I previously had written about the issues the Oakland A’s faced when they forced a Game 4 in the ALDS here. In Game 4 a ton of these issues flared their heads and allowed the Astros to easily advance. I did watch the game and saw how the Astros started to fall apart in the 9th with 2 outs. However, when you are down 5-11 the Astros were able to leave out Presley to work through it.
Before I get to how my reasons did during the game Houston seemed to be on a whole other level. I was shocked when I heard that Zach Greinke was able to pitch after learning of his sore arm. Psychologically this was huge for Houston. While he allowed 4 runs in 4 and 2/3 innings he was plagued like most pitchers have been by the long ball giving up a 3 run home run and a single shot.
The Houston bullpen was way more rested than Oakland’s allowing for this to be easily overcome. While Houston still used 5 pitchers one of them (Blake Taylor) only threw a single pitch to get the inning ending out. Christian Javier was able to piggy back off of Greinke beginning in the 6th and giving Houston 2 and 1/3 innings of scoreless baseball.
During this stretch Oakland pitching hit a wall and collapsed. When Frankie Montas came out to begin the bottom of the 4th everything went wrong. He walked the first guy than gave up a home run. With the score now 3-2 Oakland he gave up back to back singles and then a three run home run shifting the game to a 5-3 Houston lead with no outs in the 4th. Luckily the A’s escaped with the score at that before hitting another homer in the top of the 5th to make it 5-4 Houston but then the A’s bats went silent till the 9th.
The Astros added 2 runs in the 5,6 and 7th innings powering their way forward with both the long ball and just plan hitting with runners on. What went wrong for the A’s is clear. Their pitching a strong strong thing for them melted down and with no days off had no time off to regroup.
The first things I had listed previously where pitching related and all came into play. The closer was not available and they tried to put in their set up man who gave up a two run home run. There pitching was not there especially with starters going less than 5 innings.
Houston bats are white hot, the pitching has been amazing, and they are getting a day off while awaiting the results of the Yankees/Rays game. This is ever non Houston fans worst nightmare come true. Even with the Yankees and Rays both slugging home runs at a high rates it has been apparent that the ball was not flying off the bats like they were in Game 4. Both teams are running starters on short rest along with bullpens being heavily relied on does not bode well for a 7 game series like we will get in the ALCS.
Since I am a Houston fan I hope the Yankees win because I honestly think they are the weaker team compared to Tampa. Also though CC Sabathia completely hates us and keeps raging along this post season on his podcast. Beating his team would honestly be sweeter than a World Series win. Houston was built for 164 games not 60 and now as the Astros are running at full speed watch out New York/ Tampa the beast is out!
