Unser Chat » This postseason may be best remembered for its bullpen op

HOUSTON (AP) — eners. Just not in the AL Division Series between the Houston Astros and Cleveland Indians.Relief pitchers are covering entire games for other championship contenders this October Andre Dawson Jersey , but the Astros and Indians are ready to roll old school, starting with Cy Young Award winners Justin Verlander and Corey Kluber facing off in Game 1 on Friday.“I love starters,” Astros manager AJ Hinch said Thursday. “Why? Because I’ve got good ones. I think that’s the easiest way to fall in love with a rotation and have that mindset, do I want my starters to go deep in the game? Yeah, they’re good.”Cleveland knows the feeling. This series will feature some of the best pitchers in the American League, with Cleveland’s Carlos Carrasco opposing two-time All-Star right-hander Gerrit Cole in the second game Saturday, and Mike Clevinger of the Indians and 2015 Cy Young winner Dallas Keuchel pitching in Monday’s Game 3.Verlander, a 14-year veteran, believes the AL West champion Astros and AL Central champion Indians have the top two rotations in the AL. He thinks the performance of each team’s starters will be paramount to success in this series.“Us and the Indians probably being 1 and 2, however you like to slice it, us and them, them and us,” he said. “Pick your poison. We both have very defined starters who have a great track record and have good stuff. This should be a really fun series.”Kluber pitched well in the postseason in 2016 when the Indians fell to the Cubs in the World Series. But he struggled in the ALDS last year against the New York Yankees while dealing with an aching back. He’s feeling healthier this time around and expecting a stronger performance.“Whether a game I pitch or a month I have or a year I have is good or bad, the way I look at it is I’m looking forward to the next one … not dwelling on previous outings or games, whether they’re good or bad,” he said.Some things to look for as the Indians and Astros open this best-of-five series.CORREA’S BACKHouston shortstop Carlos Correa hit .268 with 13 homers and 49 RBIs in the first half this season but struggled with a back injury for most of the second half. He missed about six weeks and hit just .180 with two homers and 16 RBIs in 37 games after the All-Star break.Though it wasn’t bothering him Thursday, the top overall pick in the 2012 draft said he isn’t sure that the problem is completely behind him.“One day I wake up and I’m fine and one day I wake up and my back is tight again Ron Santo Jersey ,” he said. “Right now, I feel great. I feel ready to go and hopefully it doesn’t come back.”MORTON AND BAUERHouston’s Charlie Morton and Cleveland’s Trevor Bauer could end up starting Game 4, if necessary. However, they might also come out of the bullpen before that if any of their starters struggle. Manager Terry Francona has indicated Bauer could be used to eat up multiple innings like Andrew Miller did for the Indians in the last couple of postseasons.“Our job now is to take who we have now and get the best out of them. … If we get where we want, my guess is that Trevor’s going to be used a ton,” Francona said.DONALDSON’S SEASONThird baseman Josh Donaldson, the 2015 AL MVP, spent most of the season on the disabled list with various injuries before being traded from Toronto to Cleveland on Aug. 31. He looked good in limited action at the end of the season, hitting .280 with three homers and seven RBIs in 16 games. The Indians hope he regains the form he’s shown in five career postseasons where he’s hit .292 with four homers and 13 RBIs.He’s looking forward to contributing after the tough path it took to get back on the field this year.“I definitely didn’t know if I was going to make it back this season,” he said. “But I was trying to do everything possible that I could, and I feel very fortunate and blessed to be in the position that I am right now and to hopefully help these guys achieve their ultimate goal.”VALUE OF SPEEDBoth the Astros and the Indians used one of their final roster spots on players who are valuable for their speed. Houston picked rookie Myles Straw over carrying a third catcher and the Indians went with Rajai Davis over backup shortstop Erik Gonzalez.Straw has been used almost exclusively as a pinch-runner since being called up on Sept. 15, and Hinch raved about what a player like him can do for a team in the postseason.