*** Official Houston Astros @ Kansas City Royals ALDS Game 5 Thread ***
 

<table border=3 cellpadding = 4>
<tr><td>Final</td> <td> 1 </td> <td> 2 </td><td> 3 </td><td> 4 </td><td> 5 </td><td> 6 </td><td> 7 </td><td> 8 </td><td> 9 </td><td> R </td><td> H </td><td> E </td></tr>
<tr><td> HOU </td><td> 0 </td><td> 2 </td><td> 0 </td><td> 0 </td><td> 0 </td><td> 0 </td><td> 0 </td><td> 0 </td><td> 0 </td><td> 2 </td><td> 2 </td><td> 0 </td></tr>
<tr><td> KC </td><td> 0 </td><td> 0 </td><td> 0 </td><td> 1 </td><td> 3 </td><td> 0 </td><td> 0 </td><td> 3 </td><td> X </td><td> 7 </td><td> 8 </td><td> 0 </td></tr>
</table>

Royals Win the Series 3-2, and Advance to the 2015 American League Championship Series

http://mlb.mlb.com/images/logos/80x80/hou.png

Loss Collin McHugh 4IP 3R 3ER 1BB 1K
Mike Fiers 1IP 1R 1ER 0BB 0K
Tony Sipp 1⅔IP 0R 0ER 0BB 1K
Pat Neshek ⅓IP 0R 0ER 0BB 1K
Dallas Keuchel 1IP 3R 3ER 1BB 0K 1HR

http://mlb.mlb.com/images/logos/80x80/kc.png

Win Johnny Cueto 8IP 2R 2ER 0BB 8K 1HR
Wade Davis 1IP 0R 0ER 0BB 1K

Home Runs

HOU

Luis Valbuena - Top 2nd 2-run homer to right

KC

Kendrys Morales - Bottom 8th 3-run homer to center

Starting Lineups

HOU

1. Jose Altuve, 2B
2. George Springer, RF
3. Carlos Correa, SS
4. Colby Rasmus, LF
5. Carlos Gomez, CF
6. Evan Gattis, DH
7. Luis Valbuena, 3B
8. Chris Carter, 1B
9. Jason Castro, C
9. Preston Tucker, ph

KC

1. Alcides Escobar, SS
2. Ben Zobrist, 2B
3. Lorenzo Cain, CF
4. Eric Hosmer, 1B
5. Kendrys Morales, DH
6. Mike Moustakas, 3B
7. Salvador Perez, C
8. Alex Gordon, LF
9. Alex Rios, RF
9. Paulo Orlando, RF

In for the win!

Get through this game and I'll be able to breathe again

IN!

Atta boy! :clap:

IN!

<a href="http://s1260.photobucket.com/user/KCTattoo58/media/RoyalsFan_zpsyavl1sex.gif.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1260.photobucket.com/albums/ii574/KCTattoo58/RoyalsFan_zpsyavl1sex.gif" border="0" alt=" photo RoyalsFan_zpsyavl1sex.gif"/></a>

we should be coming out pretty loose, though ... house money game

K gonna be rockin! Who's going?

Praying we won't be watching Cueto's last start today.

Woooo

Texas vs Toronto.

Who do you got & who do you want?

Trying to calm myself be remembering it's just my emotions on the line. Johnny Cueto could literally be pitching for tens of millions of dollars. Something tells me he steps up

Got? Toronto

Want? Texas. After Cole Hamels, their rotation is awful.

How short of a leash will Cueto be on? Probably not too short, because Ned.
Depending on how they are hitting him, and it's not soft BS dropping in, I'd make it real short. Like if a couple guys get on base, get someone stretching in the bullpen. Can't afford him giving up multiple HRs or runs in each of the first 3 innings or any of that shit. It would be nice to have a lead if they are going to bring Keuchel in as relief.

I think Ned will have him on a very short leash. Medlen and Young will be ready at the first sign of trouble.

Toronto's lineup still seems great and our pitching seems to waver from unreliable to shitty. Texas seems like the safer opponent.

I imagine Ned is going to manage this one like game 7 of the World Series. He said he told Herrera, Madson and Davis to be ready for 2 innings each in game 4. Can't imagine it'd be any different tonight.

Thank you Alnorth. I have faith in your thread starting abilities.

That still leaves 3 innings. And its the 1st three where Cueto seems to suck the most.

Joe Maddon turned game 4 into a total bullpen game because he knew only Lester/Arrieta would be needed in game 5

I'd imagine Ned treats this the same way ... Cueto hopefully gets us 4 or 5 of scoreless to 1 run pitching ... And then we turn it over to the horses. Cueto for 5, Herrera/Madson/Duffy/Hoch in some capacity get us to the 8th ... And Davis gets us the last 6. You save Young/Medlen for extras in case something happens

I mean it's so hard to see us losing this game. We have home field, momentum, pitching. God damn, all we have to do is hit the ball, it appeared some switch got flipped the other night and our guys quit swinging for the fences and started swinging for contact again. Going back home I can't see that staying that way, something about short fences makes everyone think they can drop bombs every at bat. It happens at the baseball/softball level so it makes sense that big leaguers do it too.
We stick to our game we got this.

