[ad_1]
George Springer and the Astros resumed the game where they stopped in the playoffs. They scored four homers on Friday to beat the Indians 7-2 in the first game of the AL Division series.
Alex Bregman, Jose Altuve and Martin Maldonado also competed for the Astros, who scored a record 15 World Series circuits last year while winning their first championship.
Much has been made of the throwing prowess that these teams have. But it's a group of long balls that allowed the Astros to move forward in this best-of-five series.
Justin Verlander, who defeated Corey Kluber in a Cy Young Ace game in the first playoff game between these teams, made a good start to the Astros pop.
Verlander led the way in the sixth inning and allowed two hits and two points in five innings and one-third for his 12th playoff victory. The Indians finished with only three hits, all singles.
Kluber, a double winner of Cy Young who had just won his first season of 20 wins, was scored for three innings in 4 2/3 innings. It was a rehearsal for last October's ALDS when he made two starts against the Yankees and left with a 12.79 ERA.
The second game is Saturday in Houston. Gerrit Cole starts for the Astros against Carlos Carrasco.
The Astros have struck 27 playoff circuits – Springer has five in the World Series and set a record by connecting in four consecutive games to win the MVP title.
Bregman, who has just finished a breakthrough year, got the first shot of the Astros with his Crawford Boxes command on the left field to start a fourth round of two innings.
The Astros' 103 wins were still up 2-0 when Springer led the fifth goal with a full-left circuit. This makes him the third player in the history of the major leagues to have scored five consecutive playoff games.
Two games later, Altuve, the AL player of the year last year, qualified for his eighth playoff game by sending a goal to the left field. He started the playoffs last year with three home runs in the first game of the ALDS against the Red Sox.
Kluber looked at the stone face as Altuve walked to the first and shook his head slightly as he skirted the bases and the crowd roared with scattered songs of "MVP".
Kluber continued his splendid regular season with another duel for the playoffs. A year after conceding four homers in two starts against the Yankees, the long balloon proved to be a problem for him. He left with two outs in the fifth inning after giving six hits and four points to the mark.
Verlander was masterful in the first five innings, the only base-time Indian rider of that period heading to Jose Ramirez with two outs in the first. The right-hander put 13 consecutive rows afterwards, stoking seven, including moving away towards the third.
Yan Gomes broke the no-hitter with his singles to a shallow ground right to start the sixth and Francisco Lindor singled out with a point in the inning. When Verlander then accompanied Michael Brantley to charge the bases, manager AJ Hinch had seen enough and replaced him with Ryan Pressley.
The Indians reduced the gap to 4-1 on a wild course in Pressly, arrived in Houston during an exchange in July, and who came closer to two minutes when Lindor scored on a Ramirez field.
Maldonado, making his playoff debut, hooked Cody Allen for a two-run run in the seventh. Bregman made it 6-2 with a mere RBI later in the inning.
Following: Cole (15-5, 2.88) was second in AL with 276 strikeouts this weekend, but only 290 ahead of the Verlander. He was fifth with 200 1/3 of throws. He will make his fourth start in the playoffs and the first since 2015 with the Pirates. He is 1-2 with an ERA 3.94 in these games.
This will be only the second start in the playoffs of Carrasco (17-10, 3.38), who is 4-2 with a 3.45 ERA in eight appearances, with seven starts against the Astros.
Source link
