The long cross-country trip for the Phillies and Padres hardly seems like an off day, but it is the only one in the series, as the teams will play up to five straight days beginning on Friday. The Padres are still a slight -115 favorite in their series against the Phillies heading into Game 3, with Ranger Suarez for the hosts and Joe Musgrove for the visitors tomorrow.
What that means is the only game in the postseason tonight is Game 2 between the Yankees and Astros. The Astros took Game 1 by a 4-2 count and are -340 to advance to the World Series per the crew at DraftKings.
The Yankees got everything they could have asked for from Jameson Taillon, given that all they were asking for was a chance. Taillon threw 4.1 innings of one-run ball before giving way to a battered and shorthanded bullpen that surrendered three runs over the sixth and seventh inning, leading to the aforementioned 4-2 loss.
As I wrote about in my series preview and in my Game 1 write-up, the Astros are essentially the Guardians, but with power. We saw that play out in a big way on Wednesday night, as Houston homered three times and struck out only twice. Taillon faced 20 batters and couldn’t retire any of them on strikes. Meanwhile, Justin Verlander struck out 11 to go with the solo homer that he allowed to Harrison Bader.