Remember 2017? Specifically remember Game 6 of the World Series in 2017? The Astros had torn the Dodgers’ hearts out with an insane win 13-12 in Game 5. They needed a road win behind their ace Justin Verlander to take the series. Sound familiar?
In both that game and Game 5 of the 2019 ALCS they gave Verlander an early 1-0 lead. In both games, the offense shut down and generated no more runs. In both games, Verlander had one inning where he gave up runs and in both games, they lost – 3-1 in 2017 and 4-1 on Friday night.
A big difference is that this time the Astros head home for the next game and in fact that they have two home games to vanquish the enemy.
Going home up 3-2 is not a best-case scenario, but winning 2 of 3 in NYC after getting swept there in 2017 is at least a very good scenario.
The opposing starters for Saturday night’s games have not been announced, but it is likely that all arms are on deck for both teams in Game 6. Will the Yanks start Luis Severino on short rest coming off an injury? Not likely. Will the Astros start Gerrit Cole on short rest when the guy has not lost in forever? Less likely.
Hopefully, the Astros offense will come alive in their home stadium. The Astros have lost when they only scored 0 and 1 runs. They’ve won when they scored 3, 4 and 8 runs. They need a game where the offense leads the way and gives the pitching staff some breathing room like it did in Game 4.
The Astros played hard to the finish line of the regular season in order to earn home-field advantage. Now it’s time to cash in that advantage.
CHIPALATTA 
Someone mentioned a replay of the game today. If that’s correct, can you let me know time/station? thx.
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3 pm Central time on MLB Network. Channel 213 on Direct TV.
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Thanks, OP. That means I can’t see it. The win was enough. Blessings on Mrs OP’s surgery.
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OP, they discussed YA on MLB, his collapsing his backside,resulting in making him late on his swing. He looked completely overmatched & overwhelmed in the ALCS, consistently found himself in 0-2, 1-2 holes before SO or hitting weak outs. How do they fix the kid? Early every AB he’s fed grapefruits down the pipe & he sits on that 1st pitch nearly every time. It’s hard to question his success in the reg season but the playoffs is another monster. Be nice to see YA make them pay because afterwards he’ll never get a decent pitch to hit unless he catches a mistake. The tm needs his bat in the lineup & for him to adjust rather quickly.
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In my opinion, the problem is not in his swing. It’s in his head. His swing has nothing to do with him taking strikes and swinging at balls.
He’s been in a slump for several weeks and all guys go through it. It’s just that the playoffs are an incredibly hard time to break out of a slump because you are never facing bad pitchers.
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The Astros essentially won the ALCS without a DH. But it was a wash, as Encarnacion was just as bad. Yordan might not hit until next year, but I’m pretty sure we’ll see him in the line up on Tuesday. And I think he’ll do something important over the next week or ten days.
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I don’t even pretend to be a hitting coach, but if I were one my instructions to Yordan: “Don’t get cheated. Take 3 healthy swings for every at bat until you have reason to take a pitch.”
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Talking about pitchers. The Nats have a pretty good three head lineup of their own who also gives them length, which means that BP mess we saw with the Rays & NY ‘should’ be minimal. I’m not a big fan of DH vs no DH & am at an impasse on the league going one way or the other. Not a fan of watching pitchers hit though some can. Lastly, the Nats offense had a field day, not just beating the Cards into submission, but POKING hits over their shifts, trying to go oppo with soft liners. No tm shifts more than we do. How will we adjust if they are successful doing that to us?
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OldSchool63, this really should be an excellent series of starting pitching match ups. One thing I think we have going for us in comparison to the Cards is that we led the league in K’s, St. Louis was 15th. So hopefully the Nats offense will not be putting as many balls in play.
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Has anybody heard anything about Pressly’s status for the WS?
Anybody think s Alvarez needs to sit out, and give switch-hitting Toro a chance?
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Pressly is likely to be ready. Scar tissue was expected, he said when it jarred loose, the pain scared him. But he is day-to-day. The question there is if he’s roster’d, and then after his first outing is “re-injured”, he can be replaced by another pitcher (Framber/Devo).
There’s about a .000031% chance Toro replaces Yordan, or anyone else for that matter. A rookie facing the best pitching in baseball, be patient. he’s not a “head case.,” he’s having trouble vs sequencing. Too green yet to know what pitchers will throw. I’m hoping Cintron, Diaz and Yuli can help him be better prepared.
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I think BOTH of our catchers should return next year. Watching Sanchez literally screw up time after time…..made me really appreciate Chirinos and Maldonado. The defense on this team is UNBELIEVABLE…those two balls Reddick and Brantley got to would have had the Yankees celebrating instead of us. I think I’ve watched Altuve’s homrun 50 times… it never gets old! My grandsons had to take out very early yesterday morning, but got home (Memphis) in time to watch the game at home! These guys are playing as one, Verlander put it best…”we have an unbelievable clubhouse, everyone loves each other, and we know we have a job to do everyday”!
*Mr. Bill Pressly says he will be in there to start the series.
* Hinch is going to keep Yordan in there….he knows how sensitive Yordan is, and doesn’t want to crush his sprit. I would LOVE to use Tucker or Toro, but it ain’t my call.
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So Bill Pressly is resdy but what about Ryan? Haha
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Don’t forget the Yankees love for Sanchez gave us McCann and a bunch of his salary.
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I read somewhere that Sanchez has been on the Tyler White diet all year.
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Defensively, I think the Yankees were ranked about 18th. It showed. And our guys showed too. It was the difference.
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It’s the middle of the night. I just woke up. Hopefully I’ll sleep again. But Yordan will be heard from. He’s still the new kid we’ve seen so much from. Let’s not forget what he’s given us already.
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Just letting y’all know I am working on a new post for later today
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