First of all, I feel like this is the season of the under appreciated catcher. Because you think of the best catching performances of 2019, and it's all guys who've been around for a few years and have either been on crap teams or have been more defensively-focused. I mean, you have guys like James McCann in Chicago, Tony Wolters in Colorado, Roberto Perez in Cleveland, Omar Narvaez in Seattle, Kevan Smith in LA...and, of course, the crowning achievement...Robinson Chirinos.
To say Robinson Chirinos has been one of the defining pieces of this Astros team is an understatement- he brings defensive stability that Max Stassi and Brian McCann couldn't ensure, and he's surpassed his previous WAR totals, especially at the plate. And now he's become a piece of the Astros' latest postseason win, hitting a homer off of Anibal Sanchez to extend the lead to 4-0, and putting the cherry on top of a strong, pitching-centric win for Houston.
From a distance, it's Zack Greinke that did the heavy lifting by only allowing a run, but Josh James, Brad Peacock, Will Harris, Joe Smith and Roberto Osuna were equally dominant, and later. The bullpen that had struggled against New York and Tampa was FINALLY finding its footing, and away from home, no less.
This makes the series a little more interesting, and allows this series to be less of a shellacking for either team. However, tonight is Patrick Corbin vs. Jose Urquidy. So they're taking a risk in starting a relative unknown against a power player. Which went super-well when the Twins started Randy Dobnak. So...should be fun to watch.
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