The Yankees vs. The Red Sox In The MLB Playoffs: The Story Of Three Left-Handers That Could Quickly Tilt The ALDS



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The five trillion series of the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox could be decisive.

For Boston, you have the Killer B's, the local kernel of the list headed by the very useful MVP Mookie Betts. J. D. Martinez and Craig Kimbrel are super-elite talents in the middle of the queue and on the back of the corrector.

Meanwhile, New York has the Baby Bombers, the group of young sluggers led by Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton, who further improved when the Yankees escaped from the extravagant Luke Voit of St. Louis. Combine an attack that has produced more home runs than any other game in the history of baseball with the league's top scorer and you'll get a terrible match for October.

But here's the problem: the American League Division could very well be decided before midnight tomorrow night. And with big question marks regarding Boston's top two starters, it's the Yankees who lost adversity who could take a quick lead.

Here are the three left-handers who could swing this series in the next two nights.

How effective and sustainable will Chris Sale be?

The answer to this question, at least before we watch Sale's speech in the first game of the ALDS party on Friday night, comes back to your level of general optimism.

If you're a half-full supporter of Red Sox, you'll appreciate the management's plan to gradually increase Sale's workload in September, as a result of a shoulder injury that's Stunned for three weeks. After making one, three, three 1/3 and 4 2/3 in his last four outings of the regular season, then getting eight days off to recover, the hope is that Sale will be at full capacity or nearly Yankees, allowing him to throw well and dive deeper into the game.

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Colorie me skeptical. First, if Sale throws five innings or less, he is eliminated in a tight match, the main arm of the Yankees takes advantage over the very good Boston relief corps. More importantly, the odds of unbalancing sales are on the rise, given recent trends. During his last departure in August before his appearance on the list of people with reduced mobility, the fast ball left left was recorded at 98 mph. The trend went from 96 to 94 to 93, then to an alarming 90 during those four appearances. Dirty is not a single-turn pony, he dominates the batters with his slider and his change as well as his fastball when he's in a groove. But if his heater does not heat up, he will also lose ticks on his other grounds, which will also allow the hitters to better adapt to the slowdown, knowing that they do not have to prepare for the 90s cheese.

The Red Sox obviously believe that it will not be a major problem because they decided to sell for the first game. But as we will see, this may be due in part to the fact that the expected results of this series for the first match of Boston and Game 2 starters may not be as optimistic as their broader track record might have you believe.

The price could be wrong for Boston

Although he has not returned to his vintage age yet this year, David Price has scored 30 shots, averaging points leading to 3.58 and bringing the batter on a run while placing himself as southpaw in front of the monster green. Many observers, however, remain concerned about his statistics against the Yankees.

As an example: For his career, Price won a massive € 4.90 victory against New York, which earned him 270 hits in 250 innings. He was the man on the mound for many highlights of Bronx Bomber.

I would say that Price's results against Derek Jeter and other players who have long since stopped wearing thin stripes are not really relevant to this year's ALDS. But Price doubled being absolutely horrible against the Yanks this season. In four appearances, he released a puzzling ERA of 10.34 to 21, totaling 21 hits, nine walks and nine home runs in 15 innings and two-thirds.

And while I often think that the reputation of the players after the season is built on small misleading samples and that it often reverses over time (ask this guy, or this guy), the lousy performance of Price in October are starting to reveal a trend. We are now 73 1/3 of the series throws with an average points of interest of 5.03, with 16 circuits allowed to do a lot of damage. More than that, Price comes out better as a reliever than as a playoff starter, holding without opponents six of his eight playoff appearances, including 6 2/3 in a draw in two long reliefs against the Astros during the playoffs. ALDS from last year.

Now, as always, it's much more difficult to dominate six, seven or eight innings in a game than for one or two. The challenge becomes even greater for the playoff starters, as they could start the 228, 229 and 230 runs for the year and run out of gas. Whether it's his predictable repertoire of almost all fastballs, tiredness at the end of long seasons or anything else, it's fair to wonder if Price will be maybe not a high flying pitcher in October … especially against the Yankees.

J.A. Happ is exactly what the Yankees needed

Back at the beginning of this season, and you'd have a hard time convincing people that J.A. Happ would look better than the previous Cy Young Award winner and the five-fold top-five Cy Young, Dirty. But that's exactly where we are on the eve of this game.

The revival of Happ's career dates back to 2015, when the Pirates caught him in a futures contract, and then persuaded him to get some fantastic numbers for the rest of the season. Pittsburgh pitcher, whisperer Ray Searage, is convinced that it's time to throw more fastballs, a tip you usually do not hear being given to around thirty left-handers with incredible speed. But Happ followed this advice and prospered.

Now, two weeks away from her 37th birthday, Happ has continued to prosper. And although his fastball repertoire is very similar to Price's, the difference is that Happ has mastered the ability to throw heat into the area and get out of this way, while Price has sometimes struggled with his approach more in depth. – despite throwing harder than Happ does. The opponents hit only .203 against Happ's fastball this year and only .160 against his slider.

The last step was to take Happ out of Toronto and send it to the only team that could use it the most. Personal aspirant Luis Severino was well beaten during most of the second half. Sonny Gray never exploited his potential after his acquisition of Oakland and the young southpaw Jordan Montgomery underwent an end-of-season surgery. The loss of Montgomery in particular left the Yankees short of left arm. With a short comical porch in the right field that could seduce all left-handed hitters who played a year of Little League to beat for the Moon, find a quality southpaw to integrate into the rotation alongside Right-handers Severino and Masahiro Tanaka became an absolute priority. Happ is shoveled, averaging 2.69, a shot in the inning, and (if you like that kind of thing) a perfect 7-0 record as a Yankee.

You can nibble and indicate the four rounds allowed by Happ during his last regular season start at Fenway Park, and note that it could be a better fit in the Bronx than in Boston. But he has also quickly become the most consistent thrower of the Yankees and a question mark much lower than that of Chris Sale who is still trying to recover from a shoulder injury. New York could easily steal match 1 tonight thanks to the Yankees start pitching match and killer bullpen, which gives them a big advantage in the Top-5 series.

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