Halloween Horror in Houston

Phil Gurnee ♦ October 30, 2017 ♦ 6 Comments

Halloween came early for the Dodgers on Sunday night in Houston with the first five Astro hitters scaring the bejeesus out of the Dodger pitching staff.  Not since a game at Coors was I so scared of a group of hitters as I was last night.

For three innings it felt safe. Clayton Kershaw had a four-run lead and he had cut through the Astro lineup like butter. What could go wrong?

How about everything?

From the fourth inning on, this wasn’t a baseball game, this was a heavyweight fight and the biggest problem I had was figuring if the Dodgers were Mohammed Ali or Jolting Joe Frazier. Those of us who witnessed the Thrilla in Manilla will never forget two fighters who almost fought to the death .

No lead was safe last night. Especially a three-run lead which was normally very sacred ground for a World Series game.

The Dodgers had never lost a game in 2017 in which they led by four runs. They lost last night.

At least they lost the game, what they didn’t lose was their heart or the hearts of their fans.  I’ve never seen a game like this and likely never will. This loss wasn’t heartbreaking, it was just one team outlasting another team on a night when no one could pitch and just about everyone could hit.

If the game turned on a managerial move, it might have been the bizarre bunt sign put on by Dave Roberts for Kiké Hernandez. Yes, Kiké was facing a right hand pitcher but this guy was on the ropes and what was one run going to mean in this game when multiple three-run leads had meant nothing?  You had two exhausted and ineffective bullpens going at each other.  I expect Dave is being grilled over the hot plate for that decision and maybe it cost the team the game, but that is only if you subscribe to the idea that Kiké got a hit and who really knows. I just think his chances were higher than normal given the situation.

You had to bring in Morrow but you also had to have someone ready just in case the guy who you knew was on fumes, was lit up.  Of course it only took seven pitches for the fire to explode into an inferno but those five Astro hitters are the darndest arsonists.

So many baby field home runs.

So many bad calls by the umpire on both sides of the plate.

It seemed as a Dodger fan the Dodgers got the worst of the umpiring but I suspect that an Astro fan would say the same thing about his team.

All I know is that was entertaining if not exactly baseball as we know it in Los Angeles.

I fully expect Tuesday night to be a 3 – 1 game. All those offensive records have to come to a standstill.

And Joc, run. This game had no place for lollygagging a fly ball toward an 18 foot fence.

One final thought for me. I’m on twitter now, and maybe I shouldn’t be. I see a lot of comments and I’m bewildered how one bad decision in a dugout makes a person so vilified. It is the actions of a lifetime not of a second that determine the makeup of a human being, and while the slant eye jab by Gurriel was wrong in every way, it does not make him a horrible person unless backed up by other actions in his life. Have some perspective people,  most of us will do something stupid in our lifetimes,  just be happy it isn’t caught on tape for everyone to see.