Sports Time Radio

The ALCS kicked off last night as the Houston Astros hosted the New York Yankees in Game 1 of their best of 7 series. With these two offenses I think people where expecting a lot of runs scored, but Dallas Keuchel of the Astros and Masahiro Tanaka of the Yankees had other ideas.

Keuchel threw 109 pitches in his 7 innings of work. He gave up 4 hits, walked 1 while striking out 10 batters and most importantly didn’t give up any runs. Tanaka pitched 6 innings and even stayed in the game after getting hit by a line drive. He threw 89 pitches giving up 4 hits, walking 1 and striking out 3 while giving up 2 runs. With the way starters are handled in the playoffs in todays game it’s a big surprise to see a starter last 6 innings let alone 7 innings, but both of these starters kept their teams in the game and saved the bullpens.

The Yankees only had to call on Chad Green out of their bullpen who handled the other 2 innings of the game for them. Green allowed 2 hits and struck out 2 while giving up 0 runs. Chris Devenski came out of the Astros bullpen to get 1 out, but after walking a batter Houston turned to their closer Ken Giles. Giles pitched the final 1 2/3rds innings for the Astros. He did give up a run while allowing 1 hit a Greg Bird home run he also walked 1, but struck out 4 on his way to picking up the Game 1 save. The Astros picked up a 2-1 win.

Houston had 6 hits in the game and Jose Altuve had 3 of them. Alex Bregman, Carlos Correa and Yuli Gurriel each had a hit for Houston. Correa and Gurriel drove in the runs for Houston. The only Yankees with more than one hit was Bird who had 2 hits and scored the Yankees only run and had their only RBI. Brett Gardner, Aaron Judge and Starlin Castro each had one of the five Yankees hits on the night.

Game 2 of the ALCS is this afternoon. Luis Severino gets the start for the Yankees while Justin Verlander will make the start for the Astros.

By now everybody know the struggle Severino had in his first post season start against Minnesota in the wild card game. He did bounce back in his start against the Cleveland Indians in the ALDS. Severino pitched 7 innings giving up 4 hits and 3 runs while walking 1 and striking out 9. Severino did pick up the win, but 2 of the 4 hits he gave up where home runs. Verlander made 1 start in the Astros ALDS series against the Boston Red Sox, but came out of the bullpen to pitch in anther game and ended up getting wins in both of his appearances. Verlander totaled 8 2/3rd innings if work Houston’s ALDS series. He gave up 7 hits and 3 runs, but actually walked more guys 4 than he struck out 3.

With both bullpens rested as the starting pitchers had extended playoff outings in Game 1 will we see a quicker hook for a Game 2 starter? You also have to wonder with a game under their belts if the hitters will be a little more relaxed and will get some more offense. Of course Verlander has plenty of playoff experience and has the capability of throwing a game similar to Keuchels’s while Severino seems to have gotten past that wild card start and can also shut teams down. Who knows maybe will get two more well pitched games.

The NLCS gets started tonight as the Chicago Cubs visit the Los Angeles Dodgers. Now it’s been known for quite a while that the Dodgers would go with Clayton Kershaw as their Game 1 starter, we where still waiting for the Cubs to announce who they where going to start in Game 1.

It was looking like veteran John Lackey would be the guy who’d get the call. Lackey was one of the few pitcher who did pitch for the Cubs in their five game NLDS series with the Washington Nationals. This morning the Cubs finally announced their Game 1 starter and it’s going to be Jose Quintana.

Quintana just came out of the bullpen two days ago to pitch 2/3rds of an inning in the Game 5 clincher against the Nationals. Quintana’s last post season start was on October 9th as he worked 5 2/3rd innings. Since becoming the Cubs manager Joe Maddon has always had a quick hook with his starters in the playoffs; so you have to wonder how long will see Quintana tonight. Will Lackey finally make an appearance for the Cubs tonight out of the bullpen?

Kershaw started Game 1 of the Dodgers NLDS series against the Arizona Diamondbacks, but he wasn’t exactly Kershaw like. Kershaw did get the win against the Diamondbacks in that game, but he gave up 4 runs on 4 solo homers in that game over 6 1/3rd innings. Kershaw gave up a total of 5 hits while walking 3 and striking out 7. Now this was on October 6; so Kershaw has had plenty of rest coming into tonight’s game.

With the start of the NBA season just three days away it looks like the Cleveland Cavaliers are trying to lessen their luxury tax numbers. It’s being reported that the Cavaliers intend to send Richard Jefferson and Kay Felder along with two 2nd round picks and $3 million dollar to the Atlanta Hawks for the draft rights to Dimitrios Agravanis  and Sergii Gladyr.

Cleveland will send the lesser of the 2nd round picks they own of the Los Angeles Lakers and the Minnesota Timberwolves in 2019 and 2020 that Cleveland acquired from the Portland Trailblazers.

Now that Hawks have no plans to keep Jefferson or Felder as they will waive both of them. That would make them free agents as soon as they clear waivers. Jefferson was scheduled to make $2.5 million dollars this season while Felder would’ve earned $1.3 million dollars.

The trade gets the Cavaliers roster down to 15 ahead of their opening night game on Tuesday. It also saves the Cavaliers $12.8 million dollars against the luxury tax by unloading Jefferson and Felder’s contracts.

Jefferson is 37 years old. He averaged 5.7 points per game and 2.6 rebounds per game last season for the Cavaliers. Felder was a just a rookie last season played in 42 games last season averaging 4.0 points per game and 1.4 assists per game for Cleveland last season.

Where do you think that Jefferson and Felder will end up playing this season?

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