Astros starter Luis Garcia made an early exit from Game 2 of the ALCS, leaving with a possible “injury” in the second inning. (My eyes just rolled across the floor, someone please pick them up) … After issuing a four-pitch walk to Kevin Plawecki to begin the second, Garcia was visited on the mound by the team trainer, (without asking for him) and ended up departing after what looked like manager Dusty Baker and pitching coach Brent Strom talking him into leaving the game with said “Injury”.
Garcia allowed four runs in the first inning thanks to a J.D. Martinez grand slam. The rookie threw 33 pitches on the night. But only 14 were strikes, it was obvious from the get go he didn’t have it. And Baker being the slimy individual the Astros were hoping for when they hired him and already down 4 runs knew what he had to do.
You see if a pitcher leaves with an injury any reliever brought in has a blank check as far as time is concerned to warm up on the mound. Enter Jake Odorizzi who added several zeros behind that first digit.
We are going through a full starting pitcher stretching routine in advance of warmups for Odorizzi. Eovaldi has time to take a roundtrip drive to his hometown of Alvin, TX, before he's back on the mound. — Alex Speier (@alexspeier) October 16, 2021
“Usually, it takes me 30-plus minutes, Odorizzi said . and I think I did it in under 15, so not ideal, and it’s not like it’s a fun warm-up. You’re sitting there pretty much naked in front of the other team. They get to watch every single pitch you’re throwing.”
Cry me a river. It was closer to 20 minutes by my clock. While Pokey got loose, Red Sox Starter Nate Eovaldi sat and waited and sat and waited and sat and waited. For more than 40 minutes. A big chunk of blame goes to his teammates loading the bases again. And then emptying them as Rafael Dever unloaded on an Odorizzi fastball and depositing it past the right field foul pole for the Sox second grand slam of the game. (Hello record Books)
But I digress.
Eovaldi had been dealing to that point and the sox bats were locked and loaded, Dusty Baker in my opinion tried to cool them off with this farce. And it worked. Not right away as Eovaldi set down the Astros on order in the third. But a cool down like this is like a snake bite. It takes time for the poison to take effect. After taking the hill in the fourth Nate got the first two outs and then walked Yordan Alverez, gave up a single to Carlos Correa and a double to Kyle Tucker. After Yule Gurriel singled to right it was 9-3 Boston. Oh did I mention Kike Hernandez Homered AGAIN (I wish you could see the smile on my face)
It's Kiké's world, we're just living in it 🚀 pic.twitter.com/IQmNwoT7lG — Red Sox (@RedSox) October 16, 2021
To put it frankly, the Astros are a slimy team with an even slimeier manager. Be it icing a pitcher with moves like Dusty made today or watering down the infield to the point it’s basically a bog to banging on trash cans. This group will do anything they can within or outside the rules of baseball to get a win. But the Sox earned this split and come home to Fenway and you all for the next three. Let’s hope they take care of business and none of us have to think about the state of Texass until next 2022.