In an era when openers are in vogue and they’re facing the team who started the trend, everything’s coming up aces for the Houston Astros this postseason.
Houston will start Justin Verlander in Game 1 of the AL Division Series against Tampa Bay on Friday, followed by Gerrit Cole on Saturday night in Game 2 and Zack Greinke in Monday’s Game 3. It’s a group of pitchers that are arguably the best in baseball and some believe to be the finest collection of arms on one team in the majors in years.
“As long as I’ve got the type of top-end rotation, then I certainly firmly believe in the starting pitcher setting the tone and doing all the things that a normal, traditional starting pitcher would do ... I love the three at the top of our rotation, and I’ll take that model every day,” Houston manager A.J. Hinch said.
Hinch and Rays manager Kevin Cash have been friends for years, and before the Astros played Tampa Bay in late August he thought about texting Cash to needle him a little about their different philosophies on starting pitchers.
“[What] I wanted to do in August was text him and say: ‘I don’t know if you’re going with an opener, but I’m going with Verlander, Greinke and Cole,'" Hinch said. “And the same goes for this series.”
Despite their penchant for openers, the Rays will go with three true starters in the first three games of this series. Tyler Glasnow will start Game 1, 2018 AL Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell gets Game 2 and Charlie Morton, who got the win in their wild-card game against Oakland Wednesday night, will start Game 3.
Though all three are starters, it’s unclear how long Glasnow and Snell will be able to go after both missed huge chunks of the season with injuries. Glasnow sat out from May 11-Sept. 8 with a right forearm strain and pitched just 4 1/3 innings in his last start. Cash said he thinks it’s “reasonable” to expect Glasnow to be able to pitch six innings on Friday.