ALCS Preview

The Boston Red Sox will host the ALCS against the Houston Astros. The series begins on Saturday night at Fenway Park. Alex Cora has stated that Chris Sale is going to start game one of the ALCS with David Price going game two. This series is really in the Red Sox favor having former Astros bench coach Alex Cora as the manager of the Red Sox. The Sox were beaten by the Astros in last year’s ALDS. Then Houston would go on to win the World Series.

I think it will be a close series but a fun one. Both teams are competitive and trying to get to the World Series. Mookie Betts told ESPN ” Both teams can hit. I mean, you saw them when they put up 13, 14 runs and we put up 16 runs. So it’s just one of those things where we’ll see how the arms go. We’ll have to play small ball. I think it’s just every aspect. I think if you show some blemishes in one aspect you’ll be exploited and they’ll find a way to win the game.”

Houston really killed the Cleveland Indians in the ALDS and they’ll be looking to do the same against the Red Sox. With David Price pitching game two of the series, I’ll expect to see a better start than the Yankee start. Price doesn’t seem to be able to pitch in the postseason. He had a great regular season but for some reason, he gets to the postseason and fails. Also, expect Alex Cora to make adjustments to the lineup based on the matchups as we saw in the ALDS. Finally, expect Cora to also use his starters in the eighth inning as we saw in the ALDS. Rick Porcello pitched game one of the Yankee series and Sale pitched game four. They both pitched in the eighth inning. Nathan Eovaldi really shined during that  Yankee series expect the same in the ALCS.