This isn't a fade on the Astros. It's a play on Boston. I'm not going to pass up taking a price with the Red Sox at home.

The pitching matchup is Gerrit Cole versus David Price. There are two ways of looking at this.

The first is the negative view of Price being 0-9 with a 6.03 ERA in 10 postseason starts. That mark has tarnished his legacy.

But I choose the positive view of Price having dominated the Astros in his three years with the Red Sox. Those numbers show Price to have a 2.43 ERA and holding Houston to a .205 batting average across 33 1/3 innings, including working 6 2/3 scoreless relief innings versus Houston in last year's Division Series.

Red Sox manager Alex Cora was a bench coach for the Astros last season. He wouldn't give the ball to Price in this crucial game if he thought he couldn't get the job done. Boston is 20-6 in Price's past 26 starts at Fenway Park.

Augmenting the Red Sox argument is Cole's poor sampling at Fenway Park where he's 0-1 with a 5.73 ERA in two starts.