It will be Gerrit Cole against Tyler Glasnow in tomorrow’s deciding Game 5 of the ALDS matchup between the Yankees and Rays. New York recorded a 5-1 win in Game 4 tonight to force the winner-take-all contest on Friday at Petco Park (the Rays will be the designated home team).
It isn’t any shock that Cole will get the call for the Yankees’ biggest game of the season. Signed to a nine-year, $324MM free agent deal last winter, Cole lived up to that ace billing in the regular season and is 2-0 in two playoff starts. The home run issues that plagued Cole during the season have again been something of an issue in the postseason, as he has surrendered three long balls in 13 innings of 3.46 ERA pitching during these playoffs.
Two of those homers came in Game 1 of the ALDS, though Cole held on for a quality start in allowing three runs on six hits and two walks over six innings of work, while recording eight strikeouts. Counting the regular season, Game 5 will be the fifth time the Rays have faced Cole in 2020. It will also mark the first time in Cole’s eight-year career that he has started a game on only three days’ rest, though it’s safe to assume manager Aaron Boone will have his entire cadre of pitchers available should Cole run into any early struggles.
The same tactic will almost surely apply for Glasnow and the Rays, as Glasnow will start on just two days’ rest after pitching five innings in Game 2 (allowing four runs on three hits and three walks, with 10 strikeouts). Given the even shorter amount of time between games for Glasnow, he might also be a candidate for a quick hook from Rays manager Kevin Cash. It is also possible Glasnow could be less a proper starter and more of a glorified opener, as Tampa Bay would be pleased to get as many innings as they can from Glasnow before turning things over to their deep bullpen.
Glasnow will probably throw 3, at most 4. Rays have a rested Castillo, Anderson and Fairbanks. Hope we have a good Game 5. May the best team win.
Tomorrow’s game should be one of the more interesting game fives in awhile. The Rays are the better team, I am a Yanks fan, but I thought going in that if it went to five the Yanks would have the advantage with Cole. No matter who wins, they better beat the lights out of the Astros. Although it would be funny to see the most hated team win the WS after finishing below .500.
I would like to point out the irony of a Yanks fan talking about the most hated team in baseball. But hey, it’s 2020.
Right now I think it’s safe to say the Astros are the most hated team.
2020 indeed.
I have to concur on that.
I love the Astros.
I don’t think it’s fair to say the rays are the better team over a 60 game sample size. In regards to the Astros going 29-31, for example, the dodgers started off 30-30 in the first 60 games of the 2018 season and won their division with a 92-70 record. Point is that a lot can happen over the long course of a 162 game season. Who’s to say that the yankees wouldn’t have won the division, or the Astros wouldn’t have caught up to the A’s when their bats started clicking.
The head to head match up tells you that the Rays are the better team. The 60 game record merely confirms that. Sorry
Not when you consider the Yankees are now healthy after having injuries all year.
Gerrit already already lost his head!
Yep, in a real season the Astros wouldn’t have been under .500, the Jays and Marlins wouldn’t have made the playoffs. Even as an Astros fan, I despise this season. In 2005 the Astros started the seasons 15-30 and won the NL pennant.
Astros beat the two most losing postseason teams in the last twenty years to get where they are.
Doesn’t anybody else see the perfect baseball drama of the Astros potentially having to beat the Yankees and Dodgers to win the World Series?
Quit complaining about their 29-31 record—heck the Nationals were 19-31 at one point last season. 19-31!!! That’s a far cry from 29-31.
Let the baseball drama play out.
Please note I am solidly pulling for the Rays and Braves, but would truly love the story line of the Astros.
More than that has happened to the Astros this season to get where they are, but sure let’s look at the short-term
Stop talking about what teams have done for the past 20 years. It has zero relevance in 2020. Both of those teams were really good.
The Athletics were good. If you want to look short term though, both A’s and Twins haven’t gotten far the last three years. But the Twins played in the worst division and always have a team that does well in the regular season but never in the postseason, due to lack of star players.
I never said the Astros weren’t good. I just don’t see them beating the Yankees or Ray’s without Verlander.
If the Twins played in the East, I bet the Blue Jay’s would have a better record than they do.
Yanks have the advantage because Manfred wants them to win and is a known Yankee fan. It guarantees they get a favorable WS no matter what.
It also guarantees they don’t get investigated for sign stealing despite numerous people coming out against them
Lol… Angry Kids
You clearly haven’t been watching the games. Not at all trying to say the calls lost games 2 and 3 for the yanks (they clearly did that on their own with their lack of clutch hits and inability to get a shut down inning) but hard to say the calls were in their favor this series. Been several pretty blatant balls that were called strikes and seemed disproportionately against the Yankees…
Here! Here!