“Straw can be a huge impact on the bases. … He is so fast he forced the third catcher off the roster,” Hinch said. “And that gives us a lot of weapons.”Davis was big for the Indians during their 2016 playoff run, hitting a tying home run in Game 7 of the World Series that Cleveland lost to the Cubs in 10 innings. The speedy Davis has proven to still be a threat on the bases this season and has 21 steals despite approaching his 38th birthday.Donaldson said the speed of Davis could really help Cleveland this postseason.“In the playoffs, I think what you look for is being able to score in a multitude of different ways: One, the home run ball; B is small ball; and then, three http://www.chicagocubsteamshop.com/authentic-david-ross-jersey , just pure speed,” he said. “And that’s what he brings.” Seattle’s postseason hopes were all but extinguished when it went 19-18 over the past five weeks but the tiny flame that still burns makes the Mariners‘ final three-game road series, which begins Friday against the Texas Rangers at Globe Life Park, even more important.The Mariners will send right-hander Erasmo Ramirez (2-3, 5.65 ERA) to the mound for the series opener while Texas will counter with right-hander Ariel Jurado (3-5, 7.01).Seattle travels north from the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex after a 9-0 victory over defending World Series champion Houston on Wednesday that allowed the Mariners to take two of three games from the Astros.Article continues below ...The nine-run winning margin was the biggest of the season for Seattle, a squad that has specialized in close wins and still has a run differential of minus-38 despite being 16 games over .500.They are 7 1/2 games behind Oakland for the final wild card spot with 10 games to play. Seattle went 7-2 in Houston this season.“We’ve played well here all year,” Mariners manager Scott Servais said. “Our guys enjoy coming in here, they swing the bats well here. I think a few of our guys get energized here for whatever reason. One of our goals was to play better against them, and we certainly have. It’s nice coming in here and beating them, no doubt.”The Mariners (84-68) have clinched a winning season, and 2018 is only the third time in franchise history that Seattle was never under .500 for the entire campaign. The Mariners were exactly .500 three times this year (at 1-1, 3-3 and 4-4) but never fell under the break-even line. The only other seasons Seattle has been .500 or better every day of the season were 1996 and 2001.Texas heads into its final home series of the season after being swept by Tampa Bay earlier in the week, including Wednesday afternoon’s 9-3 rout. At least Texas found home plate in the series finale — it was shut out the first two games of the set and was outscored 16-3 over the three games with the Rays.The Rangers are 64-88, have lost 16 of their last 22 games, and are headed for their second straight losing campaign. Texas admitted early in the season that it was in a rebuilding mode and would use younger players throughout the second half of the year to hone their skills for the future.“We will try to get some of the younger guys in the lineup and continue to find at-bats for those guys,” Texas manager Jeff Banister said. “I still believe Ryne Sandberg Jersey , thinking about the vision of moving forward, every at-bat, every pitch, every play for some of these young guys are going to be valuable going forward for this team next year. Every experience is valuable experience.”Multiple sources are reporting that the Rangers are contemplating replacing Banister after the season, even though he is under contract for 2019. The Rangers exercised the option they held on him for next season shortly after the 2017 season ended. Those same reports also said that no final decision about changing managers has been made.Ramirez will make his ninth start of the season Friday, his seventh since being activated from the disabled list Aug. 12 after a right teres major strain. He had a no-decision in his most recent start, a 6-5 Mariners victory over the Los Angeles Angels on Saturday.Ramirez is making his 17th career appearance (eight starts) against the Rangers and is 0-2 with one save and 6.42 ERA versus Texas.The 22-year-old Jurado will make his 11th appearance and eighth start of the season after following an “opener” in each of his last three outings, going 1-1, with an 8.31 ERA in those appearances. He last worked in the Rangers’ 6-3 win Saturday at San Diego, entering in the second inning and picking up the win via four innings of three-run, seven-hit pitching.Jurado has gone 1-1 with a 5.60 ERA over his first four games (three starts), three of them starts, at Globe Life Park. He has never faced the Mariners.