Holdin' Onto Hope Part 2: Cranes, Trains, and Auto-Explosions (The Show 12)

[AC]

Re: Holdin' Onto Hope Part 2: Cranes, Trains, and Auto-Explosions (The Show 12)

HOW COULD YOU LOSE THE SCREENS FOR THE 21-INNING GAME?

[TheNumber35]

Re: Holdin' Onto Hope Part 2: Cranes, Trains, and Auto-Explosions (The Show 12)

HOW COULD YOU LOSE THE SCREENS FOR THE 21-INNING GAME?

I've been overwhelmed with school recently. Lots of essays, papers, midterms, etc. My flash drive was constantly in use and it must have disappeared in the chaos of projects and essays being moved around. I apologize, it was epic too...I'm pissed myself honestly.

[AC]

Re: Holdin' Onto Hope Part 2: Cranes, Trains, and Auto-Explosions (The Show 12)

I've been overwhelmed with school recently. Lots of essays, papers, midterms, etc. My flash drive was constantly in use and it must have disappeared in the chaos of projects and essays being moved around. I apologize, it was epic too...I'm pissed myself honestly.

Putting school before MLB 12? BLASPHEMY!

Honestly, though, I can tell you've been overwhelmed, you haven't been on too much until lately. Good luck with school.

[TheNumber35]

Re: Holdin' Onto Hope Part 2: Cranes, Trains, and Auto-Explosions (The Show 12)

Putting school before MLB 12? BLASPHEMY!

Honestly, though, I can tell you've been overwhelmed, you haven't been on too much until lately. Good luck with school.

Everything is gonna slow down for a little after this week so I'll be back on patrolling the boards after I finish my midterm and final essay today/tomorrow. I think I'll be taking the rest of the night off tonight to just chill and start the playoffs. So we'll see what happens with that. But thanks, things are definitely speeding up around here since its midterms week.

[TheNumber35]

Re: Holdin' Onto Hope Part 2: Cranes, Trains, and Auto-Explosions (The Show 12)

Just an update for you guys here: I just played game 1, it was a damn good game and I won't tell you anything specific but it was definitely a heartbreaking loss for the losing team.

I'm going to play every game this postseason and I'll be playing 3 games tonight (possibly more) and posting the results from whatever I do tonight. After that, I've got an essay to write tomorrow or tonight maybe...and then my girlfriend will be here tomorrow night and all day Saturday. Then I'm headed to Bowling Green on Sunday to play in their Round Robin tournament.

What does that mean for this? It means that I'll do my best to get up the series with Washington tonight and after that the next series (if I advance) will start getting played next week and hopefully posted then as well.

[TexasForever]

Re: Holdin' Onto Hope Part 2: Cranes, Trains, and Auto-Explosions (The Show 12)

This is fantastic stuff here! I just read through everything and was honestly in awe at points. Following now for sure.

[TheNumber35]

Re: Holdin' Onto Hope Part 2: Cranes, Trains, and Auto-Explosions (The Show 12)

October...a time when the men separate from the boys. Where heroes are made, goats are crowned, and legacies are written. If you can't tell, this chit really fires me up! I love October baseball and if you don't then you don't belong in this thread. October is the time to make a name for yourself, or forever be forgotten. Players like Curt Schilling, Jack Morris, and Kirk Gibson added to solid careers with amazing postseason success whereas Alex Rodriguez has made his name infamous with some of the postseason blunders he's suffered. Who will be our Bloody Sock pitcher? Who will hit the walk-off homer for us? Who will defy the odds and make an impact when the outcome looks bleak?

It's time. Time for us to step up and make a name for ourselves in this postseason. Check out the bracket for this exceptionally cold October one more time.



Detroit and Los Angeles square off in one ALDS match-up while Oakland and New York renew their playoff rivalry in the other set of games. On the NL side, we've got the Nationals while the Reds drew the Diamondbacks and Mr. Cy Young/MVP himself in Ian Kennedy. Well, game one would pit Bud Norris against Steven Strasburg. Ace against Ace, what a game we'd be in store for here tonight.


And here, we, go.


Game one as we said, would pit two excellent starters against each other in what surely would be a pitching duel for the ages...right?




The Bud would start this game off in shaky fashion...as he would get the first two batters before serving up a homer to Mr. Morse himself.


Damn, 1-0 Nats after a half an inning. But onward we go


Our lineup for Game 1. These guys have all had good seasons and now it's our time to prove that the Astros are for real. And we have to do it against this guy


We would be trailing 1-0 in the 1st when JD Martinez would double home Altuve to make it a 1-1 game on this missed flyball.


