If the New York Yankees are going to advance to the 2017 World Series, they are going to have to do something that hasn't been done in this American League Championship Series yet, and that is to see a road team win a game.
After the first two games of the best-of-seven ALCS, the Houston Astros looked to be in total control. Or did they? Sure, they won both games at Minute Maid Park, but they hardly looked like the team that led the majors in almost every hitting category.
In fact, when you look at the series as a whole, it has been the Yankees who have pitched, hit and have just played better baseball overall than the Astros, especially when they needed it most.
Astros need more home cooking
As already mentioned, the home team has won each game in this series. However, the Yankees won their three home games in a much more convincing manner than Houston did the first two meetings. Nevertheless, if Houston wins Game 6, you know that the Minute Maid Park crowd will be in an all-time frenzy for Game 7.
The odds of Houston forcing a Game 7 look good as they will be sending Justin Verlander to the mound this evening.
Verlander has been lights out for the Astros since they acquired him from Detroit in a last minute beat-the-trade deadline deal in August.
Verlander has been nothing short of spectacular for the Astros since arriving. He finished the regular season with a 5-0 mark with Houston and is currently 3-0 in the postseason. Now Houston fans everywhere are hoping the hard-throwing righthander makes it a perfect 9-0 tonight.
On the other hand, it won’t matter how good Verlander pitches if those Houston bats don’t come around!
Yankees one win away from 41st AL pennant
The new york yankees are one win away from heading back to the fall classic. The Yankees and manager Joe Girardi know they are 27 outs away from heading back to World Series and another matchup against the Dodgers.
Between Brooklyn and Los Angeles, the Yankees vs Dodgers rivalry runs deep.
New York can't put the cart before the horse so to speak because they still have to win one more game. So far New York has not had success in Minute Maid Park in this series. They have scored only two runs combined, one in each game.
The Yankees will be patient with Verlander and try to run the pitch count up early. The Bronx Bombers have had great success against the Astros bullpen in the past three games and they believe if they can get to JV, they will be making World Series plans late tonight. It will be high baseball drama tonight, that is for sure.
Game 6 will get underway at 8 PM ET and air live on FOX Sports1.