All series talk goes in here. Non series talk goes somewhere else. No PBP, that can be found from other sources if you need it. All games are broadcast on AT&T Sports SW unless otherwise noted. 4-30 Sonny Gray vs. Charlie Morton 7:10 5-1 Jordan Montgomery vs. Justin Verlander 7:10 MLBN (out-of-market only) 5-2 Luis Severino vs. Dallas Keuchel 7:10 5-3 Masahiro Tanaka vs. Lance McCullers Jr. 1:10 MLBN (out-of-market only)
I would love the Astros to make a statement as far as statements this early in the season go. Win. This. Series.
4-30 Sonny Gray vs. Charlie Morton 7:10 --Gray has only had one outing (out of 5) where he went deeper than 4 2/3. That along with his 7.71 era means that he will be phenomenal today Astros win big. 5-1 Jordan Montgomery vs. Justin Verlander 7:10 MLBN (out-of-market only) --Montgomery has been pretty good. One bad outing of 5. He has put guys on base (1.41 WHIP)(12 BB,26.1 IP) though. We need to not chase and make him pitch in the zone. Houston wins. 5-2 Luis Severino vs. Dallas Keuchel 7:10 --Tough customer. Yankees Win 5-3 Masahiro Tanaka vs. Lance McCullers Jr. 1:10 --His ERA (4.37) is inflated by two B2B bad outings earlier in the year. He was very effective his last 2 (12.2 IP, 2 ER). Righties have a .513 SLG%against him Even.
Not sure exactly what thread to put this in, but I was taking a look at attendance numbers this season and there's a huge difference (albeit it's early in the season) between last year's attendance numbers and this year's. So far in 2018 the Astros are averaging a little over 36,000 fans at each game. In 2017 they averaged a little over 29,000 per game. They're currently 6th in the MLB and on pace for just under 3 million for season-long attendance (they finished 15th with just under 2.5 million in 2017). The World Series attendance spike is real and should result in a significant increase in revenue for the team when this season is all said and done (especially if they make another deep playoff run). On a note relating to this series, there should continue to be some really good attendance numbers with the Yankees in town.
I usually go to about 10 games a year, and buy my tix off of Stubhub. Try to sit in the same section every time. Have been to two games, but have looked at tickets for 4 games. The section has seen a 30% increase in price (at least off of Stubhub) as compared to last year. So yeah, no doubt, demand is way up. Really wish the MLB would have scheduled this series over July 4, and not during the week near the beginning of the season. Everyone knew going into this season that NY and Houston would be playoff teams - why not market that game on a holiday weekend, similar to what the NBA does on Christmas?
Not Stanton's. DK only faced them once (6 IP) last season. 14.2 in 2016. There is a chance, of course, he could revert to dominance. But honestly I expect something good (6 IP / 3 ER), but not great.
Torres, Stanton, and Gregorious have been smokin' the ball recently. The Yankees have 5 guys with a OPS >.900 over the last seven days. It just so happens we do also http://www.espn.com/mlb/team/stats/batting/_/name/nyy/cat/OPS/split/61 http://www.espn.com/mlb/team/stats/batting/_/name/hou/cat/OPS/split/61
Baseball has never done event scheduling like that because regular season baseball games simply don't do well nationally, regardless of teams. And frankly, any Red Sox/Yankees game will do a much better number than Yankees/Astros.
This was fun to re-watch. This series was so damn stressful, I had forgotten how irate I was after we blew the late 4 run lead in Game 4. Then the bats went dead in Game 5. I was so miserable. Then came Game 6 and 7 - Altuve's clutch hitting and revenge on Kahnle, Springer's catches in center, Bregman's throw home, McCuller's curve balls. Just a very tense, emotional series. I expect things to get a little chippy this week. Good.
And remember...these numbers are while school is still going on. When summer kicks in and the kids are out of school, that will push up attendance at week night games on average. They've sold 88.6% of their available tickets so far. That's 4th in MLB.
Sure, but it doesn't hurt to try. NBA makes a big deal when they release their schedule about who is playing on Christmas, and it always includes marquee matchups. Don't see why MLB doesn't do the same thing for July 4, as they're the only major sport playing at that point. And I'm not limiting it to the Astros. Agree on Red Sox/Yankees, and would be fine if they had that series on July 4 as well.
Speaking of attendance, hopefully our home crowd shows up on a Monday night with Yankees fans showing up tonight. Angel Stadium might as well have been Yankee Stadium West last night.
