2020-10-13 20:40:00 EDT
The Tampa Bay Rays and Houston Astros meet Tuesday night in game three of the ALCS MLB playoffs at Petco Park.
The Tampa Bay Rays can all but advance to the World Series with a victory here and a 3-0 series lead. The Tampa Bay Rays are now 7-2 in this postseason and continue to be led by a pitching staff that’s allowed allowed two or less runs in five of those nine games. The Rays are allowing an average of 1.3 runs in their last three games. If those numbers continue, the Rays are going to be nearly impossible to beat. Randy Arozarena leads the Rays with 15 hits and five RBI while Kevin Kiermaier and Joey Wendle have combined for 13 hits and four RBI. Ryan Yarbrough gets the ball for the Rays, and he was 1-4 with a 3.56 ERA and 44 strikeouts this season. Yarbrough is 1-0 with a 2.25 ERA and two strikeouts in his postseason career.
The Houston Astros need a win here to keep themselves in this series, shaving the deficit to 1-2. The Houston Astros have lost three of their last four games and have scored just three runs in this series. The Astros have left 21 guys on base in the first two games and have simply run into bad luck time and time again. The Astros better find some timely hits or their season will end within the next couple of days. Kyle Tucker leads the Astros with 12 hits and four RBI while Michael Brantley and Carlos Correa have combined for 22 hits and 20 RBI. Jose Urquidy gets the ball for the Astros, and he was 1-1 with a 2.73 ERA and 17 strikeouts this season. Urquidy is 1-0 with a 2.89 ERA and 18 strikeouts in his postseason career.
The Rays are 10-3 in their last 13 Tuesday games, 51-22 in their last 73 games as a favorite and 40-14 in their last 54 overall. The Astros are 5-0 in their last 5 Tuesday games, 6-14 in their last 20 games as an underdog and 8-1 in their last 9 playoff games as an underdog. The under is 13-5 in Rays last 18 on grass. The under is 13-6-2 in Astros last 21 overall. The Rays are 1-6 in the last 7 meetings in Houston. The under is 3-1-1 in the last 5 meetings.
It’s tough to bet against the Rays pitching right now, and Yarbrough is another solid arm who has allowed a combined four runs and 14 hits in his last 15.1 innings. Urquidy is also a pitcher I’m not running to the window to get behind, as he’s allowed five runs and seven hits in 8.2 innings this postseason, which makes for an ERA over five. With that said, the Astros have hit a ton of balls hard in this series and it’s only a matter of time before the ball doesn’t find a glove. The Astros have also struggled with the shadows in the first two games of this series and that obviously won’t be an issue here with a night game. The Rays are great and tough to bet against with the cheap price, but I don’t think the Astros are dead yet.
I’ll take a shot with the Astros and the even money.
