The Houston Astros and Oakland Athletics will continue their American League Division Series at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles on Tuesday. Houston owns a 1-0 series lead after notching 16 hits in Game 1 HOU 10, OAK 5. The AL West rivals are meeting in the postseason for the first time.

Now, let’s set the scene for Game 2 with the essentials.

How to watch

Date: Tuesday, Oct. 6 | Time: 4:37 p.m. ET
Location: Dodger Stadium (Los Angeles, California)
TV: TBS | Stream: TBS app
Odds: OAK -111; HOU +101; O/U: 9
Pitchers: LHP Sean Manaea vs. LHP Framber Valdez
Follow: MLB Sports App
Preview

The Astros and A’s hit for a combined six home runs at Dodger Stadium on Monday. Houston’s Carlos Correa went deep twice in the win, adding to his recent hot streak in the playoffs. The shortstop now has three homers in three 2020 postseason games. Khris Davis, Sean Murphy and Matt Olson homered for the A’s. Alex Bregman hit a home run to go along with Correa’s

two for Houston.For Game 2 of the ALDS, the clubs will send out their lefty starters to face off. It’ll be Sean Manaea for the A’s and Framber Valdez for the Astros. Manaea didn’t pitch in the AL Wild Card Series, so Tuesday’s game will be his first start since Sept. 23. The southpaw faced the Astros on Sept. 10, finishing with one run in seven innings in a 3-1 win. Valdez will start in Game 2 after throwing five scoreless innings out of the bullpen during the Astros’ Game 1

victory over the Twins in the AL Wild Card Series. Valdez struck out nine against Oakland when he faced the team back on Aug. 8. He gave up just two runs (one earned) on seven hits over seven innings.Prediction I’ll go with the Astros winning Game 2. The A’s offense struggled to get runs on the board with runners in scoring position during Monday’s loss. Manaea can be susceptible to home runs, so let’s say Correa continues his playoff long ball streak with another Tuesday and Houston takes Game 2.

The MLB Division Series matchups have unintentionally become a matchup of division foes, and first up on the calendar is a battle of AL West opponents.The Oakland Athletics, coming off a series win against the Chicago White Sox, will start their best-of-five series against the Houston Astros, who finished off a two-game sweep of the Minnesota Twins on Wednesday.This season, Oakland owned the series against Houston, winning seven of the 10 games against one another.

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The series-opening matchup will see a pair of starters toe the rubber that have been on top of their respective games as of late.Lance McCullers for the Astros hasn’t allowed an earned run in any of his past three starts spanning 17 2/3 innings. The Athletics’ Chris Bassitt is coming off an impressive 2020 campaign himself, having owned a 2.29 ERA and capping the month of September off with a 0.34 ERA.

These are two teams that had some bad blood this year. In August, a benches-clearing brawl between the Athletics and Astros took place after Astros bench coach Alex Cintron and A’s outfielder Ramon Laureano got heated at one another.

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