Who Should Rays Fans Root For? Astros/Royals Edition

A couple of nights ago, the Astros did what everyone in baseball beside Yankees fans were hoping for as they defeated New York in the Bronx, shutting them out in the process.

In fact, the game was well over before the last out, at least Yankee fans thought so. An exodus of fans left the game following the seventh inning. Everything broke right for Houston, but tonight, they'll be engaging a team where seemingly nothing goes wrong from them, as they'll head to Kansas City and take on the Royals.

On July 28th, the Royals were already situated atop the American League Central, then they acquired longtime Ray, Ben Zobrist and Johnny Cueto. With Zobrist joining the top of their line-up, it became one of the top five in the game, meanwhile Cueto was supposed to give them an ace, but he has floundered since arriving.

This will be the Royals second year in a row playing in the postseason, having come so close to winning last year, and it might be a different story if Alex Gordon had went for it instead of settling in at third base. To be fair, it's what his coach told him to do, but it is one of the more memorable world series moments in recent history.

Alas, he didn't go for it and was stranded at third as the San Francisco Giants took their third world title in five years.

In Houston, they made a couple of deadline deals of their own as they acquired another longtime Ray in Scott Kazmir and Carlos Gomez, if only to take pity on Wilmer Florez. However, Houston actually struggled after making the deals as thy went 30-31 following the 28th and just narrowly avoided missing the playoffs as they finished just a game ahead of the Angels for the second wild card spot.

With their decisive victory over New York, Houston won their first playoff game since the 2005 National League Championship Series, where they took four out of six against St Louis, only to be swept by the White Sox in the world series. Since then, Houston has been toiling in the basement in both of the western divisions having been switched to the AL in 2013.

How they matchup:

The Astros have more power, but the Royals are much better at getting on base.

The front three for Houston:

The front three for Kansas City

Personally, I'd love for Kansas City to make it back to the world series, not because of the team, but just for Ben Zobrist who deserves a chance at getting a ring. The same could also be said for the Astros as well, due to Scott Kazmir existing on their roster, but looking at the players above, it looks to me that the Royals have the advantage over a five game series, and two Rays players to one. I see you Wade Davis!

The Astros and Royals play at 7:37 EST of Fox Sports 1.