Coming off a short rest Justin Verlander didn’t quite get the outing he was hoping for tonight. The Rays were able to capitalize early on from his mistakes, scoring three runs in the first to come out with a 4-1 win to tie the series against the Astros. Verlander who is a notable pitcher holds the MLB record for 8 career ALDS wins. However, he threw only 3 2/3 innings in tonights’ game allowing all four runs, two of them homers, leading to his first ALDS loss. Things looked great for Ryan Yarbrough and the Rays five other pitchers as they held the Astros to no runs up until the 8th, a solo homer by Robinson Chirinos. 2018 A.L CY Young Award winner Blake Snell came in the 9th with runners in the corners and only one out. Striking out one and getting the third out by a groundout to second, he was able to grab the save. This forced a game 5 as the two head back to Houston to play on Thursday.
Game 5 Matchup:
Tyler Glasnow vs Gerrit Cole
Glasnow started Game 1 of the series against Verlander. Throwing 4.1 innings worth striking out only 5 of the 20 batters he faced and giving up two runs, one being a home run. Giving him the loss in Game 1. Cole started Game 2 of the series against Snell. Grabbing the win he went 7.2 innings with 15 strikeouts with no runs. The Rays only run came in the 9th with Roberto Osuna in relief. My Predictions: Based solely on stats it looks like the Astros will be able to pull off Game 5, as they do play better at home. With Cole having the start that he did in Game 2, and him getting the proper 5-day rest, I expect him to have another great start on Thursday. During the regular season, Cole was 20-5 with 326 strikeouts, while Glasnow has 12 games under his belt for the 2019 season with a record of 6-1 with 76 strikeouts. Although I always love to see the underdog succeed, experience does play into it and giving Cole’s experience, I see him having a better outing to ultimately put the Astros on top. That being said the Astros offense needs to step it up and wake up their bats to put runs on the board. The Astros had a combined total of only four runs in both Game 3 and Game 4. With game 3 being a final score of 10-3. Their inability to produce runs may cause them the series as the Rays continue to be resilient and sneak up from behind. Whichever way the game goes the winner of game 5 will take on the Yankees who clinched the series yesterday against the Twins. *Not totally baseball related but ICYMI Buccaneers Tight end OJ Howard bare hand that foul ball! Pretty cool right! I love seeing athletes support other sports!
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