2017 American League Championship Series, Game 1: Astros vs. Yankees, Friday 10/13, 7 p.m. CT

While the Cubs and Dodgers prepare for the NLCS to begin Saturday evening in Los Angeles, the Yankees and Astros will begin the ALCS Friday in Houston.

Masahiro Tanaka vs. Dallas Keuchel

Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports

Hm. Do either of those guys ever smile?

Masahiro Tanaka threw seven shutout innings in Game 3 of the Yankees’ division series win over the Indians. He was also Dallas Keuchel’s opponent in the 2015 A.L. wild-card game. Tanaka allowed two runs in five innings in that one, but Keuchel was magnificent, throwing six shutout innings as the Astros won.

That game was only two years ago. It’s amazing how many players on both teams from that game are no longer on the respective roster.

Should make for an interesting pitching matchup, and I’d expect a low-scoring affair tonight.

Here is the complete MLB.com Mediacenter for today.

MLB.com Gameday (classic mode)

(Note: Going forward, I am going to link to the “classic” Gameday here because MLB.com broke the links I used to use to get to their “new” Gameday. If you click on this link, you can then click on “New Gameday” at the bottom of the page to get to the updated version. Note that the “classic” Gameday won’t load until just before game time.)

Baseball-reference.com game preview

SB Nation game preview

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This is the only thread for today’s game. Enjoy, and discuss amongst yourselves.