The 2015 MLB postseason kicks off tonight at 8:00 p.m. ET in the Bronx when the New York Yankees and Houston Astros battle in the AL Wild Card Game. Both clubs will send their aces to the mound in hopes of advancing to the ALDS.
Scroll to the bottom of the page for the AL Wild Card Game live stream and radio broadcast.
Yankees' right-hander Masahiro Tanaka (12-7, 3.51 ERA) and Astros' left-hander Dallas Keuchel (20-8, 2.48 ERA) will make their MLB postseason debuts as each pitcher is tasked with getting his team through a one-game playoff.
Tanaka has only made one start against the Astros in his career (which came this season) and was knocked around for six earned runs on seven hits and two walks over five innings back in late June. On the other hand, Keuchel has dominated the Yankees in three career starts (two of which came in 2015), and is 2-1 with a 1.13 ERA, 0.71 WHIP and 26 strikeouts in 24 innings.
However, Keuchel is pitching on three days' rest for the first time in his career and he also pitched a career-high 232 innings this season. The good news for the Yankees is that the left-hander's worst start of the season came just a couple of weeks ago when he surrendered nine earned runs on 11 hits in just 4 2/3 innings against the Texas Rangers back on Sept. 16.
The bad news for the Yankees is that Tanaka is making only his second start since Sept. 18 after missing time due to a hamstring strain and was hit hard in his last outing against the Boston Red Sox (5 IP, 4 ER, 5 H, 1 BB).
Houston came into the Bronx in late August and took two out of three from the Yanks, but that wasn't all that happened. The two clubs got into a benches-clearing incident when Carlos Gomez and multiple members of the Yankees began jawing at each other, so the retribution factor plays an immense role in tonight's matchup.
New York really needs to find its rhythm after dropping seven of 10 games to end the regular season. The struggles of Brett Gardner, Jacoby Ellsbury and Brian McCann have been well-documented over the second half of the season, and rumors suggested earlier today that manager Joe Girardi is pondering whether to bench some of them tonight.
In fact, Ellsbury will not be in the starting lineup as Girardi has opted to go with Chris Young instead.
Similarly, the Astros struggled down the stretch and relinquished the AL West lead to the Texas Rangers, who will face the Toronto Blue Jays in the ALDS and bypass the one-game playoff. Heading into the month of September, the Astros were 73-59 and maintained a three-game lead over Texas, but Houston finished 13-17 in their final 30 games and lost their hold on the division.
However, all bets are off tonight because the implications of this one-game playoff are bound to bring the best out of every player on both teams.
Click here to see tonight's lineups.
Check out the live stream for tonight's AL Wild Card Game here as well as the live radio broadcast here (NYY) or here (HOU).
