Last nite

[das]

What a horrific showing by the offense.  The chatter in the GameZone was spot on.  Altuve and White are deep, dark black holes in the lineup right now and the approaches we saw last night made pedestrian Odorizzi look like Cy Young.  If I were Hinch, I'd levy a $100 fine to any player for the next One (1) game that does not take the Mike Schmidt approach of watching pitch 1, no matter what, so they can see how the ball is coming out of the pitchers hand and see what he's throwing.  Clearly, I'm not Hinch tho...

Verlander was classy as always, tipping his cap and making no excuses.  The fact that there was "chatter" in the clubhouse about the check swing call in the 3rd kills me.  The only reasonable chatter should have been about the awful approaches the hitters were taking against an ok pitcher.  With the express intent of changing things.

"Twins third baseman Ehire Adrianza led off the third inning with a homer on a 3-2 pitch -- one pitch after Verlander nearly got Adrianza to strike out on a 2-2 check swing -- to back seven scoreless innings from Odorizzi in Minnesota’s 1-0 win over the Astros at Target Field.  The check swing to Adrianza that third-base umpire Doug Eddings called a ball was a topic of conversation in the Astros' clubhouse after the game."
https://www.mlb.com/astros/news/justin-verlander-astros-fall-to-twins

[Fredia]

pitchers have learned altuve  tends to go after that first pitch
it seemed verlander barely had a seat and was up again

[Tom Servo]

What a horrific showing by the offense.  The chatter in the GameZone was spot on.  Altuve and White are deep, dark black holes in the lineup right now and the approaches we saw last night made pedestrian Odorizzi look like Cy Young.  If I were Hinch, I'd levy a $100 fine to any player for the next One (1) game that does not take the Mike Schmidt approach of watching pitch 1, no matter what, so they can see how the ball is coming out of the pitchers hand and see what he's throwing.  Clearly, I'm not Hinch tho...

Well, it wasn't too long ago that I read chatter in the GZ that the Astros were too passive on the first pitch, so I guess it's damned if you do, damned if you don't.  They had a bad game.  Maybe a bad couple of games.  It happens.  Last week their starting pitching sucked.  The last couple days (Chirinos' HR notwithstanding), their offense has sucked.  It comes and goes over a 162 game season. 

[MRaup]

Well, it wasn't too long ago that I read chatter in the GZ that the Astros were too passive on the first pitch, so I guess it's damned if you do, damned if you don't.  They had a bad game.  Maybe a bad couple of games.  It happens.  Last week their starting pitching sucked.  The last couple days (Chirinos' HR notwithstanding), their offense has sucked.  It comes and goes over a 162 game season.

I don't think you took away what you needed to take away from attacking first pitches.

It's one thing to attack first pitches aggressively. But when you're lazily swinging over and under 91 MPH fastballs in the lower middle of the zone, there is something overridingly wrong with your approach, no matter when in the count they're happening. Not punishing shit fastballs is bad baseball, period.

The Astros looked straight up disinterested in hitting the baseball last night with only a few notable exceptions.

[JimR]

I don't think you took away what you needed to take away from attacking first pitches.

It's one thing to attack first pitches aggressively. But when you're lazily swinging over and under 91 MPH fastballs in the lower middle of the zone, there is something overridingly wrong with your approach, no matter when in the count they're happening. Not punishing shit fastballs is bad baseball, period.

The Astros looked straight up disinterested in hitting the baseball last night with only a few notable exceptions.

Lazy is a good description. How many RH hitters popped up to the right side because of slow bats and the barrel looping under the ball?

[Tom Servo]

I don't think you took away what you needed to take away from attacking first pitches.

It's one thing to attack first pitches aggressively. But when you're lazily swinging over and under 91 MPH fastballs in the lower middle of the zone, there is something overridingly wrong with your approach, no matter when in the count they're happening. Not punishing shit fastballs is bad baseball, period.

The Astros looked straight up disinterested in hitting the baseball last night with only a few notable exceptions.

So what makes an entire team get collectively disinterested in a game? 

[MRaup]

So what makes an entire team get collectively disinterested in a game?

Cold weather? A late night the night before? Some kind of gypsy curse?

[moriartp]

Cold weather? A late night the night before? Some kind of gypsy curse?

I think watching GoT Sunday night encompasses all three.

[Jacksonian]

Cold weather? A late night the night before? Some kind of gypsy curse?

As of right now they've played the most difficult schedule in baseball.  24 of the 29 games against teams with records currently above .500.  The first and second place teams in the east and central, and all but the worst team in the west.  And the 5 games against a losing team was the A's, a divisional opponent.  Maybe they're just a little worn out?

Oh, and more games on the road than at home.

[geezerdonk]

Yes cold. Taking my swings and getting back to the heater in the dugout.