Thanks for that last thought-that team is the Yankees.
Early Saturday tee times for the Rays
As another joe who has watched postseason games supporting his team, I recommend anyone watching the postseaso and supporting a team in Game 5 do one of two things.
1. Don’t think of the team as being a part of yourself. Taking things personally that are not occurring to your person can result in extreme amounts of stress, sinking depression, and/or high levels of arrogance. Take it nice and easy and enjoy the game.
2. Put your team on your emotional sleeve and sew it in. Make this game a part of your very being so that maybe, just maybe, you can bring up recollections of that game with a “Back when I was a kid…” moment. Totally worth it.
I love this post lol
Me too.
Love it , I always find funny and stupid when a “fan” calls a team “my team” , it’s not your team , is the team that u root for ! Don’t take it too seriously , it’s just a game , player will go home and enjoy life with their families while “fans” will be trying to fights the opposite team “fans” ! Relax people
I’ve contributed more than a few thousand dollars over the years, so I can call them my team if I want to. If getting wrapped up in semantics makes you feel good, go for it.
Sure sure ! It’s your team !
I find it funny and stupid that people object to fans using an idiom or a turn of phrase to describe a local sports team/bar/restaraunt/library etc. Don’t take people so seriously, it’s just a way to connect to other humans with a common interest. Life in this country is already polarizing we don’t need another reason to distance ourselves from our ‘neighbors.’
With, @bhambrave on this one.
However.
I have about 40 articles for outdoor magazines or so, in various stages of completion.
If you are looking for someone who actually would like some help editing, @larmondo I’m your dude.
😉
It’s very unlikely they will leave Glasnow in for 3 innings on just two days rest. He will probably pitch one or two innings, tops.
If the Yankees win, only one team with a top 5 record will have made the LCS. What a meaningless season, even more pointless than usual.
If the Yankees and Dodgers win, then you’d have two Division winners and two second place teams. What’s so weird about that?
Well, there’s a team under .500 in the LCS, that’s definitely weird. Secondly the Yankees didn’t play that well and would have missed the playoffs in the old format.
It doesn’t feel like the season mattered at all, even less so than during a normal season. Teams being saved by a watered down playoff format doesn’t mean they were good.
I’m pretty sure they all played by the same rules and had equal shots. If MLB decides to crown a champ that should be good enough. A “real” regular season also has arbitrary rules.
The yankees would’ve been the 2nd Wild card with the old format
You’re a joke. You have to win MORE games this year than ever before
A’s are down Chapman. That’s a huge reason why they’re out
You had best record v 3rd best in Tx. They have a great two games before tonight. Only one can make it…
Just curious, @changedname.
Did your team make the playoffs.
(blinkblink)
I’m not an Astros fan, but in their defense, they battled injuries all year long and are finally healthy (excluding Verlander and Alvarez).
The team we are seeing in the playoffs is not the same team the Angels swept 4 games in September. Had Bregman (42 games), Altuve (48), Brantley (46), Springer (51) and Alvarez (2) played 54ish games apiece, their record probably would have been over .500.
Or maybe teams like the A’s, Indians, and Twins should stop choking
@Fred the Twins and Indians can keep choking forever as far as I’m concerned, but yeah, what’s up A’s?
Too much dependence on scoring via the Home Run and they ran into a hot hitting SS in Corea. Also, their bullpen got a little exposed during their series with the Stros!
A’s can only afford all or nothing batters.
Don’t be surprised if first man out of Rays pen is Snell
That’s what I’m saying.
Glasnow on two days rest after 93 pitches?
Foolish.
He will act more like an Opener, as I said, don’t be surprised if Snell follows
It’s a due or die game. Everyone should be available
Doesn’t he have the newest ligament?
love the name
Go Astros Go
It’s great how everyone keeps minimizing what the Astros are doing right now by talking about the lack of postseason success by the teams they have beaten so far. The fact that both the A’s and Twins have had trouble winning in October over the past 10-15 years has almost nothing to do with them losing to Houston this year. But keep on hating everybody, it only makes us stronger. Houston Strong!!!
You claim “everyone”
But you replied to a pro Houston comment and there’s not a single Astro blast in this thread. Smh
Why do we keep running into yours and a few other comments about the Astros in a Yankees v Rays thread? Its a bit obnoxious….they played a good series and await the winner….but lots can happen in baseball going from series to series!
Uh, not too sure about that @harden,etc.
Astros* still have a lot of talented players, man. Sure…they had a little help from their friends.
😉
I really don’t see anyone saying… well, *anything* at *all* about the Astros*.
Well…*you* are.
I really feel for Astros* fans, man.
