MLB Playoffs: ALDS, Game 2, Houston vs. Cleveland game thread

The Houston Astros head into Game 2 with a 1-0 lead in the series thanks to Justin Verlander, four home runs, and a shut down bullpen in Game 1.

For each postseason game, you will find a “game thread” here at Call To The Pen. This will be the place to be where fans of the game can use the comment section to chat about what’s happening on the field throughout the MLB playoffs. We’ll be here all the way through the end of the World Series.

Game 1 of the series featured two bona fide aces in Justin Verlander and Corey Kluber, but Kluber didn’t live up to the hype and failed to get out of the fifth inning. He was charged with four earned runs in 4 2/3 innings after allowing solo homers to Alex Bregman, George Springer and Jose Altuve. In the seventh inning, Martin Maldonado hit the fourth homer of the game for the Astros. His shot came against Cody Allen and pushed the score to 6-2.

Meanwhile, Justin Verlander pitched 5 2/3 innings and allowed two earned runs. The bullpen trio of Ryan Pressly, Lance McCullers, Jr. and Roberto Osuna closed out the game by allowing just a single base runner and no runs in the last 3 2/3 innings. Houston added a seventh run on an RBI-single by Josh Reddick in the bottom of the eighth.

Game 2 once again has two strong starting pitchers on the hill. Perhaps we’ll get the pitcher’s duel we expected in Game 1.

Houston Astros

The Astros will send Gerrit Cole to the hill for Game 2. Cole just had the best regular season of his career, going 15-5 with a 2.88 ERA and 2.70 FIP. He increased his strikeout rate from 23.1 percent last year to 34.5 percent this year. Only two starting pitchers had a better strikeout rate than Cole. One of those was his teammate, Justin Verlander. The other was Max Scherzer.

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Before joining the Astros in the offseason, Cole pitched for the Pittsburgh Pirates. He started two games in the 2013 postseason and fared well in both, combining for 3 earned runs allowed in 11 innings (2.45 ERA) against the St. Louis Cardinals. Two years later, he pitched the NL Wild Card game against the Chicago Cubs and allowed four earned runs in five innings. His postseason ERA is 3.94 in 16 innings, which is such a small sample size that it’s essentially meaningless but people like to think it means something, so there you go.

The top three hitters in the Astros lineup—Springer, Altuve and Bregman, combined for five hits and three homers in Game 1. After Springer’s home run, a fan bought beer for his entire section. Every starter except Carlos Correa had at least one hit as the team banged out 12 knocks in the game.

The Astros are going with the same lineup for Game 2. Here are the players, with their home wRC+ in parenthesis (wRC+ is a hitting metric that is adjusted for league and ballpark effects where 100 is average. A 110 wRC+ means that player is 10 percent above average on offense. An 80 wRC+ means that player is 20 percent below average on offense). The Astros had a team wRC+ of 108, which ranked fifth in MLB.

CF George Springer (315 PA, 131 wRC+ at home)

2B Jose Altuve (303 PA, 124 wRC+ at home)

3B Alex Bregman (355 PA, 172 wRC+ at home)

1B Yuli Gurriel (294 PA, 125 wRC+ at home)

LF Marwin Gonzalez (260 PA, 89 wRC+ at home)

SS Carlos Correa (235 PA, 83 wRC+ at home)

DH Tyler White (121 PA, 174 wRC+ at home)

RF Josh Reddick (238 PA, 104 wRC+ at home)

C Martin Maldonado (49 PA, 13 wRC+ at home)

Alex Bregman and Tyler White were particularly good at home this season. Marwin Gonzalez, Carlos Correa and Martin Maldonado struggled, although Maldonado only had 49 plate appearances at Minute Maid Park.

Cleveland Indians

Looking to even the series up, Cleveland is sending Carlos Carrasco to the hill for Game 2. His 2018 season was very similar to his 2017 season. He went 17-10 with a 3.38 ERA and 2.94 FIP while strikeout out 29.5 percent of the batters he faced. That was good enough for eighth in baseball among qualifying starting pitchers.

Carrasco was particularly good on the road this season. At home, he had a 3.92 ERA and 3.45 FIP. Away from Cleveland, he had a 2.96 ERA and 2.56 FIP. The difference was a better home run rate and lower Batting Average on Balls in Play. Carrasco only has one postseason start under his belt. He pitched 5 2/3 scoreless innings against the Yankees in a 1-0 Game 3 loss in the ALDS last year.

Cleveland hitters did little with the bats in Game 1. They only picked up three hits and two walks to go with their two runs. Their three-four-five hitters (Encarnacion, Donaldson and Alonso) were a combined 0-for-11 with five strikeouts.

SS Francisco Lindor (385 PA, 116 wRC+ on the road)

LF Michael Brantley (303 PA, 112 wRC+ on the road)

2B Jose Ramirez (358 PA, 140 wRC+ on the road)

DH Edwin Encarnacion (274 PA, 107 wRC+ on the road)

3B Josh Donaldson (29 PA, 178 wRC+ on the road)

1B Yonder Alonso (301 PA, 112 wRC+ on the road)

RF Melky Cabrera (158 PA, 140 wRC+ on the road)

C Yan Gomes (228 PA, 112 wRC+ on the road)

CF Jason Kipnis (300 PA, 61 wRC+ on the road)

On the road, Cleveland had a 102 wRC+, which was 8th in MLB. They are also going with the same lineup as they had in Game 1. Every hitter in the lineup except Jason Kipnis was above average on the road this year.

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