My two cents on today --



1) Houser's absence is just killing this bullpen. It's just had so many effects, and is causing them to lean heavily on Hader, which is probably not helping with his struggles. Before, they at least had one more reliable bridge to gap the late innings. Now they have no one -- they can matchup lefties with Claudio, but other than that, it's just straight winging it after the starter leaves. Houser isn't a good enough starter to justify how much his loss to the pen has hurt us. They've got to find a way to get him back in the role he excels at. Faria is not the answer. Pomeranz has been fine, but he's clearly not a guy they want to lean on. They can lean more heavily on Devin Williams, they can call up Black, these are options, but to be clear, they are just lottery ticket moves. Just because Williams and Black have great stuff does not mean they will automatically translate into late inning options. They need Houser back in the pen.

2) On that note, I really don't know how they're going to be able to hang in there with this pen the rest of the way. I can't imagine that guys like Suter and Wahl are really going to move the needle much. They really need a guy to step up in a big way. I'd say Corbin Burnes, Freddy Peralta, and Jimmy Nelson have the best chance of making that happen, but I'm not holding my breath on any. Two weeks ago I thought we finally had another late inning guy in Peralta, and now he's taken a step back.

3) Thames seems to have a knack for the big late inning walkoffs. Well done.

4) Somehow, it's a 4 game winning streak. We'll certainly take it any way we can get it, no style points at this juncture of the season.