*Game 3 is tonight at 7:08pm Central. FiveThirtyEight gives the Yankees a 53-47 edge with Sabathia vs. Morton.
*Thanks to the Wild Card Game victory in 2015, the Astros are confident going into Yankee Stadium. Hinch:
I think we are right where we need to be in the belief category. From here on, we have the belief that we can be the World Series championship team. We need to play the game of baseball in the moment we're playing. We control our own destiny. We control our own adrenaline level. We're believers before anybody else will be.
*The Astros are approaching the next three games like the series is tied up at 0-0. Hinch:
I don't think anyone in our clubhouse is going to take it for granted that we have a 2-0 lead. This isn't a best-of-two. It's the best-of-seven. Our guys know it. We stayed very focused in the best-of-five against Boston. We're tested enough and have enough players in the clubhouse that understand that there's no celebratory toast going on around here. We don't think the Yankees are going to concede, and they certainly didn't concede against the Indians.
*Alyson Footer: Altuve and Correa are a formidable 3-4 punch.
*The bullpen is rested, and A.J. Hinch will wait until after tonight's game to name his G4 starter.
*Here's an excellent article from Tyler Kepner on how the Astros went from nowhere to the brink of the World Series.
*G3 starter Charlie Morton grew up rooting for the Yankees. He called this evening's game the biggest of his career.
*Dave Sheinin: Inside Altuve's Mad Dash.
*Alex Cora won't be with the Astros for much longer. Hinch:
He's one of the smartest baseball people that I've ever been around. His knowledge of the game, his feel for the game, his feel for players is really exceptional.
NJ.com asks "What's the hype" surrounding Cora.
*ESPN rode the train with our boy Bobby Dynamite.
We didn't come out here to play tiddlywinks, son.
-Hal Smith
