How big was last night's win?

[IndySooner]

According to Nolan Warren, we're up from 20 to 15 in the RPI. That's HUGE.

We need to get a minimum of one in Austin. I came into the week thinking 2-2 was necessary. Now, it's visible. 2-2 this week and we can start talking about hosting a regional again. We HAVE to get at least one in Austin!

[Sooner95]

Yea, agree, although I think I'd feel better if we could win the series.

[Ardmore_Sooner]

Anything is possible this weekend. History is stacked against us this weekend, but even one win would be better than nothing at this point. We sneak a win, and you are exactly right, we can start talking about hosting again.

[bcolston15]

Baseball America elevated us from not hosting to hosting, FWIW. OSU, Arkansas and Rice are out of a host spot for now, at least according to BA.

[Collier11]

Lets win 2 and go from there

[bufsa]

Why 2? If Rocha holds them and we score a few runs for him we sweep. Our pitching is better than theirs outside of Friday. But you have to give Rocha credit this year he is matching them. Isn't his only loss due to unearned runs? That said I got a question. Green what type of pitcher is he? Fast ball or breaking ball? We seem to do better against a guy in the mid 90's than somebody picking at the plate with off speed stuff. Even though he has a lot of strike outs if he is mainly a fastball pitcher I like our chances. Hold them through 5 and then beat their relievers

[bcolston15]

Why 2? If Rocha holds them and we score a few runs for him we sweep. Our pitching is better than theirs outside of Friday. But you have to give Rocha credit this year he is matching them. Isn't his only loss due to unearned runs? That said I got a question. Green what type of pitcher is he? Fast ball or breaking ball? We seem to do better against a guy in the mid 90's than somebody picking at the plate with off speed stuff. Even though he has a lot of strike outs if he is mainly a fastball pitcher I like our chances. Hold them through 5 and then beat their relievers

Where the heck did everyone get the idea Burch Smith is better than Cole Green? There isn't a single stat category, in conference or overall, that Burch leads Green.

Cole Green throws in the low-to-mid 90's with a really good slider. He pitched 7.2 shutout innings last year in Norman and he was probably UT's best starter last year. He started this season off slowly but he looks to be back on track.

I think we might have a slight advantage on the mound Sunday. But Hoby Milner, who i'm guessing will start for Texas, isn't exactly chopped liver. I'd say it's a push. Texas HAS the advantage Friday and Saturday, and to me it isn't close.

This happens every year, people think we're as good as Texas until we get swept. Then they bitch and moan like it's some awful surprise they never expected.

I'm telling you now, hope for one victory. Anything more than that is absolutely phenomenal.

[IndySooner]

Milner's lost his spot to Sam Stafford. Stafford has been very good against Kansas and Texas Tech.

We MIGHT have a slight pitching advantage on Sunday. Maybe. We certainly don't have the edge Saturday and they have the edge on Friday, though Rocha's been as good as almost anyone this year.

Our edge is offensively. That said, it's not as big of an edge as I thought it was going to be at the beginning of the year. We're not as good of an offensive team as I thought we were.

[Sooner11JK]

Why 2? If Rocha holds them and we score a few runs for him we sweep. Our pitching is better than theirs outside of Friday. But you have to give Rocha credit this year he is matching them. Isn't his only loss due to unearned runs? That said I got a question. Green what type of pitcher is he? Fast ball or breaking ball? We seem to do better against a guy in the mid 90's than somebody picking at the plate with off speed stuff. Even though he has a lot of strike outs if he is mainly a fastball pitcher I like our chances. Hold them through 5 and then beat their relievers

First off, on Friday, they don't use relievers. Jungmann goes either 8 or 9 in every outing. 10 appearances, 80 innings. Their closer, Knebel, has been absolutely lights out this year. 13 saves, 17 hits in 38 innings, only one extra base hit (a double). While Green hasn't been as good as he was last year, he's still better than just about any other Saturday starter in the Big 12. What has hurt him more than anything is he has gotten almost no run production so his 2.88 ERA isn't producing as many wins as it would with almost any other team. Basically, what I'm trying to say is holding them through 5 isn't going to get us to their relievers because, for the most part, they don't use their bullpen. Our pitching might be capable of holding their own this year but it still isn't better than Texas'.

