That easily could have been a tie game or a walk-off shot without a little good fortune our way. Not saying that Giles is doing great either, but nothing about yesterday's game gave me much confidence in Devo either.
I have a question about Giles pitches. It looked like he kept on trying to paint the outside bottom corner. Once he wasn't getting that call he seemed to fall apart. Is that where he normally goes? I kept on wondering why he doesn't try jam up some of the Dodgers who seemed remarkably patient with the outside pitches.
I was thinking the same thing. He felt comfortable in that outside corner, but he wasn't getting the call, and nobody was swinging at it. That seems like the right time to follow it up with some pitches inside, but Giles just didn't want to go that route for whatever reason.
If there's a silver lining with the Astros bullpen last night, it's that we saw two very strong outings from Harris and Musgrove and a pretty damn solid one from Devo (considering the circumstances). Giles is still shaky as hell, but I actually feel a lot better about the bullpen than I did going into this series. They didn't even need to use McHugh or Peacock.
Why are we not using Peacock? Morten and McCullers seem to have the starting job for the series locked up, so what are we saving peacock for.
He pitched in Game 1, but he struggled a bit. He relieved Keuchel in the 7th, but he walked a batter and was lucky to get that third out.
For as bad as Giles has been in the postseason, Astros have lost 1 postseason game that he has pitched in.
To be fair that’s exactly what Devo did last night and people are singing his praises now. Well, not exactly that, but you get my point. Devo didn’t look good last night, if you’ve been watching him for any amount of time. Devo doesn’t give up home runs. Andre generally doesn’t give you a heart attack when he has the ball. He did look good in game 1 though. Musgrove looked pretty good last night. Peacock, Devo, and Musgrove all have to contribute something going forward. And that’s not including McHugh (who I have slated for a big role in the Morton game), Harris, and Giles (he needs to only pitch one inning and throw more sliders).
But they almost lost last night which would've meant the end of the series for all intents and purposes. Not saying the Astros get swept, but they weren't gonna beat the Dodgers 4 out of 5. I think Hinch has to roll with Giles the rest of the way(but only for 1 inning saves), but next season, we have to find a new closer.
For better or worse, he's the closer. We have to roll with it. I honestly believe that the result would have been the same last night with any of the rest of our relievers in those situations. These guys are good hitters. Even the Dodgers closer couldn't get it done. But, I think if Giles was flight director of Apollo 13, then those guys don't get home. Sorry, guys. But, Giles takes full responsibility so that's cool.
Funny thing is that if that throw to 2nd didn’t hit the umpire then we would all be saying to bench Devo the rest of the series.
