The opening games of any divisional series are pretty important given it’s a race to three and in the Americal League 2021 season openers, both the Rays & Astros made statements!
Chicago White Sox 1 Houston Astros 6
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The Astros cruised through game one thanks in no small part to a pitching masterclass from McCullers. He repaid a huge chunk of his five-year, $85 million contract extension with this display. He handled the pressure well and only allowed one hit through six innings. He ended up throwing 104 pitches before being taken out in the seventh. This set up the bullpen nicely. The batters did their part too, racking up 6 runs in the first five innings.
Lance Lynn had one of his worst games of the year giving up five earned runs and ending with the loss and an ERA of 12.27! His confidence seemed to drain after a wild pitch in the Third which eventually led to the Astros going 3-0 up. They did manage a consolation run in the 8th thanks to Tim Anderson.
Chicago will be hoping for a better performance from Giolito tonight as falling into a 2-0 hole will probably end their hopes.
Boston Red Sox 0 Tampa Bay Rays 5
Tampa Bay took advantage of every hit last night to make the win look more convincing than it actually was. They garnered 5 runs on only six hits and even stole home to wrap the game up. Randy Arozarena had a night to remember with three runs, including a homer and of course that steal.
Boston managed nine hits but just couldn’t engineer a run out of them leaving runners in scoring position on a number of occasions. They will hope for better things tonight.