The score would stay there until Bud ran into Danny Espinosa in the 3rd inning, who would connect on yet another long ball making it 2-1. And there the score would stay until Bud left the game in the 7th inning trailing 2-1. That's where things started to get interesting. We would send Rhiner Cruz out to the mound for the 8th inning to hold the score where it was, and he decided to serve up back-to-back solo homers to Mike Morse and Luke Scott making it 4-1. Lucky for us we wouldn't be giving up so easily. Trailing 4-1 in the bottom of the 9th inning, Strasburg departed and handed the ball to Drew Storen. Storen proceeded to give up 4 straight hits: double, double, single, single. Making the score 4-3. After that though, things didn't go our way at all. Storen forced a double play ball eliminating two of the baserunners. After that he got JD Martinez to fly out to deep left field to end the ball game. What a heartbreaking loss for us...we had a chance to walk-off and win this one and Storen just got lucky tonight.

[TheNumber35]

Re: Holdin' Onto Hope Part 2: Cranes, Trains, and Auto-Explosions (The Show 12)

So Game 1 didn't come go so well for us. That doesn't mean this series is over by any stretch of the imagination. This team refused to quit during the regular season when we were down early and they won't quit now. Today we'll send 13 game winner Jeremy Bonderman to the hill to face Gio Gonzalez, who came in 2nd in the NL Cy Young voting this season. Here are the complete lineups for both teams


No real surprises on either side as both lineups are identical to what they were yesterday. On to the game, and boy was it a game...for one team at least.


After Bonderman retired the first three batters in order, Jose Altuve would step up to the dish for his first AB of the game against Gonzalez. Jose set the tone for the entirety of this game. He takes ball one, fouls off strike one, takes ball two, takes ball three, takes strike two, fouls off a pitch, and another, and another until eventually this happens


A solo jack for Jose? To lead off against Gio Gonzalez? Well that was certainly unexpected. 1-0 Astros on the bomb. And we weren't done there as JD would double, CarGo would triple, and we would strand the runner at 3rd...typical. Oh well, 2-0 Astros after 1 isn't bad. And things only got better from there as another man decided to add to the hit parade


Jason Castro. We've had a Jason Castro sighting! He hits a solo jack to make it 3-0, and we would take on 3 more runs in the inning to take a 6-0 lead. More than enough for Bonderman on the day. Bondo was perfect until the 7th inning when he allowed 3 singles and a double (he was aided by a DP ball to only allow 1 run on the day.) After run scored we would go to the 8th inning where Wilton Lopez would allow 2 runs over his inning of work. Bottom 8 now, Jose Altuve would come through and get us another run on this infield single.


Which plated pinch hitter Matt Dominguez from 3rd. The Astros would tack on a pair more in the inning and take this one 9-3 behind a strong outing from Jeremy Bonderman.


And this series is tied up heading into Washington for Game 3 and Game 4. This should be an interesting couple of games as we've got Kyle Weiland and Paul Clemens slated to start, however if we need it...Bud and Bonderman will be available on 3 days rest to pitch games 4 and 5.

[TheNumber35]

Re: Holdin' Onto Hope Part 2: Cranes, Trains, and Auto-Explosions (The Show 12)

Game one went to Washington. Game two went to us. Game three would pit Kyle Weiland against Jordan Zimmermann. But before we get there, let's go take a look around baseball and see what's going on in the world of baseball


The Tigers lead the Angels, Reds lead the D-Backs, and the Yankees lead the A's. And of course we're tied up with the Nats. With that said, its game 3 time!


Alright boys! Game time!! I don't have a ton of screens here so be ready for a short and concise post. The Astros would knock in an run on a Michael Morse HR ball (his 3rd of the series) to make it 1-0 against Kyle Weiland.

Jordan Zimmermann cruises along until CarGo is CarGone!


That solo blast ties the game at 1's. Weiland would allow 3 runs over 6 innings and so would Zimmermann. This game was nodded at 3's until Juicin' comes through in the clutch for us in the 7th with a 2 RBI double making it a 5-3 ball game. However...our bullpen and Wilton Lopez in general, would give up a pair of runs on a home run ball to Danny Espinosa. 5-5 entering the 9th and JD steps up and comes through.


A 2 run bomb of his own, first of the series, which makes it 7-5. And in steps Kevin Jepsen from the bullpen to start the bottom of the 9th here in Washington.