I do.
All that history of failure & outright ineptitude & you *finally* win it all.
Merely to have the fan bases of all 29 other teams discount their “accomplishment”.
I definitely can see how that would negatively effect a – shall we say – certain type of person/fan.
Keep your head up, tiger. In a hundred years – or whatever – it’ll – more or less – be forgotten.
😉
I did say that but A’s are no joke. I give them credit there. Twins on the other hand…
I still say either Yankees or Tampa beat the Astros.
Yankees
Cole on short rest too. I called it before yankees moving on too much fire power for rays. Don’t like astros or yankees so it will be a tough pill to swallow if we lose to either
Gonna be interesting and yes the conclusion is a series early. But.. The AL is playing in SoCal with ball flying
In TX, the dodgers hit 1 HR in a 3 game sweep. You gotta play differently in Tx, will be interesting to see if AL team can adjust quickly in World Series
I am worried about how much the Yanks need to lean on Cole. I mean, I get it- they barely have anything beyond him this season. Tanaka is good but can offer some super sized meatball pitches for homers and such. No Severino, no German -assuming they don’t DFA him or he’s not a shadow of his former potential.
Then again a lot of WS winners have leaned hard on one or two key pitchers. It happens. Crazy the Yankees are this deep into the post with all their issues this season.
I hope Cole’s arm holds up and the Yanks’ offense makes it easier for him, because…. it honestly feels like we’re a one pitcher team at the moment, in some ways.
As a baseball fan, it’s good to see a game five elimination game. It’s also nice to see baseball on the weekend. As a Braves fan, it sucked having to try to watch the game in the middle of the work week.
God no not the Yankees please. My wife says the obly reason they ate even playing is bc the League office is pro-Yankees and they thought they’d win it all this year and didn’t want to miss that opportunity. Can’t say I think she is wrong!
Well, @Redsticth, I get it.
As a fella that’s gone through a few divorces I have no problem speaking the truth.
As in; your wife is completely wrong on this.
Uh?
God no not the Yankees please. My wife says the only reason they are even playing this shortened joke season is bc the League office is pro-Yankees and they thought they’d win it all this year and didn’t want to miss that opportunity. Can’t say I think she is wrong!
“the League office is pro-Yankees”. That is the most ridiculous statement yet. Tin foil hat conspiracy alert.
The league is so pro-Yankee that they’ve been in one World Series since losing in 2003 and none since 2009.
The ratings for this game in Pittsburgh will be very low. Who needs to be reminded how much carnage Pirates owner Bob Nutting and his lackeys have done.
Yep! I’m rooting for the Rays, but I am not watching it.
No comment about how 2 former pirate pitchers are going against each other? They came from the team that has the number 1 pick next summer and no mention of it… hmmm.
This shut down season let astros avoid their public flogging as they would have traveled around country. All the venom is gone. Dudes are hitting bombs…without trash cans.
Cole has to be feeling the pressure. This situation is why he got the big bucks. The mighty Yankees with huge revenue against the low payroll Rays , Should be a great game. The Dodgers are where they often find themselves, in the thick of the postseason. They have been to 20 World Series in they’re history and won only 6. Maybe this will be their year. How about an Astros-Dodgers rematch?
A quality start is 3 earned runs in 6 innings? That is an ERA of 4.50. Not much quality there. It is just MLB lowering the standards for the modern day player so they can find some kind of statistic to praise today’s poor starting pitching. The writers should hang their heads in shame for this kind of praise. The same goes for my earlier rants about .300 hitters considered meaningless I think 2 ER in 6 IP would be more of a quality start. Would you want all of your starters finishing the year with a 4.50 ERA? Not a complaint towards Cole, just the definition of a quality start. It is difficult to find support for the outrageous salaries. Mediocrity rules professional baseball these days.
The QS has been a stat for a long time and it’s always been the same standard. 6 IP and 3 ER or less.
Find another hill to die on man
So you would be happy if every starter on your favorite team, or all teams for that matter, end up with a quality ERA of4.50. I have questioned that stat since the mid 80’s. On a positive note, you would make a great agent for pitchers with your poor judgement of quality as you see mediocrity as the standard. The stat was created by a Philadelphia sportswriter, so obviously it has no credibility. You probably enjoy moldy hamburger buns as well. There aren’t very good, but you can still eat them.
Die on that hill.
The ball is Juiced. Dodgers stadium does not play that small. I haven’t watched games from the new stadium, but the A’s v Astros had outfielders chasing balls the wall , only to look up and see it land 10 rows back
Could you imagine baseball without the juiced ball? There would be hundreds of .240 hitters who would no longer be a home run threat, but at least they could draw a walk. Well, maybe.