As soon as Ryan Pressly shut the door on the Oakland Athletics, sending the Houston Astros to their fourth consecutive American League Championship Series, a rematch was guaranteed. The only question was: would it be the “sexy” repeat of an Astros/Yankees ALCS that baseball fans were treated to in 2017 and 2019, or another matchup against the scary Tampa Bay Rays, a team that nearly ended Houston’s season in a five-game ALDS last year.
On Friday night, Mike Brosseau launched a dramatic go-ahead solo homer off Aroldis Chapman (sound familiar) in the eighth, Diego Castillo threw nothing but darts in the final two innings, and the franchise previously known as the Devil Rays upended the Yankees 2-1 in a winner-take-all Game 5.