6th Oct - AL Wildcard Yankees vs Astros

The oddsmakers and just about every one has this down as being an extremely tight game. It’s a natural reaction to these Wildcard match-ups where the teams with the fourth and fifth best record go up against one another in a clash between their top two pitchers. Throw in the fact that the match-up between two surprising teams in the Houston Astros, who were supposed to be re-building, and the New York Yankees, who most thought were over the hill, and you have an even more highly anticipated game.

We’re not buying any of it. Take this match-up out of the occasion and put it in as a part of the regular season schedule and the Astros would probably be 10/21 favourites, or something close to that. Here’s a few reasons why:

Mark Teixeira

He was a huge part of this ball club. They’ve survived without him, but the order is missing something when he’s not in the line-up. In his absence, there’s a lot of reliance on an ageing Alex Rodriguez, who has rarely shined at his brightest at this time of year.

Dallas Keuchel

It’s a match-up between two top pitchers, but Keuchel is in a different league to Tanaka. He’s 20-8 on the season, he dominated his last two match-ups and he’s shut the Yankees out in two previous meetings this season. He’s been on a mission during 2015-16 and there’s no reason to anticipate that he’ll come unstuck now.

Hungry Houston

This is a young ball-club, they’ve re-discovered their hitting form over the last week or so and they’re hungry to progress. They’ve got better speed, they’ve got a better defense and we just think that in a one-off game, yes anything could happen, but if you’re betting on this, take a big Astros win, we don’t care that they are on the road.