World Series Preview: A Hard Hitting Affair
Tonight begins the series that all baseball fans are ready for from Opening Day. Most baseball fans aren’t extremely thrilled seeing as their respective team didn’t make it, but for fans of the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Houston Astros, it’s an exciting day. Even if fans aren’t happy with their team’s year, this is a World Series to get excited about. And it all starts with Game 1 tonight in Los Angeles.
How They Got Here
Each of these teams had distinctly different paths to get to the World Series. The Dodgers went on a tear through the regular season, winning a MLB leading 108 wins this season. They had a little bit of a rough patch in September where they lost 11 straight games. But they bounced back at the end of the season winning eight of their last 10. Once the playoffs started, the Dodgers had to wait for the National League Wild Card game to finish before knowing who their opponent would be. This ended up to be the Arizona Diamondbacks who beat the Colorado Rockies 11-8. The Dodgers would go on to beat the Diamondbacks in the NLDS 3-0. They would then go on to face the Chicago Cubs in a series that they absolutely dominated and came out of that 4-1.
The Astros, on the other hand, had a little more competition on their road to the show. The Astros regular season was a success, just like the Dodgers. Winning 101 games during the season, the Astros also won eight of their last 10 games of the season. They played their first series of the playoffs in the championship series. The Astros won 3-1 in a series against the Boston Red Sox. The Red Sox couldn’t match the offensive firepower that the Astros brought in the series. They then went to a battle with the New York Yankees in a series that went seven games where the Astros emerged victorious 4-3. The Astros were nearly eliminated from contention in this series. They were up 2-0 in this series before the Yankees won three straight. The Astros would come back to win two games in a row due to great pitching performances from Justin Verlander in Game 6, and Lance McCullers in Game 7.
The Rosters and Prospective Starters
The Dodgers roster has been improved, some would say, with the addition of shortstop Corey Seager to the roster. To make room for Seager, they had to remove outfielder Curtis Granderson from the roster. Los Angeles will take 12 pitchers into the series including Yu Darvish, Kenley Jansen, and Kenta Maeda, two catchers, six infielders including Seager, Cody Bellinger, and Justin Turner, and five outfielders.
The Astros made no changes to their roster from the ALCS and will take 12 pitchers including Verlander, McCullers, and Luke Gregerson, three catchers (including Game 7 hero Brian McCann), five infielders, and five outfielders.
The starters for Game 1 will be Dallas Keuchel for the Astros and Clayton Kershaw for the Dodgers. This postseason, Keuchel has a 2.60 ERA and 25 strikeouts in 3 starts. Meanwhile, Kershaw has a 3.63 ERA and 16 strikeouts in the same amount of time.
Series Summary
In general, this series promises to be one of the most entertaining World Series in a long time. Los Angeles hasn’t been there since 1988, and the Astros since 2005. Baseball fans may not be happy now, but this promises to be a series that is talked about for a long time.
Main Photo
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