Houston Astros: Analyzing the starting pitching matchups for the ALDS
By T.A. Mock
The Houston Astros and the Cleveland Indians have two of the great pitching rotations. Let’s analyze these starting pitching matchups for the ALDS.
The Houston Astros begin their playoff quest to repeat as World Champions on Friday at 1:05 pm CT against the Cleveland Indians in the ALDS. These two teams have had two completely different seasons yet are remarkably similar in structure.
The Indians reside in the AL Central. Their divisional competition consists of the Twins, Tigers, White Sox, and Royals. That’s not a great amount of competition. The Tigers, White Sox, and Royals were three of the bottom five teams in the league. The Twins finished 13 games behind the Indians without really any competition all year.
The Astros reside in the AL West and had more competition all year long than the Indians did. The A’s made winning the division very difficult as they finished the year as the second wild card team. The Mariners also contended for the division for the vast majority of the year. If it weren’t for two injuries to Shoehei Ohtani and Mike Trout the Angels would have contended a lot harder as well.
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As far as how the teams are structured, both teams have incredible pitching staffs and each set records this season. Both teams also have incredible lineups from top to bottom. Jose Rameriz and Francisco Lindor are a potent duo for the Indians. The Astros, as you know, also have a stacked line up.
So, no matter how you look it, this is sure to be a star-studded, high-powered matchup of perennial contenders. One game, it could be a pitchers duel unlike any we’ve ever seen. The next, it could be a game with a ton of scoring. It’s just completely unpredictable how every game could go.
Regardless, both teams have now released their planned pitching rotations for the first three games. Analyzing these three matchups will give us insight into how the series could go. So, let’s see which team has the edge when it comes to these starting pitching matchups.