What we need is consistent offense in all three games. 4 or 5 runs per game with our staff pitching to it's potential will give us a chance to win this series. Anything less and it's going to be status quo in Austin.

[TumbleweedDoom]

Why 2? If Rocha holds them and we score a few runs for him we sweep. Our pitching is better than theirs outside of Friday. But you have to give Rocha credit this year he is matching them. Isn't his only loss due to unearned runs? That said I got a question. Green what type of pitcher is he? Fast ball or breaking ball? We seem to do better against a guy in the mid 90's than somebody picking at the plate with off speed stuff. Even though he has a lot of strike outs if he is mainly a fastball pitcher I like our chances. Hold them through 5 and then beat their relievers

We've won exactly once down there in the last 12 years and you're saying sweep. Congrats, I will now not take a single one of your posts seriously ever again.

Not sure how our pitching is better outside of Friday. And you wanna go ahead and give the insight on "beating their relievers" with their closer being nigh untouchable this season?

Look, get one win and get out. That's our goal, anything more and we're looking awesomely good. As far as a sweep, they have about one million times better chance of sweeping us than us sweeping them.

[bcolston15]

Milner's lost his spot to Sam Stafford. Stafford has been very good against Kansas and Texas Tech.

We MIGHT have a slight pitching advantage on Sunday. Maybe. We certainly don't have the edge Saturday and they have the edge on Friday, though Rocha's been as good as almost anyone this year.

Our edge is offensively. That said, it's not as big of an edge as I thought it was going to be at the beginning of the year. We're not as good of an offensive team as I thought we were.

I think Milner goes against us, they'll want a lefty in there to neutralize the top of our lineup.

Just based on raw numbers we're better offensively, but, they execute better and also hit better in clutch situations.

[IndySooner]

I think Milner goes against us, they'll want a lefty in there to neutralize the top of our lineup.

Just based on raw numbers we're better offensively, but, they execute better and also hit better in clutch situations.

If Milner's going on Sunday, I like our chances of coming out with a win.

They CERTAINLY execute better than we do. There's zero question about that.

[TumbleweedDoom]

We haven't won a Sunday game since Burch moved to Saturday. Not sure how that works into liking our chance for a win that day.

[IndySooner]

We haven't won a Sunday game since Burch moved to Saturday. Not sure how that works into liking our chance for a win that day.

Look at Milner's stats. He has not been good at all. There's a reason he lost his spot. I'll be very surprised if he starts, and if he doesn't, they probably have the pitching edge on Sunday, too. Only exception would be if Bobby Shore came out as Dr. Jeckyl instead of Mr. Hyde.

[SOONER STEAKER]

Thank the man above for the above posts. OU fans not using rose colored glasses to realize that a team has every advantage on us. But what the heck, let's not only expect to win maybe 1 on Sunday, but I say let's go kick the s-it out of TX and win 3!!

I told you guys I could turn over a new leaf. Just don't get me started on SG!

[IndySooner]

Thank the man above for the above posts. OU fans not using rose colored glasses to realize that a team has every advantage on us. But what the heck, let's not only expect to win maybe 1 on Sunday, but I say let's go kick the s-it out of TX and win 3!!

I told you guys I could turn over a new leaf. Just don't get me started on SG!

Honestly, if it weren't Texas, I'd say we had a great chance to win this series. We're very even on paper. It's Texas, though, and because of that, I expect us to lose this series. They have the pitching edge, the mental edge and the edge in fundamentals. Most of all, Augie has a voodoo hex on us.

[bufsa]

Your reading things into it I didn't say. I said our pitching is better than theirs. Thats why I said hold them through 5 and then beat their relivers. That is also why I asked what type of pitcher Green was. We have had more problems with the off speed lot of movement pitchers. Also their closer is just that a closer. Like Duke he does not come in before the 8th or 9th. And yes I did a little bit of rah rah just to get people talking becaused I was bored. But right now I do think we can beat Texas. The question that remains is do our players think they can.

[IndySooner]

Green's slider had us baffled the entire game last year. He seems to have his good stuff back.

[bcolston15]

Milner's conference ERA is 2.59 and he's allowing a .191 batting average against.

That part doesn't scare me, the fact he's a lefty does. Bushy and Ross struggle with LH's.

