Quick Predictions for the Fight: ALDS Game One

As Clubber Lang stated in Rocky III, this 2018 ALCS matchup is going to bring pain. The powerhouse 106-win Red Sox against the 100-win Yankees.

Their first postseason match-up since 2004. A 2018 regular season match-up record of 9-10 in favor of the Red Sox.

This series can truly go either way, and here are some of my quick predictions for how it will go down:

ALCS Predictions 2018:

Game One: J.A. Happ vs. Chris Sale

One great benefit of college is that I’m able to meet a whole bunch of new people from all around the country and the world. This also means I have met a fair amount of Red Sox fans who found themselves on the PA-NJ border. However, I mention this because:

Red Sox fans are worried about Chris Sale’s arm from his two DL stints for his left shoulder, and they don’t know what to expect out of him, and there isn’t much optimism in their eyes.

From here, I’m going to expect that Chris Sale is not going to make it past the 4th inning. He’s going to pitch well, and keep the Yankees to 1/2 runs, but he’s going to come out earlier than people expect.

J.A. Happ, on the other hand, is going to disappoint from the high expectations Yankee fans are going to have for him based off of his excellence against the Red Sox this year. He’ll go 6 innings, surrender 2 runs on 4 hits and keep the Yankees in the game.

The effect of needing to take out Chris Sale early is going to hurt the Red Sox later in the series as they are going to need to use their best arms early and often for tonights game, as I am predicting it will be close. This will play up again come Games 3/4* when they play in the Bronx.

The Yankees bullpen used tonight will be: Chad Green, Jonathan Holder, and David Robertson to get them from the 7th through the end of the game. They’ll give up a collective 1 run on 3 hits, and seal the victory.

Mookie Betts is going to be unstoppable and annoy Yankee fans during the game. However, J.D. Martinez will be held hitless tonight.

The key Yankee player tonight will be Andrew McCutchen, who will go 1-2 with two walks and a double. He’ll score two runs in the game and make a good play on defense.

Adeiny Hechavarria will be subbed in for Miguel Andujar again in the 6th/7th inning for his defense. Hopefully he makes another insane play like from the WC Game.

Final Predicitons:

Yankees Win 5-3.