The Houston Astros are in unfamiliar territory as they lost game four of the ALDS to the Tampa Bay Rays Tuesday night. These past three years, the Astros have cruised through the ALDS, defeating the Boston Red Sox in four games and sweeping the Cleveland Indians last year. The Rays have proven to be a different team in comparison to previous opponents.
Houston’s ace Justin Verlander didn’t rise to the occasion as he allowed four runs in 3.2 innings of work against Tampa. Those runs were more than enough for the Rays who handled the Astros bats efficiently, only allowing a single run to score. The Rays are now outscoring Houston in the series, even through the 1-2-3 punch of aces Verlander, Gerrit Cole and Zack Greinke.
Two straight bad pitching performances have put the Astros in a spot they are not accustomed to.
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It now comes down to a do-or-die game five in Houston. The Astros will be deploying Cy Young candidate Cole, who already took care of the Rays once in game two, allowing one run in the contest. He showed how he had the single season best strikeout rate of 13.8 over nine innings when he struck out 15 in his last start against Tampa. He achieved that high number by getting the Rays lineup to swing and miss at 33 separate pitches. They could not figure him out.
The Rays will start Tyler Glasnow who boasts a 1.78 ERA in 12 starts this season. If it weren’t for an injury during the season, Glasnow might have been right up there to compete for Cy Young honors. If the Rays could pull this win off at Minute Maid Park, it would be the upset of the decade against one of the most successful teams in baseball as of recent years.
Game five will be Thursday at 7:07 p.m. on FS1.
