ALDS: Astros, BoSox Get First Licks in Real AL Season

Published on 5-Oct-2018 by Alan Adamsson

MLB    MLB Daily Update

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ALDS: Astros, BoSox Get First Licks in Real AL Season

Ever since June, the only real drama in the American League has been esoteric:

  • Will it be the Oakland A's or New York Yankees completing the post-season series bracket, which we now know; and
  • Who gets home-field advantage for each AL post-season series, which we now know.

The winners were those defending World Series champion Houston Astros and the 108-54 Boston Red Sox.

So the junior circuit can finally get its show on the road.

 

True to form, the home teams took Game 1 in their respective best-of-five Division Series.

The 'Stros wasted no time putting Justin Verlander back out their to reprise his October Money role and quickly got the jump on Cleveland's Indians with a 7-2 romp by blasting four shots into orbit:

 

Meanwhile, in a renewal of the series that surely goes back to the roots of American history, what with ...

  • the English taking over New Amsterdam from the Dutch and renaming it New York,
  • calling the Dutch the original cheeseheads by referring to them as Jan Kaas (Dutch for John Cheese),
  • watching the term morph into a drawling Yankees when the South was looking for an insult for the northerners, while
  • Sam Adams morphed from revolutionary to brewing dude and his legacy ultimately left New Amsterdam going flat in the vat of obscurity.

 

Drunk on dreams of dashing those of the Yankees.

The Sox got off to a good start in that respect, jumping out to a lead off the bat of JD Martinez and holding the Bombers at bay to cash in a 5-4 victory:

 

Nothing hints at best-of-five actually meaning best-of-five quite like this opener. It's likely this series could come down to the slightest of factors.

Somewhere, then, while Sam Adams is reaching for another cold one, maybe Babe Ruth is humming the soundtrack to No, No, Nanette.