The Crane Pool Forum

We blew off accounting on yesterday's Yankee game, and we paid an ignoble price with a bitter loss. Lest we repeat that error, let us enjoy this visit from Houston's finest, expected to be José Quintana's last tune-up before Opening Day.

In celebration of that event, four Josés and one Joey pack the lineups of our two sides.

#	Player	Pos.	#	Player	Pos.
1	José Altuve (R)	2b	1	Brandon Nimmo (L)	lf
2	Yordan Alvarez (L)	dh	2	Jeff McNeil (L)	2b
3	Kyle Tucker (L)	rf	3	Harrison Bader (R)	cf
4	Alex Bregman (R)	3b	4	DJ Stewart (L)	rf
5	José Abreu (R)	1b	5	Ji-Man Choi (L)	1b
6	Chas McCormick (R)	lf	6	Mark Vientos (R)	dh
7	Yainer Diaz (R)	c	7	Omar Narváez (L)	c
8	Jeremy Peña (R)	ss	8	Joey Wendle (L)	ss
9	Jake Meyers (R)	cf	9	José Iglesias (R)	3b
	Cristian Javier (R)	sp		José Quintana (L)	sp

J.D. is "super-excited to be here," and says "the guys are super-excited to have me."

Edgy MD wrote: ↑Sat Mar 23, 2024 1:02 pm J.D. is "super-excited to be here," and says "the guys are super-excited to have me."

It was low-key excitement

The top of the Astro lineup sure is a grind.

And a three-run homer by Alex Bregman shows just how much of a grind.

It's MVP candidate after MVP candidate.

I see Quintana has been replaced.
Is he OK?
Later

In spring training, when pitchers reach a certain number of pitches in an inning, they can come out and return the next inning, and that's just what José Quintana will do.

Wilkin Ramos with his back to the wall, faced Yordan Álvarez with the bags juiced. He pretty clearly nicked Álvarez with a pitch, but Álvarez actually tried to plea that he wasn't hit, so badly did he want to get a shot at the minor-leaguer's 3-2 pitch.

Another Bregman homer and it's 8-0.

Punishment for taking yesterday off.

Duplantier now on the mound and the inning continues to be a nightmare.

Hey, Vientos knocks one up the middle for just the second Mets hit, but it puts the heroes on the board!

Maybe they can rally now that Bader is out of the #3 spot in the order.
Later

Kyle Tucker just homered onto the berm, conking an inattentive fan in the head.

Now 10-5.
I knew the offense would pick up.
The pitching hasn't.
Later

My kid, Trey Mclaughlin, has his home run ball working today- he's given up three - his first runs allowed this Spring.
13-5
Later

Mets have three more outs and the rain is making it a real possibility that they don't even get that.

Nope. The Astros finish the job.

Tough first inning from Quintana and it just cascaded from there. Most of the other pitchers are Brooklyn-ish-bound who we won't likely see again in 2024.

Good to see Blevins and Zeile working side-by-side.