League Championship Series Wrap-Up: October 19, 2022
Wednesday’s action opened with the San Diego Padres looking to tie up their series after the Philadelphia Phillies stole Game 1 from the home team. In the evening’s game, the New York Yankees were on the road without the benefit of a travel day to face the top-seeded Houston Astros in the American League Championship Series opener.
Series tied 1-1
WP: Blake Snell
LP: Aaron Nola
S: Josh Hader
Brothers Aaron and Austin Nola faced off as the first pitcher/batter brother duo in MLB postseason history. Austin grounded out in the 2nd inning but drove in the first of a five-run rally that gave the Padres control of the game in the 5th inning.
Manny Machado added an insurance run with a homer in the 7th.
The Padres victory tied the series at one game before heading to the East Coast.
Houston leads series 1-0
WP: Justin Verlander
S: Ryan Pressly
Verlander pitched a quality start for the home team, allowing one run on just three hits with 11 strikeouts over 6.0 IP. Houston backed up his efforts with the long ball, scoring three runs in the 6th inning on dingers by Yuli Gurriel and Chas McCormick to break a 1-1 tie.
Jeremy Peña added on with a 7th inning solo shot.
Anthony Rizzo‘s two-out homer in the 8th inning cut the Yankees’ deficit to two. When Giancarlo Stanton singled, and Josh Donaldson walked to bring the go-ahead run to the plate, Astros manager Dusty Baker called on Pressly to attempt a four-out save. The Astros closer struck out Matt Carpenter swinging to end the 8th and retired the side in the 9th without allowing a baserunner to close out a series-opening victory for Houston.
Thursday will be a travel day for the National League squads. Hostilities will resume in Houston with Game 2 against New York starting at 7:37 PM ET. Our mound matchup will be Luis Severino (regular season 7-3, 3.18 ERA) against Framber Valdez (17-6, 2.82 ERA).
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