Series Thread: Texas Rangers vs. Houston Astros in the 2023 ALCS October 15-23

[armadillooutlaw]

Meanwhile, Phillies are not fucking around.

Gonna be a tough WS matchup.

 

[saddles]

Re: Scherzer

From Jeff Wilson:

Physically, I’m healthier,” he said Tuesday.

The issue, though, is that Scherzer hasn’t thrown a competitive pitch since Sept. 12. He’s worked two simulated games, including one last week in which he threw 68 pitches, but in no way does that represent the intensity he will feel Monday night against the Astros.

In no way are 68 pitches all he wants to be throwing at this point in the season.

He knows it, and the Rangers know it. But they are going to roll with whatever Scherzer has for as long as he can provide it.

“I don’t know what my pitch count is going to be,” he said. “Going into the regular season, you build up for a 100-plus pitches. Right now, I don’t know what the number is in the playoffs.”

Manager Bruce Bochy expects Scherzer to at least go as long as he did in the simulated game a week ago. The Rangers watched Scherzer get stronger and maintain his stuff the longer he threw.

That will give Scherzer confidence as he tries to help the Rangers move within one victory of their third World Series appearance.

“I was stepping on every single fastball, every single off-speed pitch,” he said. “I was trying to throw it at max effort to see like, ‘All right, I am at 60-plus pitches here. How is my arm going to respond when I go to step on it?’ And it held up.”

Despite Bochy’s estimation, the Rangers aren’t sure what they will get from Scherzer. As such, they haven’t named a starter for Thursday’s Game 4 in anticipation of needing some of the five regular-season starters who are in the bullpen. Of that group, Jon Gray, who also came of the injured list for the ALCS, is the least likely to log multiple innings.

The Rangers will be facing right-hander Cristian Javier, who has a 16 1/3-inning postseason scoreless streak that dates to last season. He was only so-so in the regular season with a 4.56 ERA and 25 home runs allowed, and the Rangers banged him around July 3 for eight runs in 4 1/3 innings.

 

[saddles]

From Shawn McFarland:

Bochy cited starter Jon Gray, who was activated off of the injured list and added to the ALCS roster on Sunday, and rookie Cody Bradford as options out of the bullpen for Game 3, but said “if we don’t use them, they’ll be available the next day.” Gray, a right-hander who hasn’t pitched since Sep. 25 due to forearm tightness, is expected to be used primarily out of the bullpen considering he isn’t fully stretched out.

The most likely scenarios for Game 4 include left-handed pitcher Andrew Heaney — the only pitcher not named Eovaldi or Montgomery to start a playoff game for the Rangers this October — who hasn’t pitched since Game 1 of the ALDS and yielded a 2.75 ERA against the Astros in four regular season starts. The Rangers could piggyback he and right-handed pitcher Dane Dunning, the team’s regular season innings leader, as they did against the Orioles if they want to limit Heaney’s exposure to a Houston lineup that excels against southpaws.

They could start Dunning, who hasn’t started a game this postseason, and only pitched once in Game 1 of the ALDS.

 

[saddles]

Also from Shawn McFarland:

Maybe it’s a bit difficult to discern Taveras’ youthfulness given the way he’s performed in big games and how he has matured and revamped his approach as a hitter in a short time frame.

“I think I feel really confident,” Taveras said Tuesday, through an interpreter.

Considering the output, he should. Taveras has slashed .348/.483/.609 in his first seven career playoff games this October. Only All-Star shortstop Corey Seager (1.240) and Carter (1.236) have yielded a higher postseason OPS than Taveras (1.092), who also ranks third on the team in playoff batting average. His five runs scored are tied for third, and his three stolen bases lead the team. He’s recorded a base hit in all but one of Texas’ playoff games.
The numbers are one thing. The way he’s generated them is another, and quite different than any way he’d performed prior. Taveras has walked six times in seven playoff games. That’s more walks than he had in the entire months of April (four), June (five), July (three) and August (four). He’s had a pair of two-walk games in the playoffs — in Game 2 of the ALDS against the Baltimore and on Monday, in Game 2 of the ALCS against the Houston Astros; he had just one multi-walk game in 143 regular season outings.

The drastic flip is pretty staggering. He had a 6.3% walk rate in the regular season; it’s 20.7% in the playoffs. Of the 2,107 pitches he saw in the regular season, 743 (or 35%) were for balls; in the playoffs, that percentage has risen more than 10 points to 46.5%. He’s swung at just 14 pitches outside of the strike zone in the playoffs, two of which went for base hits.

And on the topic of hits: 47.4% of his batted balls these playoffs have been classified as “hard hits,” compared to 31.7% in the regular season. And of the 19 balls he’s put into play, 15 have either been fly balls or line drives; in the regular season, just 55% of his total batted balls fell into those two categories, with the rest being groundballs.

It’s helped give Taveras a bit more pop. In Game 1 of the ALCS against the Astros on Sunday, his fifth-inning, 105.4-mph solo home run off of Justin Verlander gave the Rangers a 2-0 lead. A day later in Game 2, he smoked a 101.9 mph triple off of J.P. France in the sixth inning.

He walked twice, too.

 

[Nightcrawler]

Also from Shawn McFarland:

Maybe it’s a bit difficult to discern Taveras’ youthfulness given the way he’s performed in big games and how he has matured and revamped his approach as a hitter in a short time frame.

