Houston Astros vs Boston Red Sox: My ALDS Starting Pitching Rotation

After a year of being out, the Houston Astros are back in the postseason, here’s who I think should be the starting pitchers throughout the series against the Boston Red Sox.

The Houston Astros are back in it — it’s October and the team is playing extended baseball for the first time in nearly two years. It’s a great feeling considering that this team has accomplished throughout the season. There were some rough patches that the team had to go through but they were able to masterfully navigate to still eventually win 101 games on the season.

It doesn’t challenge the franchise record of 102 wins in 1998 but it goes to show that this team is special and I’m positive that they’ll go down in history as one of the best Houston Astros teams to take the field, especially if they go out and win the ship for the city of Houston. With the devastating effects that Hurricane Harvey has had on all of us as citizens, this would be something that’s totally uplifting to our psyche if they win it all.

But if the team doesn’t this year, I will disappointed but not devastated. I know that this team will be good at least for the next five years until we’re going to have to start paying some of these good money. Until then, we can sit back, relax and enjoy the renaissance that this team is experiencing. It feels good to be on top as the Houston Astros won the AL West by a record 21-game margin which is something positive this team can always hang their hats on.

But the most important thing to note in regard to how this upcoming series will go against the Boston Red Sox is the starting pitching. Who should we plug in? Who’s locked in?

There will differing opinions on this and here’s who I think should start for this series:

Game 1: Justin Verlander

Game 2: Dallas Keuchel

Game 3: Brad Peacock with the bullpen

Game 4: Justin Verlander (if necessary)

Game 5: Dallas Keuchel (if necessary)

Using Verlander and Keuchel are the obvious choices because they’re our two best pitchers right now but the immense depth that we have on the pitching front, we can could rotating guys out of the bullpen like crazy. You’ve got Lance McCullers Jr., Charlie Morton, Collin McHugh, Ken Giles, Will Harris, Francisco Liriano, Joe Musgrove, James Hoyt and Chris Devenski that you could use out on the bump as reserves in the playoffs.

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By the way, if you didn’t notice, I’ve decided to carry 12 pitchers on my roster — with 13 position players — but I’m not sure what A.J. Hinch will decide as we’ll be finding out the news within the next day or so in regard to his plans.

You know what? I trust the hell out of Peacock to start a playoff game because he’s been rock solid. Since the All-Star break, he has posted a 6-1 record, a 3.33 ERA while tossing 77 strikeouts, allowing 26 earned runs and a 1.09 WHIP through 70.1 innings pitched in12 starts.

I didn’t envision for Peacock to be this GOOD because of him dealing with injury for all of this time but he has been one of our most reliable pitchers to date. It would be a travesty to not start him at least one game and let the bullpen lift him up if needed.

Out of our remaining lefties that we have, I trust right-hander Hoyt over Tony Sipp and Reymin Guduan to which the latter has been absolutely horrific and although Hoyt hasn’t pitched lights out (he has 3.33 ERA and 1.59 WHIP since the All-Star break), I think he’s worthy of a playoff spot because we need another guy that’s good against lefties.

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But we’ll see what Hinch does to put this lineup together. He’s in a great situation with all of the depth that this roster has and I’m positive that he’ll make a solid decision in regard to what to do with the roster.

It’s playoff time — let’s do this!

Go Astros!

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