The Kansas City Royals see a little bit of themselves in the Houston Astros. Kansas City won last year's AL Wild Card Game before running through the American League en route to the World Series. The Astros took down the New York Yankees in the ALWC this year, but the Royals will be standing in their way.
Scroll to the bottom for the MLB ALDS live stream and radio broadcast.
"It kind of reminds us of us last year," Royals third baseman Mike Moustakas told The Associated Press, "young and hungry and out there trying to prove to everybody that we deserve to be here."
Kansas City broke a 29-year postseason drought last year while Houston broke a nine-year drought this year and just barely missed claiming their first division title since 2001.
There are certainly a number of similarities, but do the Astros have enough to take down the AL's best team in a five-game series?
We'll see how they start off tonight when they send right-hander Collin McHugh (19-7, 3.89 ERA) to the mound to face Royals' young right-hander Yordano Ventura (13-8, 4.08 ERA). This will be McHugh's postseason debut, while Ventura has five games (four starts) under his belt (1-0 with a 3.20 ERA) from last year's playoff run.
Ventura defeated the Astros earlier this season when he surrendered just one earned run on six hits over seven innings in his only start against them. McHugh did not make a start against the Royals in 2015, but pitched seven scoreless innings against them in 2014 and earned a win.
But perhaps offense is the key aspect to watch in this matchup. The Astros finished sixth in the MLB in runs scored, led the league in home runs and were second in OPS. The Royals finished seventh in runs scored, third in average and 10th in OPS.
Additionally, the Royals were 51-30 at home and the Astros were 33-48 on the road, so Kansas City's home-field advantage could prove to be too overwhelming for Houston's young roster. However, the Astros hit two home runs at Yankee Stadium on Tuesday and scored another run off reliever Dellin Betances, so it's possible things are beginning come together for Houston.
Even if that's the case, they'll still have to deal with a potent lineup in Kansas City, with Eric Hosmer, Kendrys Morales, Salvador Perez, Lorenzo Cain, Alex Gordon, Ben Zobrist and Mike Moustakas.
And it'll start tonight at 7:30 p.m. ET on FOX Sports 1.
Click here for tonight's lineups.
Check out the live stream for tonight's game here as well as the radio broadcast here (KC) or here (HOU).
