Pretty pumped for this series. I feel alot less stress relative to how I'd feel if we were playing the Yankees. Nothing would be sweeter than Yankee tears if we beat them again, but nothing would be worse than losing to them at this juncture.
But the Yankees are done. F them. This is about Astros-Rays. The reigning AL champs vs the biggest threat to their crown. Possibly the two smartest teams in baseball. Going to be alot of good chess with two teams that are very familiar with eachother.
Rays last year kinda reminded me of us in 2015. They were young/inexperienced and not afraid to punch back, but still lacked the belief. This year, they remind me of us in 2017 in that I think the belief is there. Beating the Yankees was a big step/confidence boost for them. I guess it's possible that the Yankees were their Super Bowl this year and a let down is coming, but I doubt it.
I don't think the Click factor should be overlooked in this series. And in a series of two extremely talented teams, any edge (no matter how small) could be the difference. He knows the Rays personnel like the back of his hand. Knows their strengths, weaknesses, their approaches, what they like to hunt on certain counts, what they like to throw in certain situations, etc. And perhaps more importantly, he knows how they go about making decisions, which will give us greater ability to prognosticate their moves in this series.
But players still gotta make plays and the Rays have alot of very very good ones. I heard Jomboy compare the Rays ability to use their entire roster to get matchup advantages to a group of indians making sure all parts of a buffalo kill is utilized haha. Their bullpen is scary AF. Their lineup is sneaky good. Arozarena could be the next MLB superstar.
I honestly don't know exactly what our path to victory is. We just need everyone to step up. Starters gotta get into the 6th inning. Paredes, Taylor, Raley and Pressly have to be good. Or. The offense just needs to keep mashing the sh*t out of the ball like we did against an Oakland staff that everyone thought was good. The logical side of my brain says Rays in 6 or 7, and if they do, I have no problem tipping my cap. But my heart says we got dis.
I'll yield the floor to my best friend Farmer1906 for statistical analysis that will outweigh my qualitative opinions.