It looked like after Tuesday’s drubbing we were maybe out of the woods… but unfortunately, we couldn’t get back into the arena of competing and out of the quagmire.
Friday, is my off day, so I am going to keep this one short today.
This game was a lot closer than the final score showed.
Houck was great for 5 innings. Dominant. He is going to be a great piece of this rotation for a long time to come. Especially if he can learn the splitty to lefties. He has been running into trouble the third time through the lineup and it happened again. But the first time through, he is among the best in baseball.
Houck ran into trouble when he ran into the phenom that I am not excited about playing against for the next forever in Wander Franco. He had a super long at bat against Houck which ended in a really really bizarre homerun that bounced off of the Monster and over the wall, then back into play. When I was playing ball, I always felt like the longer an at bat went, the more of an advantage I had. After pitch 7 I felt like it didn’t matter what the pitcher was going to throw, I knew that I could at least spoil it foul, until I got a good pitch to hit.
The offense was horrible again. I feel like Duran needs to not be in the 2 spot. I am encouraged by his work and his at bats he has been having, he looks like he is moving in the right direction and making some adjustments, but the opposing pitcher, Rasmussen, just piped two first pitch fastballs to him in his first two at bats after walking Kikè twice. Just goosed two in there in both, and Duran just fouled them off. He needs to capitalize on good pitches to hit, and he swings and misses too much for a 2 hitter, IMO.
Not much else to say about this one, except, thank goodness that we get a series with the O’s. Need a sweep. Bring the brooms. Gotta have it.