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Astros' McHugh laments missed opportunity to avoid 1-game playoff

Joe Nicholson / Reuters

On Tuesday night, the Houston Astros and New York Yankees will fight for the right to play in the American League Division Series. Though the Yankees compiled a better record during the regular season, notching one more win than Houston, that point will become moot the moment Masahiro Tanaka hurls the first pitch in the Bronx in the AL wild-card game.

For some, the notion of resolving a six-month battle over the course of just nine innings is frustrating.

"It's definitely difficult," Astros right-hander Collin McHugh told the Houston Chronicle of coping with a single-elimination game. "It's everything. It's the entire season in one game, which is tough."

Then again, McHugh acknowledged that the Astros, who boasted a three-game lead atop the division on Sept. 1, could've avoided the one-game playoff with stronger play down the stretch.

"You know, that's the way it works out. It is what it is," he said. "You don't like it, play better, right?"

Certain players, however, relish the excitement of a one-game playoff. Jed Lowrie, a member of the Oakland A's team that fell to the Kansas City Royals in 12 innings in last year's AL wild-card game, is one of them.

"The one I played in was probably the most intense game I've ever been a part of," Lowrie said. "It felt like a three-game series almost in one game. So it was a lot of fun. The energy from the crowd, the swings in the game - it's about as intense as baseball can get."

Though Pat Neshek, the Astros setup man, suggested revisions could be made to the current playoff format, pitting two teams against each other in a one-game playoff is still preferable to the old system.

"I feel like they need to make it at least a three- or a five-game series," Neshek said. "But I mean, it's still the potential to get into the playoffs, where five years ago (before this system was put in place and there was only one wild-card team in each league), you just go home if you're the second wild card."

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