“We’ve tried to do a good job this season about keeping the mind-set of never letting up, ” Tolleson said. “I have no idea”.
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After ending a 29-year postseason drought, the plucky bunch of youngsters swept all the way to the World Series, where they fell in seven games to the San Francisco Giants. The 1987 Minnesota Twins went 29-52 away from home, according to STATS. You get it more when those teams were expected to be on the outside looking in by the time their seasons ended, and you get it when both teams showed a penchant for contending but were still expected to fall back and be nonfactors in the race to a World Series.
“It’s something I haven’t been able to figure out”. “We haven’t been uncomfortable on the road”.
“You can’t let up, ” Texas Rangers closer Shawn Tolleson said, a day ahead of Thursday’s AL Division Series opener. “We haven’t backed down”. When they miss (and it happens often) they look bad. But the parallels between the 2015 Astros and the 2014 Royals proved impossible to ignore after Kansas City’s workout Wednesday afternoon.
With a 3-0 victory on Tuesday, the Houston Astros defeated the New York Yankees in the American League Wild Card game and advance to the AL Division Series. While his own postseason history is checkered at best, the lightning rod with the funky delivery nonetheless gave Kansas City the kind of veteran leadership it had in James Shields a year ago.
Part of the reason may be that the Astros’ offense is predicated on power.
Astros – George Springer and Colby Rasmus. That means there is all the more at stake in Game 1 and it is huge to get the first win on the board for the teams.
“We had a good run last year, but that was last year”, Moustakas said. 337 at Kauffman Stadium.
The Royals were built with the ballpark in mind.
The Royals finished with 91 fewer home runs and a higher team ERA (3.73).
“It’s going to be a tough series”, Royals first baseman Eric Hosmer said.
Now they head into the playoffs for the second straight year, certain the right pieces are in place for another memorable October. The difference in this series will likely come down to how well the young group of Houston players hold up in the first two games at Kaufman Stadium and whether they are still hungry and determined, or satisfied with their already uber success in the 2015 season.
It certainly has worked. They have 230 home runs in the regular season and already 2 so far in the postseason.
“We love the long ball too, don’t get me wrong”.
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In a report, the New York Times said that the Kansas City Royals vs Houston Astros makes for an exciting matchup as both teams are capable of stealing bases but with the very distinct hitters. “Both teams play with a lot of passion and energy”.
