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<\/p>\nWith a magic number of one entering play on Thursday the Red Sox, well, you know. They didn\u2019t play very well. After a brief surge of excitement to win the first two they went back to middling pitching and quiet bats. The Astros won. The Tigers won. And that coveted playoff spot remained unclaimed.<\/p>\n
Boston needs just one win to make it to October. Or a loss by the Astros to the Angels. And the Tigers stand in their way. The Astros need to win out while the Red Sox lose out in order to keep Boston from October. Of course 2011, 1978, etc. etc. etc. Pepperidge Farm remembers.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Detoit won\u2019t make it easy: Boston sends two of the more inexperienced pitchers against the Tigers who are ready to close the series with the ace and (probable) Cy Young award winner Tarik Skubal.<\/p>\n
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Casey Mize is having a solid year for Detroit. He struggled in July and August before rebounding in September with a 3.68 ERA. Over his last five starts though he\u2019s been a 5.0 inning guy, more or less, with 2 or 3 runs allowed. He has not faced the Red Sox this year. Two or three runs could do it though! He opposes Kyle Harrison who is coming off a nice start agains the Tampa Bay Rays. Across his two appearances with the Red Sox he\u2019s tossed 9.0 innings of 1 run ball with a 7:2 K:BB.<\/p>\n
The Tigers don\u2019t have a listed starter for Saturday. And they\u2019re probably hoping they don\u2019t need Skubal on Sunday. Like the Red Sox with Crochet, aka the TBD Sunday. Not sure how many games the Sox win in the Wild Card if Crochet isn\u2019t available. Early has has gone 5.0, 5.1, and 4.0 innings. He\u2019s struck out 11, 7, and 4. He\u2019s as solid as you can expect for a rookie making his debut in a playoff push.<\/p>\n
If the Red Sox have already lost two and the Astros won two, they will face Tarik Skubal with the season on the line. They will certainly bring the other guy in the running for the AL Cy Young to oppose him. The Guardians made Skubal look silly in his last start by bunting and just poking the ball around. So there\u2019s one strategy.<\/p>\n
By the Power of Bellhorn, just win Friday night and get this over with.<\/p>\n
Friday, September 26: Casey Mize (3.91 ERA \/ 4.04 FIP) vs. Kyle Harrison (3.58 ERA \/ 3.87 FIP)<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n Saturday, September 27: TBD (\u2014 ERA \/ \u2014 FIP) vs. Connelly Early (1.88 ERA \/ 0.91 FIP)<\/p>\n Sunday, September 28: Tarik Skubal (2.21 ERA \/ 0.25 FIP) vs. TBD (\u2014 ERA \/ \u2014 FIP)<\/p>\n When\/Where to Watch<\/strong><\/p>\n Friday September 26: 7:10 PM ET on Apple TV+<\/p>\n Saturday September 20: 4:10 PM ET on NESN<\/p>\n Sunday September 21: 3:05 PM ET on NESN<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With a magic number of one entering play on Thursday the Red Sox, well, you know. They didn\u2019t…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":256508,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[7951,2731,47503,128277,1449,109456,1266,3959,62,1289,34551,26505,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-256507","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-astros","9":"tag-boston","10":"tag-casey-mize","11":"tag-connelly-early","12":"tag-detroit","13":"tag-kyle-harrison","14":"tag-mlb","15":"tag-red-sox","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-tampa-bay-rays","18":"tag-tarik-skubal","19":"tag-the-tigers","20":"tag-united-states","21":"tag-unitedstates","22":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115271538394727827","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256507","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=256507"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256507\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/256508"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=256507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=256507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=256507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/44b7862d1b5c945b5e7dd268cbbfd0b3.jpeg\"\/)
Probable Pitching Matchups<\/strong><\/p>\n