And he would punch out the first hitter on three 99 mph fastballs. Hitter 2 would be popped up to the infield, and hitter 3 would roll out to the mound to end the game and earn Jepsen his first save of these playoffs.


Game 3 over. 2-1 lead for us over Washington with Clemens pitching tomorrow against Zach Duke (why is this bum in a rotation?)

[AC]

Re: Holdin' Onto Hope Part 2: Cranes, Trains, and Auto-Explosions (The Show 12)

Is Kevin Jepsen actually your closer?

There's a hole you need to fill this offseason...

[TheNumber35]

Re: Holdin' Onto Hope Part 2: Cranes, Trains, and Auto-Explosions (The Show 12)

Is Kevin Jepsen actually your closer?

There's a hole you need to fill this offseason...

Kevin's been lights out all season long after taking the job from Sergio midseason. He hasn't blown a save and has held a low 1 ERA all season, with lots of Ks and a low amount of BBs. He's definitely earned another shot at closing for me after his performance this season.

[Frank is the Tank]

Re: Holdin' Onto Hope Part 2: Cranes, Trains, and Auto-Explosions (The Show 12)

Quick question! Do you think you'll bring Carlos Pena back when his contract is up? Or is there another first basemen you're looking at this off-season? He can't possibly be the best one available in the market!

[TheNumber35]

Re: Holdin' Onto Hope Part 2: Cranes, Trains, and Auto-Explosions (The Show 12)

Quick question! Do you think you'll bring Carlos Pena back when his contract is up? Or is there another first basemen you're looking at this off-season? He can't possibly be the best one available in the market!

I believe his contract was a 2 year deal when I picked him up...I can't remember the specifics of his deal right now and I'm in class until 3ish. But he right now is a holdover until Jonathan Singleton can get his chit together in AA ball. He's been pedestrian in the first two seasons of this dynasty.

Pena has been solid for me; he was the Astros HR leader after he got here (not on the season as Juicin' hit 31 dingers and Pena hit 25, but 9 of Juicin's came before Pena even got an AB) I picked him up. He's earned a shot to continue for me.

[Willard76]

Re: Holdin' Onto Hope Part 2: Cranes, Trains, and Auto-Explosions (The Show 12)

I just spent an hour reading the whole thing - great read so far - good luck the rest of the playoffs - love seeing the Stros doing something good - they were my National League fav for years

[TheNumber35]

Re: Holdin' Onto Hope Part 2: Cranes, Trains, and Auto-Explosions (The Show 12)

Nationals Ballpark
October 11th, 2013
11:49pm
Washington DC



It was game time, the Astros would be 27 outs away from potentially clinching a spot in the NLDS to face the Reds or Diamondbacks. But that wasn't on the mind of Brandon Gillespie. He looked on from the left field grand stand, deep in thought. Gillespie worried about the future, after all things could go south really fast here in the next week or two with the sale becoming final. In about a week, Jeff Bagwell will own the Astros...and Brandon would probably be named general manager, since there he was named interim GM and they have to announce removing the interim from his title.

As he stared off onto the field, reflecting on a great win for his team, he couldn't help but feel a presence around him...a familiar presence. Gillespie didn't believe in the supernatural by any stretch, he was quite the opposite of religious actually, but this was palpable. He felt something or rather, someone that he hadn't in some time.

Jim? Jim is that you? Can you hear me?!?!

Gillespie yelled for awhile, but it was all for naught...Jim wouldn't be showing up anytime soon. Until somebody came out of the shadows and grabbed Brandon's shoulder. Brandon jerked around and saw a familiar face. He fell backwards but caught himself and stood back up.

Don't be alarmed Brandon...just take a breath and relax. Sit down and listen.

Gillespie listened to the story and remained in silence, awe-struck and confused. Eventually he spoke.

Well what do I do? Where do we go from here?

You? You do nothing...sit back and wait for things to play out. Jeff and Craig know what we need them to do. Me and Serg need to do our jobs and you won't have to worry. If we succeed, you'll never see me again. Understand?

Understood. It was great to see you. I knew you didn't go down in a simple fire. Knew it wasn't so simple. Just didn't figure things were this messy. If Cuban really has what you say he has...well...Godspeed.

Brandon looked down to his pocket and grabbed his ringing phone. He saw who was calling, ignored it momentarily, and then quickly looked up to see his friend, but he was gone.

Brandon sighed and answered the phone

Yeah babe? No I'm ok...I'll be back to the hotel in a few. I was just chatting with an old friend.