Eat Canned Food and Watch Baseball: ALCS Game 1 Open Game Thread

Are we having fun yet? As the wind and rain beats against the walls and roofs I hope you all are safely within, spectacular baseball continues to be delivered to us, the people. Thank you, baseball gods, for our delicious bread and circuses free of killer clowns. In the seven game regular season series between these two teams, Cleveland edged Toronto 4-3, despite being outscored 38-24. A playoff series like that might make my head explode, or at least believe that somehow the Blue Jays had caught whatever luck magic the Rangers had all year and immediately transferred it to their opponents in Cleveland.

Toronto at Cleveland – 5:00 PM PT

I will never forgive Corey Kluber for receiving what should have been The King’s second Cy Young. That does not prevent me from recognizing that this year he was one of the best pitchers in baseball, even as it may have been his worst of the last three years. Kluber’s sinker and offspeed-heavy style is a tough matchup for the righty mashers of Toronto. While his numbers at home (3.60 FIP, 1.11 WHIP) trail his road stats (2.90 FIP, 1.00 WHIP), Cleveland’s short rotation and heavily taxed bullpen will likely need Kluber to stand strong to give them confidence in this series. Marco Estrada’s lone postseason start this year was a win in an 8.1 IP gem where he allowed just four hits and didn’t walk a single Texas Ranger.

FiveThirtyEight: 58% Cleveland win.

Former Mariners check: Toronto has three of the four remaining former Mariners’ (or Mariners’ system) players on their active LCS roster: OF Ezequiel Carrera, P JA Happ, and OF Michael Saunders.

Root as you please.