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The Houston Astros will get one more tuneup

in Balance Discussion Wed Jan 23, 2019 8:17 am
by laiyongcai92 • Farseer | 152 Posts | 1520 Points

BALTIMORE — for the playoffs on Sunday when they meet the Baltimore Orioles in the finale of the four-game series and the last game of the regular season at Camden Yards.Houston (103-58) is headed to the American League Division Series to meet the Cleveland Indians starting Oct. 5. The Orioles (46-115) are headed home after the worst season in franchise history.Charlie Morton (15-3 Tony Phillips Jersey , 3.18 ERA) starts for the Astros. The Orioles announced after Game 2 of Saturday’s doubleheader — which the Astros swept — that Jimmy Yacabonis (0-2, 6.00) gets the ball. Article continues below ...Morton came out of his last start after just one inning because of shoulder issues and told the media Saturday that there’s still some tightness there. It’s expected Morton will not pitch very long Sunday, but the veteran is looking toward the playoffs.“Part of the difficulty is the mental side of it; sometimes you just don’t feel right,” Morton told the media. “Sometimes you feel something’s wrong when there really isn’t anything that’s that bad, and you have to kind of accept that. I’m trying to loosen things up and get in a better spot overall and try to get ready to pitch in October.”Morton has a 1-2 career record with a 5.40 ERA against the Orioles.Yacabonis has filled in at times and made spot starts for Baltimore as the team tries to convert him into a starter. He’s been up and down but pitched well at times, just like Yefry Ramirez, who lost Game 2 of Saturday’s doubleheader.Yacabonis has never pitched against in Astros in his brief major league career.The Astros have shown some power in this series, especially in the doubleheader where they banged out five homers overall en route to their sweep of the slumping Orioles.Baltimore just hasn’t come up with enough offense against the tough Houston starters, which has been a problem for many teams the last few years http://www.athleticsfanproshop.com/authentic-walt-weiss-jersey , but the Orioles have battled that issue all season.“We’re just not doing much offensively against some good pitching (in this series),” Orioles manager Buck Showalter said after the doubleheader.Sunday’s game also could represent another bigger step in the rebuilding process that Baltimore began to undertake when it traded off several players around the deadline two months ago.It could be the final game for Showalter, who has been the team’s manager since August 2010 and led them to the playoffs three times. Adam Jones, the face of the team in recent years and one of its most popular players, is about to hit free agency, and GM Dan Duquette’s contract, like Showalter’s, expires after this season.The Orioles could let all three of them go and would be looking at a major rebuild. If so, that would disappoint many fans because of how popular Jones and Showalter are with them. So even though Sunday’s game means nothing to Baltimore other than the end to a very trying season Marcus Semien Jersey , it could very well be the final page in a chapter of the team’s history. ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) — Houston Astros manager AJ Hinch does not expect Lance McCullers Jr. to rejoin the starting rotation this season when he returns from a forearm injury.Hinch said Sunday it is unlikely McCullers, who is 10-6 with a 3.93 ERA, would be able to rebuild his stamina to the point where he could start.“I guess never say never ’cause once you get on the mound and get going things can progress a different way, but I think the focus will be and probably should be shorter stints,” Hinch said.McCullers has been on the disabled list since Aug. 5, one day after he left a start against the Los Angeles Dodgers early because of a muscle strain.Hinch also said McCullers’ rehabilitation program was being slowed down because of a “continued lack of progress,” but he is still targeting September for him to resume throwing off the mound.“We knew it was September until we were going to consider doing anything. Then we thought we could be a little bit more aggressive with him, but we’re going to put that on pause and just have him do a throwing program http://www.athleticsfanproshop.com/authentic-joe-morgan-jersey ,” Hinch said.“He’s feeling pretty symptom-free. I think his throwing has been fine, but kind of the re-evaluation of him, we’ve decided to push it back.”Hinch is not sure how he will structure his rotation down the stretch without McCullers. Left-hander Framber Valdez could be an option to start after allowing one run in 4 1/3 innings to earn the win in his major league debut at Seattle on Tuesday. The Astros could also take advantage of September call-ups to address the vacancy.“As the rules change where we can expand the rosters, you could see a spot going to somebody that steps up and takes the ball and is very reliable for every five days. You could see that spot change. You could also see us be creative with the bullpen and have a bullpen day every now and then,” Hinch said.But Hinch is wary of being too experimental given how closely contested the AL West is.“We’ve got to continue to put really good pitchers out there and not be too much trial and error because of the race that we’re in, but I could see it being used a lot of different ways. My preference would be for somebody to step up and throw the ball very well and have our normal rotation,” Hinch said.

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