HOUSTON (SportsRadio 610)- With Cardi B blasting from the speakers of an Astros clubhouse that reeked of champagne, beer and cigar smoke, Carlos Correa summed up how the baseball world views the American League Championship Series between the Astros and Yankees.
"It's must-watch TV," a shirtless, goggle-wearing Correa said after the Astros 6-1 win over the Tampa Bay Rays in game five of the American League Division Series.
A seven-game series between the Astros and Yankees felt inevitable for much of the summer, but just because it is happening doesn't mean both teams had an easy road to get to this point.
"I think both teams got here and they earned their way here maybe not as easily as people want to think," Astros manager A.J. Hinch said. "I think both teams had injuries. Both teams played well in the face of expectations, and it's just not a simple plug-and-play season. 162 games will expose you to a lot of different challenges."
The Astros needed all five games to dispatch Tampa Bay after winning a franchise-record 107 games during the regular season, while the Yankees followed a 103 win season with a three-game sweep of the Minnesota Twins.
"They've got a really good team," Alex Bregman said. "So do we.
"They hit the ball out of the ballpark. They've got good pitching. It's very similar to our team. Both teams are a little banged up during the year and persevered until we got to the ALCS, and we get to match up with them again. It was an unbelievable series we had with them during the regular season. It's going to be fun, man. It's going to be a blast."
Houston won four-of-seven meetings during the regular season, sweeping a three-game set at Minute Maid Park in April before losing three-of-four at Yankee Stadium in June, so when they take the field Saturday night it will be the first time they've seen one another in almost four months. Zack Greinke will deliver the series' first pitch at 7:08 Saturday night, and he doesn't think it matters that he has faced the Yankees twice this season.
"Their whole team was hurt both times that I faced them pretty much."
Greinke was with the Diamondbacks when he faced the Yankees during the season, and that's the uniform he was wearing when the Astros won a terrific seven-game series against the Yankees two years ago. The Boston Red Sox ruined a possible rematch last October, but Hinch says he's looking forward to the matchup in 2019.
"This is a rivalry that's been created over the last few years, and everybody will think back to the 2017 epic seven-game series and expect this to top it. I hope it does. And I hope it's the same result. I liked celebrating at the end of that one."
