A week ago, Atlanta swept Philly too. Any team that makes the World Series is by definition going to be playing well and will have at least a 35-40% chance to win the series.
I agree he's not the same guy, but you just never know. He was terrible in the 2019 ALCS, but he was also a rookie that season. And in fairness, the Astros were collectively awful at the plate in the 2021 World Series. Greinke was one of their best hitters for chrissakes.
Of course. They might even get 5 starts between the two. But it's pretty uncommon for any team to win a series on the backs of two aces. Plenty of teams in that situation have lost. The 2019 Astros had Verlander and Cole coming off two of the best pitching seasons of recent memory and still lost. Randy Johnson/Curt Schilling-type World Series are very rare.
That team lost to a team built on 2 ace pitchers in Scherzer/Strasburg and pretty much no other pitching.
Patrick Corbin. That was the first year of his 6 year/$140m contract. Put up 4.7 fWAR in 202 innings. Was also coming off a 5.8 fWAR 2018 season. They had three strong pitchers and even their fourth, Anibal Sanchez, put up 2.4 fWAR that season. They had a great post-season pitching staff.
