Houston Astros: Three reasons to root for the Red Sox against the Yankees

Home field advantage would be nice but not necessary

It’s absolutely true that not having home-field advantage in the ALCS would be a major bummer. This would go to the Red Sox in this situations. The Astros would have home-field advantage if the Yankees won the series. However, home field advantage won’t be necessary for the best case scenario for the Houston Astros.

In actuality, home-field advantage may be a moot point for this Astros team. Because, if you remember, the Astros actually played better on the road than at home during the 2018 season. At home, the Astros were 46-35 with 373 runs scored and 288 runs allowed. Pretty good but the numbers on the road were even better for some reason, they were 57-24 with 424 runs scored and 246 runs allowed.

So, they managed to score more runs while away from Minute Maid Park and allow fewer runs. These splits were odd but they are what they are and they definitely shouldn’t be discounted when looking at playoff matchups.

Additionally, the Astros were actually better against the Red Sox at home and at Fenway. In a series at home, the Astros went 2-2 scoring 18 runs total while allowing 19 total. At Fenway, the Astros went 2-1 while scoring 16 total runs and allowing 12. The one loss at Fenway was also mired in controversy and lost on a walk-off.

On the other hand, playing against the Yankees was much less friendly to the Astros. However, all seven of those games took place in the first 60 games of the season when the Yankees were hotter while the Astros were struggling. In total, the Astros went 2-5 against the Yankees with one win at Minute Maid and one win at Yankee Stadium.

Playing against Boston is the better option even though the Astros wouldn’t have home-field advantage. This team has proved they can come into Fenway Park and win big games and silence the Boston faithful. Let’s move on to reason number two…