Delayed ALDS finish slows Astros’ prep
The Astros were in the unusual position of working out a day before the American League Championship Series without knowing the identity of their opponent. While the Astros got their legs moving around Minute Maid Park on Tuesday afternoon, the Yankees and Guardians were playing the deciding game of their American League Division Series, which got pushed back a day because of rain.
Eventually, the Yankees beat the Guardians 5-1 in a game that finished about 24 hours before the first pitch in the ALCS.
Obviously, the team sleeping in its own bed, resting up and setting up its pitching rotation has the advantage over the team that has to fly 1,600 miles the night before a big game, but it did mess with the Astros’ preparation a bit.
Ace Justin Verlander, who will get the start in Game 1, is thankful for the seven days of rest he’s getting after his last outing in which he allowed six runs in just four innings against the Mariners, but he said the delay in knowing the opponent will force him into some latenight homework.
“I think you want to know your opponent as well as possible,” Verlander said. “After we figure out who we’re playing then, yeah, I mean, it’s like a cram session for a test the next day that you’re probably a little late for, but you’ve still got time to get all the answers or at least do the studying that you need. That’s what it will be like.”
Astros right fielder Kyle Tucker said there would be plenty of time to study matchups against Yankees pitchers before the start of the ALCS.
“We just go out there and basically control what we can,” Tucker said. “We just got to go out there, no matter who we’re facing or who is out there on the mound, we’ve just got to make sure our swings are good, make sure we’re putting up quality at-bats and making sure our defense is solid. So, we don’t worry too much on who we’re playing. We just try and do what we want to do.”
Native Taillon to get his turn in spotlight
The weather interruption in the Yankees’ American League Division Series means Jameson Taillon still hasn’t made a postseason start in his career. That changes Wednesday when the former teenage phenom from The Woodlands High School starts against Verlander in Game 1.
The 30-year-old Taillon, who was the No. 2 overall pick out of high school in the 2010 draft, faced three Guardians batters in the 10th inning of Game 2 of the ALDS, giving up hits to all three before being pulled in an eventual loss. Regardless, he was going to get the ball in Game 5 on Monday, but when that game was pushed back a day by rain, the Yankees opted to go with Nestor Cortes on three days rest instead. Cortes gave up just one run in five innings to push his team into the ALCS.
Taillon, who had signed a letter of intent to play at Rice before he opted to sign with the Pirates after the draft, spent four big league seasons in Pittsburgh before being traded to the Yankees before the 2021 season.
The righthander, who can become a free agent after the playoffs, just finished off one of the best seasons of his career, going 14-5 with a 3.91 ERA. His 1.6 walks per nine innings is his best mark since his rookie season.
He’s faced the Astros three times in his career, including giving up six runs in 52⁄3 innings in a game the Yankees won on an Aaron Judge walk-off hit. The only time he’s pitched at Minute Maid Park as a professional, he gave up two runs in six innings of a Yankees loss in 2021. His other appearance came as a rookie with the 2016 Pirates, when he pitched well, allowing one run in eight innings of a 3-1 Pirates defeat.
Playoff upsets spur talks of format tweaks
There’s much gnashing of teeth around baseball as the Dodgers and Braves, a pair of 100-win division champions in the National League, were eliminated in the NLDS after getting five days off between the end of the regular season and the start of their short playoff run. The Astros and Yankees — the American League’s top two teams — both advanced, although the Astros’ offense struggled at times and the Yankees needed five games to put away the Guardians.
All that means there will be talks this offseason about changing the postseason format, although Verlander doesn’t think that will mean fewer teams make the playoffs.
“I don’t know how it’s going to play out,” Verlander said Tuesday, a day before the Astros play the Yankees in Game 1 of the American League Championship Series. “I don’t know if the league sees what happens and maybe wants to make tweaks. I don’t know what those tweaks would look like, but expanding the playoffs, it brings in a lot of revenue, so I don’t think it’s going to go backwards.”
The biggest concern is the long layoff given to the top two teams in each league, which throws off the hitters’ timing. In the Astros’ three-game sweep of the Mariners, they hit .217 as a team, including an 0-for-16 series for Jose Altuve.
“You take the best teams in the regular season, have them take off five days, which we’re not used to, and then have the hot team keep playing,” Verlander said. “You play a three-game (wild card) series, and then come out of that and go right into (the Division Series and) keep playing, and if you’re not ready, I think you can see how easily you can lose that series.”
Trio of former stars to help open Game 1
Roger Clemens, Roy Oswalt and Josh Reddick will be among the former Astros in attendance handling ceremonial duties for the American League Championship Series.
In Game 1 on Wednesday, Clemens, the seven-time Cy Young Award winner, will throw out the first pitch and Reddick, who was a fan favorite on the 2017 World Series championship team, will call out “Play Ball!” before the game. Country music singer Jack Ingram, who grew up in The Woodlands, will perform the national anthem.
Before Game 2, which starts at 6:37 p.m. Thursday, Oswalt, one of the aces of the Astros’ 2005 World Series team, will throw out the first pitch, while actor Jonathan Daviss, who graduated from Conroe High School and is best known for his role on Netflix’s Outer Banks, will handle the “Play Ball” call. Local singer Belinda Munro, who co-founded Jazz Houston, will perform the national anthem.