Houston Astros: Three reasons to root for the Red Sox against the Yankees
By T.A. Mock
Boston’s bullpen is infinitely weaker than New York’s
To me, this one points the final nail in the coffin as to who the Houston Astros should hope to play in the ALCS. The Red Sox bullpen is much, much weaker than the Yankees bullpen. As this Astros team can attest from their matchups with the Indians, going up against a weaker bullpen is an ideal situation.
The Red Sox have some pretty solid starters led by ace extraordinaire Chris Sale and followed by David Price, Rick Porcello, and Nathan Eovaldi. This group has arguably been better than the Yankees Luis Severino, who started strong but struggled down the stretch, Masahiro Tanaka, JA Happ, and CC Sabathia.
Neither of those rotations stand in the shadow of what the Indians trotted out against the Astros in the ALDS. However, the Yankees bullpen makes both, the Indians and the Red Sox, bullpens look like child’s play and is to be majorly feared.
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The Yankees have four guys who could legitimately be closers on any team in the league in Aroldis Chapman, Dellin Betances, Zach Britton, and David Robertson. The guys behind them are no slouches either. However, the Red Sox bullpen has one guy to be feared and that’s pretty much it.
Craig Kimbrel is one of the best relief pitchers and closers in the game and has been for a long time. Behind Kimbrel, Eduardo Rodriguez could be scary but he’s a little bit of an unknown after starting the majority of the year. Joe Kelly has had a pretty bad year after dominating for the past few years. After that, you probably haven’t heard of the majority of the rest of the guys: Matt Barnes, Brandon Workman, Ryan Braiser, and Heath Hembree.
If the Astros can chase or overwork the Red Sox starters early and get to the bullpen, there’ll be no reason why the ALCS against the Red Sox wouldn’t go the way the ALDS against the Indians went. And just think, the Red Sox bullpen is worse than the Indians.
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So, Houston Astros fans, be sure to watch the final game(s) of the other ALDS. Cheer your hearts out for the Red Sox as they appear to be the easiest route for the Astros to stay on their quest to repeat as World Champions. After winning last night, the Red Sox hold the series lead 2-1 while the series remains in New York for one more game. Here’s to hoping the Yankees take it to game five.