That was an optimal result for the Astros out of the Yankees-Dodgers series. Looked around and found the tiebreakers if the WS teams are tied. 1) Head to head (so the Yankees have that over the Dodgers) 2) Divisional records (Yankees and Astros both have better divisional records than the Dodgers, by quite a bit; right now, Astros 42-15, Dodgers 36-18) 3) Intraleague records (Dodgers lead here)
The Yankees may catch a break down the stretch. Luis Severino is rumored to be getting close to making his season debut. Dellin Betances may make his season debut in mid September which would be huge. And Jordan Montgomery, a LH starter may be close to making his season debut off the DL.
Mike Ford is a rookie they brought up from AAA when Luke Voit went on the DL. He was hitting .300 there. Pretty decent defense and obviously has the power but one of the slowest runners I have ever seen. Because the Yankees have had 31 players on the DL this year, they now go about 40 deep with battle tested players.
Tonights matchup is Verlander vs Charlie Morton who I am sure the Astros wish they wouldn't have let him get away after last season. But then hindsight is always 20-20. Charlie has had an excellent season for the Ray's and would have looked great in the Astros rotation.
Buehler stopped the Dodgers mini-losing skid. That guy is just ridiculous. The Dodgers also stopped swinging for the porches and took to real baseball in a smashing defeat of the Padres.
Interesting article in The Athletic (subscription only) on net hits vs. the shift. It focuses on McNeil, the Mets amazing rookie, who "hits grounders and liners to the left of second base 32 percent of the time when shifted and 20 percent of the time when played straight up." There's a lot of great information about individual players' tendencies and impact vs. the shift, but I can't copy the entire article. Here are two tables highlighting net success and net "failure" vs. the shift: Largest net gain of base hits on grounders and liners when shifted: Charlie Blackmon Rockies 8 Jeff McNeil Mets 7 Nicholas Castellanos Cubs 6 Kolten Wong Cardinals 6 Marcus Semien Athletics 5 Trevor Story Rockies 5 Tony Wolters Rockies 5 Jonathan Villar Orioles 5 Brock Holt Red Sox 5 Brandon Dixon Tigers 5 >> Net gain = hits gained minus hits lost. Largest net loss of hits on grounders and liners when shifted: Freddie Freeman Braves 13 Daniel Vogelbach Mariners 12 Brandon Belt Giants 12 Matt Olson Athletics 12 Todd Frazier Mets 11 Bryce Harper Phillies 11 Josh Bell Pirates 11 Jay Bruce Phillies 10 José Ramírez Indians 10
Part of the offensive counter to the 'shift' is the launch angle of the ball. Players are simply trying to lift the ball over the shift now and we've seen an increase in HRs. Personally, I detest the shift. There's merit to it, until the guy just drags the barrel and goes the other way.
Cleveland has been hurt by injuries all year. They're formidable and deep, but injuries to the best players have a major impact. The Dodgers lost Muncy this week with a fractured wrist.
No no for Justin Verlander. Complete game. Only Koufax and Ryan have more, Ryan has 7 and Koufax has 4
bullpen worries continue for the Astros. Closer blows a game for Gerrit Cole...luckily Springer got it back in the top of the 10th.
MLB debut for Gavin Lux, who finished his AAA season batting .398. He hit the first pitch for a clean base hit and finished 2-5. Those young Dodgers who come up through the system are so serious and scary...
Yankees have won 23 straight series at home. Boone wants the best record very much just for that reason. He may get help out of the blue because two starters who have been out all year are now pitching in the minors, Luis Severino and Jordan Montgomery. In addition James Paxton has gotten red hot and is now the staff ace. Tanaka usually pitches well from September 1 on so German may get some late season rest.
I'm glad we've got Greinke and all, but he's not been great as an Astro. He's been good, ok, etc...but i sort of expected more from him. With Springer down, we've got an opportunity to get Minor league phenom Kyle Tucker in the lineup and see if he's going to be able to hit MLB pitching. Last time up was a disaster for him. What I keep wondering is our best hitter is now Yordan Alvarez and he's almost exclusively used as a DH, no problem when you are under AL rules. But if we make the WS, are you really going to sit your best hitter when you are in NL parks, or are you going to put a guy out in LF who virtually never plays there? What do I know, AJ Hinch is a Stanford grad so I'll defer to him.
Astros Magic # is 10. The only thing that worries me about that beat down of the Mariners yesterday is that the last time we did this (Orioles) we went on a scoring draught for 5 games. Hinch has announced that the Astros will finish the season with 4 starters.
I believe the Dodgers number is now down to 2. As for the Astros, going with a 4 man rotation in the first two weeks of September seems a bit extreme, but I understand the logic behind it. He's running some risk there though.