“I think I feel really confident,” Taveras said Tuesday, through an interpreter.

Considering the output, he should. Taveras has slashed .348/.483/.609 in his first seven career playoff games this October. Only All-Star shortstop Corey Seager (1.240) and Carter (1.236) have yielded a higher postseason OPS than Taveras (1.092), who also ranks third on the team in playoff batting average. His five runs scored are tied for third, and his three stolen bases lead the team. He’s recorded a base hit in all but one of Texas’ playoff games.
The numbers are one thing. The way he’s generated them is another, and quite different than any way he’d performed prior. Taveras has walked six times in seven playoff games. That’s more walks than he had in the entire months of April (four), June (five), July (three) and August (four). He’s had a pair of two-walk games in the playoffs — in Game 2 of the ALDS against the Baltimore and on Monday, in Game 2 of the ALCS against the Houston Astros; he had just one multi-walk game in 143 regular season outings.

The drastic flip is pretty staggering. He had a 6.3% walk rate in the regular season; it’s 20.7% in the playoffs. Of the 2,107 pitches he saw in the regular season, 743 (or 35%) were for balls; in the playoffs, that percentage has risen more than 10 points to 46.5%. He’s swung at just 14 pitches outside of the strike zone in the playoffs, two of which went for base hits.

And on the topic of hits: 47.4% of his batted balls these playoffs have been classified as “hard hits,” compared to 31.7% in the regular season. And of the 19 balls he’s put into play, 15 have either been fly balls or line drives; in the regular season, just 55% of his total batted balls fell into those two categories, with the rest being groundballs.

It’s helped give Taveras a bit more pop. In Game 1 of the ALCS against the Astros on Sunday, his fifth-inning, 105.4-mph solo home run off of Justin Verlander gave the Rangers a 2-0 lead. A day later in Game 2, he smoked a 101.9 mph triple off of J.P. France in the sixth inning.

He walked twice, too.

You kick ass. Thanks for sharing this info.

astros are best road team in baseball. I hope we can get a big lead on them and have our pitchers put up some zeroes. Maybe they will crack.

 

[Tai Chi≈Surfing]

It's interesting watching 2 former SF Giants managers doing battle against each other in an ALCS.
Anyone know if something like that has ever happened before?

I'm only pulling for the Rangers because I really can't stand the Astros.

Not meaning to get ahead of myself, or jinx anything,....but as far as I'm concerned, nothing would be finer than you guys lowering the boom and TCOB in these next 2 games..to advance to the WS...and then go on to win the whole damn thing in the fall classic.


Ftr: I'm a Mets fan....and I also really can't stand Philly. LOL

 

[Sir Robin Of Camelot]

It's interesting watching 2 former SF Giants managers doing battle against each other in an ALCS.
Anyone know if something like that has ever happened before?

Honestly hadn’t even given that any thought. And it’s a damn good question.

I need someone to do our homework on this.

 

[Kelleyman]

I hope he bats third next year.

Ideally Carter is a perfect leadoff hitter. But I like this move for now

 

[Kelleyman]

Gonna be a tough WS matchup.

Do not want to get ahead of ourselves

 

[saddles]

Do not want to get ahead of ourselves

Ah, let us get ahead of ourselves at times. As long as the Rangers don't do so. Haha

 

[saddles]

 

[scotsman1948]

Ah, let us get ahead of ourselves at times. As long as the Rangers don't do so. Haha

1game at time

 

[saddles]

 

[saddles]

Jeff Wilson's guess about how tonight will go for Scherzer:


Time for our best guess on two categories: batters faced and who replaces him.

Give me 11 batters faced. That’s one time through the batting order plus Jose Altuve and Alex Bregman at the top of the order a second time before the Rangers go to a left-hander to face Yordan Alvarez and Kyle Tucker. That should get him into the third inning.

If the pitching change comes during an inning (bold prediction), Will Smith will face Alvarez and Tucker before giving way to a pitcher who could work multiple innings — right-hander Dane Dunning or left-handers Andrew Heaney, Martin Perez or Cody Bradford.

My guess of a short outing doesn’t mean I think Scherzer is going to get lit up. On the contrary. Maybe he dominates for 70 pitches and then refuses to give up the ball. No one should put that past him.
Is that realistic? No, but the Rangers will take whatever they can get.

 

[saddles]

I don't agree with Jeff Wilson. If Scherzer is effective he goes well beyond 11 batters. If he is effective I would think he makes it to, if not through, the fifth inning

 

[Duane1952]

I don't agree with Jeff Wilson. If Scherzer is effective he goes well beyond 11 batters. If he is effective I would think he makes it to, if not through, the fifth inning

I’m hoping 18-20.

 

[saddles]

 

[saddles]

 

[saddles]

Here is Keith Law's take on Liam Hicks.

Liam Hicks, C, Texas Rangers​

Texas’ Liam Hicks can definitely hit, at least for contact and average, but he is also a catcher in name only, as he doesn’t have the arm for the position in our high-speed game today. Hicks hit everything while I was there, though, getting to pitches in and out and showing he could lay off breaking stuff enough to get to fastballs. He’s 16 for 28 so far with a .571/.647/.714 line, with below-average power (four doubles, no other extra-base hits), and that should get him to the majors as a backup catcher who’s a useful bat off the bench as well.

 

[saddles]