[IndySooner]

Those stats for Milner include 6 2/3 scoreless innings of relief. He's been good out of the pen, which is why I'd be surprised if they moved him back, even if it took Woody and Caleb out of the mix.

As a starter:

vs. Baylor, 4.2 ip, 3 er, 4 h, 3 bb, 3 k---Loss
vs. Mizzou, 6.1 ip, 2 er, 3 h, 2 bb, 2 k---Win
vs. OSU, 6 ip, 1 er, 5 h, 1 bb, 2 k---Loss
vs. K-State, 7 ip, 3 er, 5 h, 1 bb, 6 k---No decision


He doesn't go deep into games. ERA at 3.38. He is a better starter than a reliever.

Of course, Stafford is coming off a loss to Kansas where he gave up three runs in just over three innings, so who knows?

[bcolston15]

Those stats for Milner include 6 2/3 scoreless innings of relief. He's been good out of the pen, which is why I'd be surprised if they moved him back, even if it took Woody and Caleb out of the mix.

As a starter:

vs. Baylor, 4.2 ip, 3 er, 4 h, 3 bb, 3 k---Loss
vs. Mizzou, 6.1 ip, 2 er, 3 h, 2 bb, 2 k---Win
vs. OSU, 6 ip, 1 er, 5 h, 1 bb, 2 k---Loss
vs. K-State, 7 ip, 3 er, 5 h, 1 bb, 6 k---No decision


He doesn't go deep into games. ERA at 3.38. He is a better starter than a reliever.

Of course, Stafford is coming off a loss to Kansas where he gave up three runs in just over three innings, so who knows?

Those are good numbers for a Sunday guy. You're right though, he's better out of the pen.

[IndySooner]

Overton's numbers are actually better than Milner's. That said, I'm guessing that we'll throw Shore against Stafford with Overton and Milner on short notice.

When you look at the lineups, though, it's not even close (Conference top-15):

Avg.: Buechele .395, Weiss .384, Mistich .358, Ogle .350, Seitzer .349, Loy .327
OPS: Weiss 1.094, Ogle 1.065, Buechele 1.015, Mistich .960, Seitzer .936
HR: Ogle 8, Buechele 7
RBI: Buechele 51, Ogle 34, Weiss 29, Seitzer 28
R: Ogle 39, Weiss 30, Loy 30, Shepherd 29

The last line shows me that they're MUCH better than us at getting them on, over and in. Every other statistic, we dominate. They're a better small ball team, but we score in bunches. Against their staff, it's tough to score in bunches. We'll need to play MUCH more fundamental baseball.

[FirstAndGoalOU]

The SOONERS can do it again, have faith, BOOMER SOONER
clQWN7or9EU

[bufsa]

I know that they usualy don't have to use a reliever on Friday thats why I said outside of Friday. The way you beat Texas is you hold them past their starter. Anybody want to post what Texas's record is in extra inning games? They don't have great relievers. The do have a great closer, big differnce. Also Green is over sold. Detroits scouting report rates him as a middle reliever or number 5 pitcher at best. 88 to 91 fastball, average slider with good comand. Not a bad report but not somebody we cant beat. Also side note to Tumbleweed, why would you take anything I say serious to start with?

[C&CDean]

To hell with what should/could/oughta/probably will happen.

I expect us to win every ****ing game. I am very disappointed when we don't. This weekend will be no different. Should we sweep them? Of course not, based on history, we should be sent back up I-35 with our tails between our legs. Can we? Of course. It's baseball. Let's play the game. Yes, Texas has some hot **** pitchers, but last time I checked, they have skid marks in their drawels just like you guys do. Hell, even Bob Gibson got beat every so often.

God I hate Texas. Please let us win at least one...

[fwsooner22]

Milner was moved to the bullpen due to their lack of an effective left hander late in games. At least that is what he was told. I been there (DF Field) to see him pitch. Any of you who think he can be penciled in for a loss are, at best, dreaming. He would absolutely would be starting for us. Now, I hope he gets his a&& lit up whenever he pitches against us. I just think some of your are selling him short.

The times that he has had trouble are usually umpires with tight strike zones (he works wide thats his game) and when he can't get his change up over. One walk will usually be followed by a few more. I like the fact that game 2 starts at 11:30. At least that crowd won't be in a mid afternoon or evening frenzy. Great place to watch a game, but F' em.