Dae Bets previews the ALCS between the Yankees and Astros. With the Astros Pitching dismantled from the last series with Rays the Yankees could roll.
New York Yankees vs Houston Astros
Date & Time: October 12th, 2019, 8:08 PM (EST)
Location (Game 1): Minute Maid Park, Houston, Texas
Line: Astros: -175 (To win series)
TV Channel: FOX
Astros Pitching advantage?
At first glance, I am very surprised this isn’t a pick-em series. I could see the Astros being a heavy favorite in a world where the Rays didn’t make them give their all in hard-fought five-game series. The main upside that the Astros had was Pitching and that could be gone. In the five-game series against the Rays Gerrit Cole had to pitch twice and was phenomenal, he is the one bright sure thing in this Astros pitching lineup. On a side note, Cole’s streak of 10k games is still alive and I expect it to continue. Verlander tried to pitch on short rest and got destroyed. Doesn’t look like father time will agree with Verlander on short rest so I doubt the Astros try that again. This could even have lingering effects on his arm and overall confidence, only time will tell. As for Zach Greinke… He is TERRIBLE in the postseason. Through 9 series he has a 4.58 ERA. In his last three postseason games started, his ERA was as follows 9.82, 5.40, 14.73… Their so-called pitching advantage was washed by the Rays and Yankees are the perfect team to expose that. In terms of bullpen
Astros top 3:
Gerrit Cole 2.50 ERA
Justin Verlander 2.58 ERA
Zack Greinke 3.20 ERA
Yankees top 3:
James Paxton 3.82 ERA
Luis Severino 1.50 ERA (only 12 innings pitched)
Masahiro Tanaka 4.45 ERA
Power Bats vs. Power Bats
These two teams have been atop the batting statistics all season long. The Astros are ranked 1st with a .274 average while the Yankees are 4th holding a .267 batting average. As expected the Yankees to have about 20 more home runs than the Astros courtesy of that small home ballpark. Something that catches my interest is the Yankees do have a 5% higher K rate. One disadvantage to the Yankees is that they do not have
Top batting averages this postseason
Gleyber Torres .417
Didi Gregorius .400
Alex Bregman .353
Jose Altuve .350
Aaron Judge .333
Yuli Gurriel .316
The Bottom Line
I firmly believe that the Astros pitchers will be tired. The Yankees sweep in the ALDS gives them such a huge advantage. Their pitchers are all rested and ready to take on this tough Astros line up lead by Bregman, Altuve, and Springer. The Yankees bats are just unbelievable. Edwin Encarnacion bats 8th sometimes in this bomb squad line and you’re telling the two best pitchers on the Astros are tired while the third can’t seem to find it in the postseason. The Astros do have home field but I don’t see how they win this series. I expect to hear a lot of “and there it
Pick – Yankees in 6 +145 @Draftkings
