10 Comments
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Steve's avatar

Vientos is the X factor now that Alvy is probably done for the season. Marte can DH against tough lefties when Baty sits.

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harvey's avatar

What was particularly hopeful in Viento's 2 HR, 7RBI last two games was the placement, all with the game still on the line ... not just piling on at the end

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James Schwartz's avatar

I can’t get that excited about this yet. I refuse to get sucked in by this team again. I dunno what it will take to get me back on the bandwagon but this wasn’t it. Petersen was great though and dammit is he hasn’t been the best pitcher for this team this season. Finally showing why he was a first round pick. That hip surgery was a big deal for him. He had that back foot slider working for him last nite and it was the first time I saw that pitch since McCann was catching him. If he gets that pitch back he will be unhittable. I’ve yet to see anyone get any contact on it and the swing and miss for that pitch is awesome. Vientos seems to be coming around. Maybe that slide down the little league hill brought out the kid in him again where the game was see pitch hit pitch. Like I said though I’m not excited yet.

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Rich MacLeod's avatar

They’ve got a lot of bad baseball to undo. This is a good start but much more to be done, for sure.

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Peter Mat's avatar

Can't undo that they had a chance to walk nicely into the playoffs, all they can do is keep playing better down the stretch. Too bad for Francisco, but Torrens is fine as long as the rest of the lineup produces. Peterson in my mind is their MVP thus far stabilizing a very unstable rotation. A lot of big games left on the schedule.

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harvey's avatar

You sound excited

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James Schwartz's avatar

Arrgghhhhh!

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Kevin J. Rogers's avatar

No doubt having Swaggy hit to his potential (or his potential at this stage of his career, I should say) would be an enormous boost. We can't afford to be streaky down the stretch. We need to produce runs more consistently.

But it's going to come down to pitching, just as it always does. David Peterson is our ace this year, but we need our aces from the last two seasons — Kodai Senga and Sean Manaea — to pitch like aces the rest of the way.

It's a big ask, I know. Neither has been healthy and able to progress through the full season the way they normally would, so they're not in the greatest position right now. They haven't been able to build up their arm strength completely, let alone establish their rhythm and lock in their repeatable delivery. We shouldn't expect them to pitch into the 8th like David has managed to do.

But if they can give us six solid every start the rest of the way, that should be enough, provided we hit.

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Matthew Davis's avatar

Momentum???

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Rich MacLeod's avatar

We can hope.

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