First pitch: Tuesday, 8:00 p.m. ET
Line: Houston -110, New York +100, Total: 7.0

The Astros and Yankees will be vying for a spot in the Division Series with a win in New York in the Wild Card Game on Tuesday.

Both the Astros and the Yankees made things very difficult on themselves, sneaking into the Wild Card Game after really struggling down the stretch. Houston lost its final game of the series and could have blown its chances of playing in this game if the Angels were able to defeat the Rangers in game 162. The Yankees, meanwhile, ended the season with three straight losses and have also lost seven of their past 10 games. Both teams will be bringing out their aces in this win or go home matchup, as LHP Dallas Keuchel (20-8, 2.48 ERA, 216 K) of the Astros will be going up against RHP Masahiro Tanaka (12-7, 3.51 ERA, 139 K) of the Yankees. Houston will be feeling extremely confident with Keuchel on the mound, as the team is 21-7 against the money line when Keuchel starts in a game with a total of 7 to 8.5 this season. New York, meanwhile, is 42-26 against the money line after two or more consecutive road games this season. The Astros lineup will be at nearly full strength on Monday, as OF Carlos Gomez (Side) is questionable but expected to play. The Yankees will be without 1B Mark Teixeira (Shin) for the rest of the year, but are relatively healthy outside of that.

Dallas Keuchel comes into this playoff game after having allowed just four earned runs in his last 20.2 innings of work. The last time he pitched against the Yankees, the Astros won 15-1 in New York. He threw seven innings of shutout baseball in that game and racked up nine strikeouts in doing so. He’ll be looking to repeat that performance on Tuesday in order to get his team into the next round. While Tanaka can be a dominant pitcher, a few members of this Astros team have found success against the pitcher. He is prone to making a mistake or two in each game and this Houston team will make him pay for that. SS Carlos Correa (.279, 22 HR, 68 RBI) enters the postseason after going 4-for-12 with four runs, a homer and four RBI in the final series of the year against the Diamondbacks. He is 2-for-3 with a homer and two RBI against Tanaka in his career and will be looking to keep giving the starter trouble on Tuesday. 2B Jose Altuve (.313, 15 HR, 66 RBI) and 1B Chris Carter (.199, 24 HR, 64 RBI) have also hit homers off of Tanaka in their careers. They’ll both be looking to take advantage of the short porch in Yankee Stadium in this game. One x-factor in this game could be OF Carlos Gomez (.255, 12 HR, 56 RBI), who has not played since Sep. 30 for the Astros. He is questionable for this one, but he is a dangerous hitter and is 2-for-2 with a double against Tanaka in his career. He’d provide a major spark if he were to be in the lineup for this game.

Masahiro Tanaka struggled the last time he took the mound this season, allowing four earned runs on five hits in just 5.0 innings of work. If the Yankees are going to advance to the next round then they will need their ace to deliver a near flawless performance, as he’ll be facing off against a pitcher that turns those in regularly. Tanaka has faced Houston just once this season and had a lot of trouble in that start, allowing six earned runs and three homers in just five innings of work. New York did, however, win that game 9-6. Another performance like that one will surely mean that the Yankees will be watching the rest of the playoffs at home, as he can not expect to get that type of run support in this one. Offensively, OF Carlos Beltran (.276, 19 HR, 67 RBI) is somebody that has had success against Keuchel in the past. He is 4-for-9 with a homer and two RBI against him in his career and finished the season off with a 3-for-3 game against the Orioles on Sunday. He’ll be hoping to keep that up heading into this one. OF Jacoby Ellsbury (.257, 7 HR, 33 RBI) is somebody that will need to get back on his game. He went 0-for-8 in the final two games of the year and must get on base in this one.