After defeating the Yankees last night in a climatic Game 5 victory, the Rays will move from the ALDS almost directly into the American League Championship Series, beginning Sunday night in San Diego. The Rays announced that left-hander Blake Snell will be on the mound to start Game 1 against the Astros, making it three postseason series openers in a row for the former AL Cy Young Award winner.
Snell started Game 1 of the Rays’ wild card series with the Blue Jays, earning the win after tossing 5 2/3 shutout innings. It was a different story in Game 1 of the ALDS, as New York struck for four runs (three on solo homers) in five innings of work against Snell, who allowed six hits and two walks while striking out four batters.
That outing marked Snell’s only ALDS appearance, so he’ll head into Sunday’s game on five full days of rest. The extra day has generally benefited Snell during his career, as he has a 2.78 ERA, 2.94 K/BB rate, and 10.7 K/9 in 44 career starts on five days’ rest, as opposed to a 3.72 ERA in 43 career starts on the normal four days’ rest.
The Astros didn’t excel against left-handed pitching this season, finishing 20th of 30 teams in wRC+ (94) and slugging percentage (.403), 22nd in batting average (.232), and 26th in OBP (.299) against southpaws in 2020. Of course, the playoffs have been a much different story for Houston’s offense, as the Astros have been tearing the cover off the ball over six games against the Twins and Athletics. The Astros’ postseason OPS against lefties (.846) is actually higher than their OPS against right-handers (.836).
While no announcement has yet been made, Charlie Morton seems like the logical candidate to start Game 2 for the Rays. Morton started Game 3 of the ALDS on Wednesday, and thus be lined up for Game 2 of the ALCS on regular rest.
Shocker
Rays fan, Yankees fan, Pirate fan, Mariner fan….doesn’t matter, last night was one of the great games I’ve ever seen (and I went to high school with Abner Doubleday). Complete with the unlikeliest of heroes. A little more traffic on the bases, maybe, but it was still great.
Proof positive what Walter O’Malley said was true: “No matter what the owners do, they can’t kill this game”.
I once leant Abner Doubleday my slide rule to figure out his batting average.
You must be VERY young. Even as a Yankee fan, there are better, more exciting Yankee losses… even in the past decade. This was actually one of the lesser exciting ones i’ve seen my lifetime.
Heck, 2019’s Game 6 against the Astros was more exciting, even if it wasn’t win or take all.
But you REALLY want a great Yankee win-or-take-all losses, check out Game 7 of the 2001 World Series.
Hey Wiffle! It’s “Win or go home!” or “Winner takes all!” of a number of other sayings, but NEVER win or take all!
yeah i had to read that part out loud to myself. I hope he’s using speech to text or something
Have a look at Brosseau’s at bat, in particular on 0-2 Chapman’s 3rd pitch of the sequence, it was a split finger change up and Hudson called it ball 1.. He called that a strike all night long and was giving at least an inch on the corners and also at the top and bottom of the ‘zone’. As they say, baseball is a game of inches, but on that pitch Chapman got cheated in a BIG way.
Or, even better, Game 7 of the 1960 World Series
Free agency almost has ruined baseball more than anything else. The Yankees just proved money cannot buy happiness.
I don’t think it’s free agency as much as the socialistic cap program implemented to balance the playing field. It’s not gone up nearly as much as salaries thus limiting teams like the Yankees.
Either way, Rays were the better team. Congratulations to the Rays and their fans! It’s an exciting time for them and I hope they go all the way. They played a great postseason thus far and their pitching was very good outside of game 1.
Two bad takes in a row. Free agency almost ruined baseball? Competitive balance ruined baseball? Come on
Game 7 of the 91 world series beat last night by a damn mile.
The 1903 game 8 against Pittsburgh was a gasser.
LOL…never said it was the “greatest” ( a metric that by its nature is subjective), just that it was great.
No that game was just more salt in the wound to Pirates fans. Hopefully Baz will join Glasnow and Meadows in the bigs soon.
Go Rays!
I think everyone outside of Houston is saying the same thing! As a Yankee fan, I was rooting for the Rays last night because it’s become clear that the Rays could beat the Astros, but I was less certain about the streaky Yankees.
I’m not an Astros fan and I live in Illinois.
Go Houston! Would love to see Greinke get a ring while dunking on the boring bros making the same tired trash can jokes
Go ‘Stros!
The Asterisks have the advantage of more rest time before the next series. This last game was almost like a WC game.
Go Rays! Way to beat the overrated and overpaid Yankees!
I still say Rays have the edge. Houston beat two teams who always lose in the postseason.
How does the history of the past 15-20 years effect this years teams?
That’s like saying the Astros are beating the Rays because the Rays have never been to the WS. Or worse because they beat the Rays last year.
Neither has anything to do with this season.
I think of the remaining teams the teams in nl look to be a step above Tampa and astros. Hopeful if dodgers can get pass the Braves they can beat astros or rays.
I tend to agree (except the hoping the braves lose part.) I think the Dodgers have the best roster in MLB. Don’t sleep on the devil rays though, they can be sneaky and it’s hard to plan against them because they are always shaking things up. Also the Astros seem to have postseason magic.
They do seem so be outpacing there regular season production for sure. Getting hot at the right time and pitching has stepped up. A’s were pretty overrated in my opinion but twins were a quality team on both sides of the ball and got smoked. Pulling for rays though.
You bet man, pulling for the rays all the way. I’m looking forward to the braves and Dodgers game. Should be fun, I like the Dodgers too because our family is pretty close to Rick Honeycutt. So I’ll be pulling for y’all if we lose!
Wow the way the Astros are tearing it up must mean that they are cheating again. After all that is why the won before. Just maybe, all that self righteous judgmental media hype made everybody feel better but in reality if your good your good. I realize certain behavior has to be checked. And with technology taking over our lives rules have to be made to checkmate violations of the basic integrity of the game.
I have problems placing so much credibility to the idea that what they did was why they won. Catcher puts sign down, starts his windup, releases the ball and it arrives in the catchers glove in less then two seconds. Meanwhile the garbage lid makes a noise, batter is now to process what type of pitch is coming all while he is concentrating on the pitcher’s arm. He then is supposed to be able to swing, knowing the approximate area the pitch will arrive at. Is able to confirm in his mind all of this and then swing accordingly. All done in less than two seconds. In fact it takes about 3 fifths of a second to arrive from the moment of release.
Yes let’s tighten up the rules, but what makes this whole affair hypocritical is the realization all the teams use every trick in the book. The Yankees admin they used video to decode signs but claim to have stopped short of the garbage cans.
If you’re good, you don’t need to cheat. They still cheated, no matter how good they do in 2020.