Lets put this bitch away.

Sure hope that late inning rally Monday carries over into todays game like last years wildcard miracle did.

We're definitely favored, but lets not get carried away. I can easily see us losing this game, I'd put us at about a 60%-65% favorite.

In. I'll be at work so hoping for a calm evening on my side of town.

I'll be listening on the radio. Hoping I get to have a lunch break, which I'll take around 730ish. Watch some of the game.

In for the muthafukin win!!!

http://media1.popsugar-assets.com/fi...-Arm-Swing.gif

YOU CAN DO EET, CUETO

PITCH YOUR ****ING BALLS OFF

I have the worst feeling about Cueto. Like he's going to give up 3-4 runs by the third inning. :(

We got Cueto for one reason. That is to bring us the Crown & all the glory.


No pressure Cueto got this.

IN IT TO WIN IT!

LET'S ****ING GO!

My stomach already hurts.

get Cueto out of the 1st with no damage and we're gold

I agree, but I'm trying the be confident and win approach.

By the way; thanks for everything you do around here, your gameday threads are a lifesaver for the games I miss.

It's hard to swallow that the guy we gave up so much great young talent for has to be on a short leash in the playoffs.

Can he at least make it to the fifth inning with us 4-4 or 4-3 in Royals favor?



We need some bats breaking the spirit of the Asstros starter I hope it's not keuhdiksjof (sp)

Agreed. Hasn't approached Bob Dole's expectations.

Think its Mcugh

Bob Dole has been thinking the same thing.

Too much mojo going into this game. I'm pretty confident. Good AB's is what I want to see.

This. Please get out of the first without allowing a damn run.

In

Leaving for the game at 2pm. Go Royals!

SNAP THOSE PITCHES OFF JOHNNY!

in so deep

"Shake,Rattle, and Roll" Johnny, get this done!

Can't make it back to KC for this one. Likely won't happen with McHugh, but I'd love nothing more than a semi-laugher ala last years game 3 against Anaheim.

Game over?

I am not worried at all. I think we jump out to an early lead and we end this game by the fifth inning. Maybe earlier.

Don't count the Astos out. Good ball club

I'm here for the gangbang

Lets cook these suckers!

Like last year, I'll be driving in a car through Illinois with my cell phone attached to the GPS mount watching the game. I know, unsafe. But I'm not missing this game.

IN B4 awesome-ness

Keep Medlin warm and ready at first sign of Cueto choke. Also young if Merlin goes wimpy on us. Strogest part the team is bullpen. Don't be afraid to use it. There are no tomorrows.

Moot point. Ned won't need a leash on Cueto. Let him go 7 or 8.

I expect the Cueto we traded for to show up tonight and a big performance from the boys...comfortable win.

http://media.tumblr.com/bcbb80613f0e...QJZ1qz4rgp.gif

Let's do this!

What channel is the game going to be on?

FS1

We squared McHugh up decently last game against him, but the balls where hit right at them. We are due against him this time around.

Time for good Johnny

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Should be a great game. I have nothing but respect for the Astros. Great young team. I'm hoping the comeback shook them up a bit, though...and the big hope is that Hosmer's figured it out.

If Hosmer's hitting, I think we'll win it. Morales seems to see McHugh fairly well. :D

http://media.giphy.com/media/ZdGxwCm...phy-tumblr.gif

I am ready.

It'll be the first time I've been out there in a few months, can't wait. Must... work... only 10:40....

I'm so ****ing geeked up for this game.

In for the win
and wanting Texas rather than Toronto

I'd rather we just let Wade Davis pitch all 9. He can do it. He barely threw 7 pitches per inning last game. That's only 63 pitches.

Why not just let him pitch every inning for the remainder of hte postseason, too?

Say, there's an idea!

Do you have Ned's cell #? Somebody needs to get on the horn about this.

Andy McCullough posted an article about today's game. No surprise, but it says the Royals will have a quick hook today. Pretty much everyone in the pen is available, including Volquez. The media (or maybe just Andy) asked Wade if he could go three today and Wade said no chance, but Eiland says Wade is underestimating himself and could do it. It also says the team has charted emergency plans for every inning.

Volquez? Geez.

I know this is must win and everything, but we DO need a starting pitching rotation for the next series if we win.

Thus far we've started three guys in 5 games and haven't even looked our #4's way, not even in long relief.

If we go to the ALCS, are we starting Medlen for Game 1? What about after that? Back to Volquez?

Seven more hours peeps.

Go, Johnny, go!

Pitching & defense won games 1 & 2 in Anaheim last year. Sure Moose & Hoz hit HR's in the 11th inning but both those games were low scoring. I'm not sure this year's team has the pitching to make it. The lineup is stronger so that may overcome the lack of pitching but the offense has been very sporadic with a lot of bad swings.

if this game is 2 runs or less after 7 and Wade doesn't pitch 6 outs I'm going to be unhappy ... and I realize 9/10 it will still work out but I'd rather not leave anything to chance

dude is so good