METS @ ASTROS
September 2-3, 2017
Living in Austin, the worst I got from Hurricane Harvey was some tall weeds that need to be mowed tomorrow. I won’t claim to truly understand what so many have experienced the last week. I have also never lived a day in any of the affected areas, so the following claims of emotional connections to those areas may seem trite. That is not my intent.
My feelings for Houston should be fairly obvious. I’ve been making the pilgrimage to H-Town for Astros games for over 2/3 of my life, with a number of memorable family trips to AstroWorld mixed in. I still look back fondly on attending several games with my first girlfriend, even though things didn’t work out. I’ve played softball with many of you assholes at Memorial Park. I have two cousins in Houston and, fortunately for them, they weren’t affected beyond being unable to go anywhere. For all that my words are worth, I hope that those of you in Houston that were inconvenienced or displaced by Harvey can get your lives back in order as easily as possible.
Port Aransas has been a ritualistic vacation destination for our family for decades. My kids and my sister’s kids have grown up looking forward to each and every beach trip, and a lot of great memories have been made there. It’s looking for all the world like we’ll be scrubbing our planned trip there at the end of the month, but we’ll be back as soon as we’re able so we can support the businesses there.
Most of all, although the extended Waldo family reaches from coast to coast and all points in between, we have very deep roots in the Golden Triangle. Some 80 years ago my grandparents settled in Groves, and a few years later my grandfather built the house my dad grew up in. (My grandfather also headed up the building committee for First Baptist Groves’s sanctuary. A plaque with his name on it still hangs there.) My dad was only six when my grandfather died, and my grandmother never remarried. As each of my aunts and my dad got married and moved out, she faithfully stayed by herself in that little house on Hays, and our memories of her are inseparable from our memories of her house – it was simply a part of her. Although she died in 2003 and my dad/aunts sold her house, and although subsequent owners have made a number of improvements to it (it now has a dishwasher!), it’s still her house, damn it, our best remaining tangible connection to her. So when we found out that her house was spared by the flooding, it feels like a part of her still lives on. My aunt in Nederland was also spared, but we’ve had to grapple with the news that my cousin and his wife are dealing with a flooded house in Beaumont.
Thoughts and prayers to all of you. Fuck Harvey. Fuck the Rangers. Fuck the month of August. Let’s go do some living, and some winning.
What happened in the last series?
The Mets (58-75) dropped a three-game set to the Reds and haven’t won a series since a four-game series in Philly three weeks ago.
I think many of us could have predicted the Tampa Bay Astros (80-53) dropping two of three to the fucking Rangers given the circumstances. Time to shake it off. And now we have Kate Upton’s profundities Kate Upton’s tracts of land Justin Verlander.
Schedule/Probables
Saturday, September 2 – 1:10pm CDT
Matt Harvey (4-3, 5.25) vs. Charlie Morton (10-6, 3.88)
Yep, a player named Harvey pitching the first game in Houston after Hurricane Harvey. You can’t make this shit up.
Harvey will be pitching his first game since going on the DL with a bum shoulder in mid-June. Prior to that he was routinely running out of steam during the 5th or 6th innings; after pitching seven innings on April 21 he only finished the 6th inning once in his next nine starts. Word is he’ll be limited to about 80 pitches on Saturday. This will be his first start against the Astros.
Morton allowed three runs over five innings against the Angels, getting a no-decision in what turned into a 7-5 win. He hasn’t faced the Mets since 2015, when he allowed two earned runs over 6.1 innings.
Saturday, September 2 – 7:10pm CDT
Seth Lugo (5-3, 4.85) vs. Brad Peacock (10-2, 3.12)
Lugo only recently came off his own DL stint with a shoulder problem, throwing 70 pitches in 3.2 innings against the Nationals on Saturday after missing a couple of starts. Lugo has been fairly consistent during his brief work this year, usually good for 5-6 innings and 3-4 runs.
Peacock’s great effort in Anaheim (6 IP, 1 ER, third straight start with 8+ strikeouts) was wasted by a late rally against the bullpen. He hasn’t faced the Mets since 2014.
Sunday, September 3 – 1:10pm CDT
Chris Flexen (3-3, 6.89) vs. Mike Fiers (8-9, 4.55)
Flexen started his season in high-A and was promoted to AA after only three starts. After a smoldering 1.66 ERA in seven starts he was called up straight to the majors on July 27. He’s had his ups and downs: he has only allowed more than three earned runs twice in his seven starts, but each of those came in less than five innings, and he’s only made it through six once.
Fiers has obviously slipped a bit since working his ERA down to 3.59 in late July, and just got lit up by the Rangers.