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Oct 19, 2022 - Sports

ALCS preview: Rested Astros versus rolling Yankees

Kendall Baker
Yankees celebrating

The Yankee dugout reacts to Giancarlo Stanton's three-run blast. Photo: Elsa/Getty Images

The Yankees beat the Guardians, 5-1, on Tuesday night in the Bronx to keep their season alive and hand Cleveland its eighth straight loss in winner-take-all postseason games.

What's next: The Yankees face the Astros starting Wednesday night in the ALCS, where the dominant narrative will be the rest disparity.

  • The Yankees have either played a game or prepared to play a game for six straight days, with two being postponed. Now, they'll play Games 1 and 2 in Houston tonight and tomorrow.
  • The Astros have played three games in two weeks.

Our thought bubble: Sports narratives are funny. Are the Astros rested or rusty? Are the Yankees sluggish or spry? Nobody really knows.

Nevertheless, it will inevitably be the reason for the outcome of this series, as baseball stat guru Jeremy Frank points out:

  • Yankees win: "Man, Houston got totally screwed. Played baseball nearly every day for six months and then only a few games and two weeks, of course they were rusty."
  • Astros win: "Obviously they won, they got to set up their rotation and chill while the Yankees were battling it out."
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