Houston Astros: Three takeaways from the ALDS game one win
By T.A. Mock
The Astros bullpen shows out while the Indians bullpen shuts down
The Houston Astros biggest advantage over the Indians is in the bullpen, hands down, no doubt about it. The starting pitchers are pretty evenly matched across the board. The lineups, both hitting and fielding-wise, are fairly similar.
The Astros bullpen is an obvious strength for the team and something that should bode well for them throughout the entire playoffs. Today was no different. The team needed 3.2 innings from the pen today and they were all outstanding.
Pressly had a rough start after inheriting the bases loaded from Verlander. He threw a wild pitch and then gave up an RBI groundout. Beyond that, the Indians only managed one more hit the rest of the game.
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After finishing off the sixth inning for Verlander, Pressly had three come up an sat three down, including two strikeouts. Lance McCullers came out for the 8th inning and was extremely effective in his first appearance of the playoffs. To finish the game with a five-run lead, Roberto Osuna surrendered one hit and struck out one batter.
The Indians, on the other hand, used four relievers who gave up six hits, three runs, and only struck out one batter in 5.1 innings. So, the Astros clearly had the better unit here which bodes well for the team moving forward.
Establishing all of the relievers early will be key to the Houston Astros success this postseason. Today was a great start in doing that and allowed the Astros to flex their muscles and completely shut down this potent Indians line up.
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All in all, a great win for this Houston Astros ball club to start the ALDS. Hopefully, the Astros can put another nail in the Indians coffin tomorrow afternoon before heading to Cleveland to potentially finish off the series.