Everyone in Houston is giving them a lot of respect, at least. They played each other pretty even all year. But in a long series I'd much rather take the better pitching personally - sucks that I'm a bit biased <<<< homer here but followed the sox this year quite a bit.
As far as stats go, the sox are batting mid .360's compared to Houston's .350's for the year. Not a huge difference. I'd also give the clutch hitting angle to the Astros if last year was any indicator. Also, as everyone here knows, the Astros were without Carlos Correa half the season, George Springer was hurt as well as Altuve which sunk our teams BA - as well as being in arguably the toughest division in baseball (top 2 at least imo). They still have more HR's than Boston and comparable slugging in a much tougher division. When the Astros got healthy they nearly swept them. That was the first time they had played Boston mostly healthy - Correa was hurt. Last year Boston got 3-1'd in the post season and they haven't added any quality starters. It's still Sale and Price who has been off and on. But coming out and saying Boston is the best team when they played, yeah that's a stretch. The Astros were still able to play them 4-3 this season despite the injuries. When teams are close to equal in the post season, you want the pitching not the hitting in a 7 game series - stros also have a deep line up.
Best of luck to Sam and his plays as well as the Red Sox backers. Looking forward to a good series. And there's no doubt Sam got a good price.
