THE PALLILOG
Here's how the Astros stack up against Chris Sale and the Red Sox
Oct 15, 2021, 9:30 am
THE PALLILOG
There were a lot of people furious about Major League Baseball basically forcing the Astros to switch to being an American League team starting with the 2013 season. The owners would not approve Jim Crane and partners' purchase of the club from Drayton McLane unless the incoming owners agreed to go to the AL. I'd say it's worked out pretty well. Crane and his partners got a 65 million dollar rebate on their purchase price for accepting the move, and the Astros Friday night play in their fifth consecutive American League Championship Series.
Lance McCullers is NOT on the Astros' ALCS roster, so he's out for the series. Jake Meyers is active.
— Jake Kaplan (@jakemkaplan) October 15, 2021
The loss of Lance McCullers is a blow, but does not change the Astros being the favorite to win the pennant. It does tighten things up. The decision to use McCullers in the successful bid to close out the White Sox meant he would have started game three and a prospective game seven vs. Boston. McCullers was the stingiest starting pitcher in the AL this year in terms of giving up home runs. The Red Sox can mash with the Astros. Boston will run out a lineup with seven guys who hit at least 20 homers this season. Rafael Devers, Kyle Schwarber, and Hunter Renfroe all topped 30.
After the obvious choice of Framber Valdez to start game one, Dusty Baker is going the way he should have against Chicago, opting for Luis Garcia in game two at home. That means in games three and four at Fenway Park it's Jose Urquidy and either, gulp, Zack Greinke or Jake Odorizzi. The Red Sox will be patching things together themselves.
Red Sox manager Alex Cora made an interesting call going with Chris Sale as his game one starting pitcher, holding back Alvin native Nathan Eovaldi until game two Saturday afternoon. Sale has been terrible in his last two starts. Most recently he went against the Rays in game two of their Division Series and lasted one inning, torched for five runs. In 2017 the Astros began their postseason run to winning the World Series by blasting Sale in game one of the ALDS. Alex Bregman and Jose Altuve hit back-to-back homers in the first inning. Altuve took Sale deep again in the fifth, then in the seventh hit his third homer of the game off of reliever Austin Mattox. The Astros won that series in four games, with Sale taking the loss in relief in the finale. In the 2018 AL Championship Series the Astros beat Sale in game one, though the Sox swept the next four games.
Astros in six seems a decent chuck at the prediction dart board.
Meanwhile over in the National League, despise the Dodgers or not (okay…despise them) only the foolhardy lacks respect for them. The reigning World Series champs survived the Wild Card game against the Cardinals that was tied 1-1 in the ninth, then Thursday won a decisive game five at San Francisco that was tied 1-1 in the ninth. The Dodgers play the Atlanta Braves in a rematch of last year's NLCS, which the Braves led three games to one before the Dodgers took the last three games.
Texans vs. Colts
The 1-4 Texans are at 1-4 Indianapolis Sunday. You pumped up?!? Next week at least brings an interesting subplot when the Texans head to Arizona. A couple of guys named Watt and Hopkins are no doubt enjoying life with the only remaining unbeaten team in the NFL. J.J. is thus far sackless with his new team. DeAndre is on pace for his lowest reception total since his rookie season, but has four touchdown catches. The 5-0 Cardinals get tested at Cleveland Sunday. As for Texans-Colts? Of the 12 games in the NFL Sunday Texans at Colts is definitely one of them.
NCAA
What a win for Texas A&M over Alabama, following losses to Arkansas and Mississippi State. Sports! The Aggies can't help but have some emotional letdown this week, but still should have enough to win at Missouri. For Texas meanwhile, what is the bounce back after the Longhorns' gut wrenching loss to Oklahoma? Oklahoma State arrives in Austin with a 5-0 record and ranked number 12 in the nation.
Buzzer Beaters:
1. The Rockets open their season Wednesday at Minnesota. Their season projects to deliver not many wins but much future promise. The Rockets will be rooting for the Astros-Red Sox series to end in five games max. If there is a game six, it's Friday night at Minute Maid Park while the Rockets play their home opener.
2. Would the Astros become even bigger "villains" if they roll to the World Series crown by tearing apart the Red (Sox), White (Sox), and (Dodger) Blue?
3. Greatest Mookies: Bronze: Spike Lee's character in "Do the Right Thing." Silver: Pearl Jam (original name Mookie Blaylock) Gold: Betts
Kelvin Sampson knows how to win a Big 12 Tournament, leading Oklahoma to three straight titles in the early 2000s.
He has Houston two wins away from its own.
The Cougars ramped up their suffocating defense on TCU, Emanuel Sharp had 14 points and Big 12 player of the year Jamal Shead scored 12, and the No. 1 team in the nation rolled to a 60-45 victory on Thursday in the quarterfinal round of its first tournament in its new league.
“They're all good. All the teams are really good,” said Sampson, whose team was beaten soundly on the boards by the bigger Horned Frogs yet still won with ease. “You win by 15, you move on to the next one, man.”
In this case No. 25 Texas Tech, which romped to a victory over No. 20 BYU earlier in the day.
“Texas Tech is good enough to beat us,” Sampson said. “We're going to have to play a lot better than we did today.”
Hard to imagine it on the defensive end, where the No. 1 seed Cougars (29-3) held eighth-seeded TCU without a point for nearly 10 minutes to start the game and was never threatened the rest of the way in winning its 10th consecutive game.
Micah Peavy had 13 points and 11 rebounds to lead the Horned Frogs (21-12). Leading scorer Emanuel Miller followed up his 26-point performance in a second-round win over Oklahoma by scoring just three points on 1-for-10 shooting.
TCU wound up going 17 of 73 from the field (23.3%) and 2 of 20 from beyond the 3-point arc.
“It wasn't our day to make shots,” Horned Frogs coach Jamie Dixon said. “I don't know how many were tough shots. I thought there were layups, we had a couple of kickout 3s off rebounds. It's probably something to do with them, because you can't take away from what they've done game after game. Their numbers are off the charts.”
Longtime rivals in the old Southwest Conference, the Cougars and Horned Frogs were meeting for the first time in the Big 12 Tournament — otherwise known as a neutral floor, where Houston had never lost in eight other games with TCU.
The Cougars never left a doubt that it would be nine.
Fresh off a 30-point blowout of Kansas, the regular-season Big 12 champs scored the first 16 points of the game, shutting down Dixon's team with the kind of in-your-shorts defense that has become the Cougars' hallmark over the years.
TCU missed its first 16 field-goal attempts and did not score until Peavy's bucket with 10:25 left in the first half.
“That's a whole other level of not making shots,” Dixon said.
Even when Houston went through its own offensive dry spell in the first half, it continually hounded the Horned Frogs. They were 3 for 23 with six turnovers at one point, and during one possession, they missed four consecutive shots at the rim.
TCU trailed 31-15 at halftime, missed its first eight shots of the second half and never threatened the rest of the way.
“The past four years I've been here,” Shead said, “we've approached every game the same. We said at the beginning of the year the Big 12 was a lot harder competition at a consistent level, but our preparation is usually the same. It's just about going out there and executing what we work on.”
UP NEXT
TCU should be safely in the NCAA Tournament field for the third consecutive year.
Houston routed the Red Raiders 77-54 in January, when Shead poured in 29 points in the win.