American League Division Series Preview: Houston Astros vs. Kansas City Royals

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Schedule (best of five): Friday at Kansas City (FS1), Sunday at Houston (MLBN); If necessary: Monday at Houston (Fox, FS1 or SNET), Wednesday at Kansas City (Fox, FS1 or SNET). The Royals are in the playoffs for the second time in 30 years after advancing to the World Series last year. Scott Kazmir held the Royals scoreless a day after being acquired by the Astros, while Jeremy Guthrie was about as effective as could be expected at this point in the season. “Last year we weren’t guaranteed to play besides just the one game”. “But they’re also a team that has a lot of talent, so we have to go out there and play the same game we’ve been playing all season”. Volquez gave up five runs on eight hits but didn’t take the decision in a 6-5 Astros win in Houston on July 1. Houston moved on to face the reigning pennant winners, the top-seeded Kansas City Royals beginning with Game 1 of the American League Division Series on Thursday night at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City. “You come to the field, play hard and see what happens”.

On the offensive side, Shin-Soo Choo led all AL hitters in September with a. 404 average and 26 runs scored, while Adrian Beltre had 61 RBI in 74 games after the All-Star break. Their team batting average this year was.

But before World Series talk there’s still the task of taking the American League Division Series against the Houston Astros.

The Astros have proved that they pretty much live by the long ball. The Astros would seem likely to start the 19-game victor Collin McHugh in the opener, with Keuchel on track for Game 3 in Houston, where he was 15-0 this season. Ventura’s ERA was a bit over 4.00 this season and he won four of his last seven starts overall including his last start, which went seven innings in a victory over Minnesota. Ventura was 7-1 with a 2.38 ERA over his final 11 starts, with 81 strikeouts in 68 innings. General manager Dayton Moore placed an emphasis on solid starting pitching, a tough bullpen and the kind of speedy, stingy defense that is in many ways a throwback to a bygone era, when teams had to scratch out runs.

A big question mark is the Astros bullpen.

Major League players – and coaches, for that matter – can feel slighted, too. The bullpen was excellent against the Yankees in the wild-card game, with Tony Sipp, Will Harris and Luke Gregerson retiring nine of the 10 batters they faced, so perhaps they have turned things around. Otherwise, it will be up to Eric Hosmer, Mike Moustakas, Lorenzo Cain, Alex Gordon, and Ben Zobrist to outgun the surprising Astros. In two of them – one third of the games! – the Royals could not scratch a run across the plate.

The Astros traded right-hander Daniel Mengden and catcher Jacob Nottingham to Oakland for Kazmir, a hometown kid whom they had pursued in free agency.