A MAJOR HIRE

Texas A&M gets the man it wanted in Jimbo Fisher

Fred Faour
Dec 2, 2017, 6:18 pm
It's an exciting time for Texas A&M and Jimbo Fisher. Tomahawknation.com

Texas A&M has made the biggest splash possible when they officially hired Jimbo Fisher.

Fisher won a national championship with Jameis Winston in 2013 and went 83-23 at Florida State. Fisher is a grand slam hire for the Aggies, who desperately want to compete with Alabama and LSU in the SEC West. Fisher’s record at Florida State is impeccable. He won at least 10 games in six of his eight seasons, winning nine once and just six this year. He made the playoffs twice. He took over a top-level program from Bobby Bowden and kept it at a high level.

Does that make the Aggies instant contenders? Maybe not. Coaching changes do not always work. But if Fisher is the right guy, A&M has every advantage in place for Fisher to succeed. Besides his 10-year, $75 million dollar deal, Fisher has money to hire top assistants, has top-flight facilities and is set up to thrive.

Obviously, this is a great hire for the Aggies. But will it work? Fisher is moving to the toughest division in college football, and will have to match wits with Nick Saban every year. The ACC is no joke, but it is top heavy with FSU, Clemson, Louisville and Virginia Tech. Fisher was able to feast on a lot of weaklings in the ACC. That won't happen at A&M.

But if you are Texas A&M, you make this move any day of the week. The Aggies believe they should be able to compete with the best, and there simply aren’t that many national championship level coaches out there. Fisher is one of them. The money is almost immaterial; A&M is printing dollars.

It’s a great time in College Station. The Aggies have made an amazing splash, and the future is as exciting as it has ever been at A&M.

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Maldonado had a big homer

Astros ride a big inning to win over Mariners to even series

Photo by Bob Levey/Getty Images

After the Mariners came alive late in Monday's series opener to hand the Houston the loss and keep their playoff picture hanging in the balance, the Astros returned to T-Mobile Park on Tuesday to try and decrease their magic number. Here's how the middle game went:

Final Score: Astros 6, Mariners 1.

Record: 28-27, second in the AL West.

Winning pitcher: Framber Valdez (5-3, 3.57 ERA).

Losing pitcher: Casey Sadler (1-2, 5.40 ERA).

Both teams trade first-inning runs

The Astros struck first in Tuesday's game, not waiting around until the ninth inning to get on the board. Instead, they jumped out to an immediate 1-0 lead after a two-out RBI-single by Kyle Tucker in the top of the first. The Mariners responded quickly, though, getting a leadoff single in the bottom of the inning before a two-out RBI-double of their own to tie it 1-1.

Astros score five in the sixth

The 1-1 score held all the way until the top of the sixth when the Astros would flip the script from the night prior, taking advantage of some mistakes by Seattle to put up a big inning. First, Michael Brantley started the inning with a solo go-ahead homer to make it 2-1. Then, Kyle Tucker would get his third hit of the night with one out before eventually scoring after a walk and two wild pitches, making it 3-2. With two walks to keep the inning alive and put some insurance runs on base, Martin Maldonado took advantage with a big three-run home run to extend the lead to 6-1.

Valdez finishes seven strong, Astros even series

After allowing the one run in the bottom of the first, Framber Valdez recovered and put together a solid outing on the mound. He allowed just five hits total, two of which came in the first, then back-to-back singles in the fourth and a single in the fifth, while otherwise keeping the Mariners at bay. He would end up completing seven innings of one-run baseball while striking out eight. His final line: 7.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 8 K, 0 HR, 108 P.

After Valdez, Enoli Paredes would take over in the bottom of the eighth, working around a leadoff single to get a scoreless inning to keep it 6-1. In the non-save situation, Josh James would come in for the bottom of the ninth and finish off the win for Houston.

Up Next: The finale and rubber game of this three-game set will start a bit earlier on Wednesday, with first pitch scheduled for 5:40 PM Central. The pitching matchup will be Nick Margevicius (1-3, 5.35 ERA) for the Mariners going against Zack Greinke (3-2, 3.90 ERA) for the Astros.

astros recap astros score mariners recap mariners score astros vs mariners mlb mlb recap framber valdez kyle tucker martin maldonado astros

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