Houston Astros Podcast – Speed Name of the AL Wild Card Game

Regardless, this could be one of the best games of the entire postseason, and it will be a treat to see who ultimately comes out victorious. It is one and done.

The Yankees will pitch Masahiro Tanaka while Houston will throw Dallas Keuchel on short rest.

“Nobody really gave us anything at the start of the year”.

He has also been considerably less impressive on the road this season, compared to at home. He finished the year with a 5-8 record and an ERA of 3.77 away from Minute Maid Park.

Gomez, who angered the Yankees with his demonstrative nature during the Astros series here in August, led off the fourth, first-ball swinging, and hit a high breaking pitch into the left field seats to make it 2-0. However, injuries and having to adjust to the majors have prevented him from performing like an ace consistently.

Tanaka (12-7, 3.51 ERA) will be making his USA playoff appearance.

As poor as the Astros were on the road, the Yankees weren’t much better at home. A few of the Astros’ key relievers – Oliver Perez, Pat Neshek and Chad Qualls – have struggled over the past week.

The Astros look one step beyond confident.

Gardner, Brian McCann, Chris Young and Girardi all had words with plate umpire Eric Cooper as Keuchel cruised through New York’s lineup for the third time this season. The left-hander is second in ERA, hits per nine innings and home runs per nine innings.

And then there’s controversial slugger Alex Rodriguez. When healthy Mark Teixeira is a gold-glove caliber first baseman, but he’s not healthy. “We come here to New York, play against one of the best teams in baseball, and we did it”. Pint-sized hit machine Jose Altuve is batting. But don’t think for a second that the Astros are just happy to be here.

Jake Marisnick and Colby Rasmus are both above average outfielders.

The Yankees play more traditional defense.

If Tanaka can hold a lead into the eighth inning, the Yankees should be in good position with Dellin Betances and Andrew Miller handling the back-end of New York’s stellar bullpen. That number dwindled to a still unsightly 92 last season, and the expectation coming into April was that the young Astros were still at least another year, if not more, from returning to contention.

After all that losing, this was one October win to remember. With the way their offense has been going lately, the Yankees will need Tanaka to be at the top of his game and keep the score close. However, Toronto’s odds did slightly improve from last week when they were listed as 4/1 favorites. Girardi would not say whether there would be alcohol in the clubhouse after the game should the Yankees win.

The Astros are an American League team, but they’ve got the type of versatile bench that is normally associated with National League squads. Gardner and Ellsbury may only be 32, but they play aggressively and get banged up. Houston went with INF Matt Duffy and switch-hitting INF Jonathan Villar.