This seasons American League Championship Series (ALCS) which opens at Fenway Park this weekend, is a repeat of the 2017 ALDS series in which the Astros prevailed 3-1, on their way to winning their first ever World Series. Forward a year and we have another intriguing encounter with both coming off of a 100 win plus season.
This really is a clash of 2018’s Baseball Titans, with Boston having won 108 games – the best record since the 2001 Mariners, while Houston’s 103 wins was the second best. Further the Astros were great both sides of play outscoring their opponents by 263 runs and only allowing a league leading 534 runs in total. The Red Sox had the second best run differential at +229 – so you can see a picture forming.
They met 7 times in regular season play with the Astros edging it 4-3 and outscoring Boston by 34-31 so expect some runs, and going into this best of 7 series they are both pretty much injury free, apart from some worries about Chris Sale, who still seems to be troubled by a shoulder injury.
This series may come down to who’s starters pitch best and this is why we are favouring the Astros, despite Boston having the extra home game advantage. We know the opening pitchers for game one and assume the rotations will run something like this:
Game 1: Justin Verlander Houston (2.52 ERA) vs. Chris Sale Boston (2.11 ERA)
Game 2: Gerrit Cole Houston (2.88 ERA) vs. David Price Boston (3.58 ERA)
Game 3: Rick Porcello Boston (4.28 ERA) vs. Dallas Keuchel Houston (3.74 ERA)
Game 4: Nathan Eovaldi Boston (3.33 ERA) vs. Charlie Morton Houston (3.13 ERA)
Houston could also use Lance McCullers who has had a nice season (3.86 ERA) if they feel the need to give any of the above a short outing or extra rest and in our opinion have the second best starting rotation in baseball after the Dodgers.
Boston have to be worried about Chris Sale and how he performs may determine the outcome. They do of course have potential player of the year Mookie Betts in their starting lineup so they will always have a sluggers chance, however we are sticking with our prediction of an Astros win here and a repeat in the World series.
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