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While the National League finds two Wild Card teams fighting it out for a trip to the World Series, the top two teams in the American League remain. Starting on Tuesday, the Houston Astros and New York Yankees will battle in the American League Championship Series.
These two are no strangers to one another as they matched up in the 2015 Wild Card game, 2017 AL Championship Series and 2019 AL Championship Series. With so much familiarity, let’s take a look at this year’s match-up.
Read our Yankees vs. Astros preview for game 1.
Road to the 2022 American League Championship Series
As the top two teams, both of these teams received byes in the first round. As a result, both teams come into this one, having played just a single series.
For New York, they went the full five games, as they took down the Cleveland Guardians three games to two. Due to the weather postponing the series Monday night, these two finished up their series on Tuesday. As a result, they won’t have an off day as the ALCS is set to begin Wednesday.
Houston has enjoyed a bit more time off, as they finished a sweep of the Seattle Mariners in the Divisional series back on Saturday. The series finale was quite a memorable one, though, as the Astros won 1-0 in a whopping 18 innings thanks to a go-ahead home run by rookie shortstop Jeremy Pena in the 18th.
Yankees vs. Astros Preview for 2022 ALCS
Both of these teams are elite on both offense and defense. For New York, they ranked second in the majors in runs per game, averaging 4.95 runs per game. The team was led by All-Star outfielder Aaron Judge, who hit an AL record of 62 home runs to go along with 131 runs batted in and 133 runs scored.
In the postseason, Judge has hit just .200/.238/.500, but he has two home runs and three runs batted in. Harrison Bader has actually led the team with three home runs in just 15 at bats.
On the mound, the Yankees will be at a slight disadvantage, as they were forced to use their top two pitchers, Gerrit Cole and Nestor Cortes, in Games 4 and 5 of the series on Sunday and Tuesday. As a result, those two pitchers may not be available until Game 3.
This is where the Astros benefit as their rotation, which ranked second in ERA (2.87) this season, is rested and set for this series. Justin Verlander (18-4, 1.75 ERA) will take the opener, while Framber Valdez (17-6, 2.82 ERA) and Lance McCullers Jr (4-2, 2.27 ERA) will likely get the next two games.
Offensively, the team ranked eighth in runs this season, averaging 4.55 runs per game. They are led by Yordan Alvarez, who hit .267/.353/.733 with two home runs and seven runs batted in during the first three games of this postseason.
Alex Bregman (.333 avg, HR, 3 RBI) and Yuli Gurriel (.400, HR) have also hit well in the postseason thus far. The Astros are hoping that Jose Altuve, who is a combined 0 for 16 thus far in the postseason, can bounce back in the ALCS.
2022 ALCS Betting Lines
The Houston Astros come into this series as slight favorites. They are -170 to win the series, while the Yankees are +135 to win it. Looking at the World Series, the Astros are currently +160 to win it all, while the Yankees are +260.
2022 ALCS Predictions
Both of these teams have excelled all season long, regardless of the venue. For New York, they were 57-24 at Yankee Stadium, while they were 42-39 on the road. The Astros were similarly dominant at home at 55-26, while they were 51-30 outside of Houston.
While both teams can put up runs in a hurry, this one really might come down to the pitching. Houston’s is extremely deep both at starter and in the bullpen, but more importantly they have their pitching rotation set up exactly as they want it entering the series.
Granted, while Justin Verlander is the favorite to win the AL Cy Young this year, he was roughed up in his one postseason start (6 runs in 4 innings), but expect him to bounce back and set the tone for the series Wednesday night.
Take Houston to win this series (-170) of the two best teams in the American League.
