The Astros bullpen, which has struggled, continued to shut down the Yanks for the final three innings, striking out three more Yankee batters.
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When the Houston Astros had recorded the final out in Yankee Stadium on Tuesday night, they flooded onto the field in a wild celebration, all their years of losing finally a memory.
In the first year after Derek Jeter’s retirement, the Yankees ended their two-year absence from the postseason but did not reach the Division Series.
The plus for the Yankees, though, is that they’ll have home-field advantage – for what it’s worth.
“Felt like playoff baseball”, the bearded left-hander said. “I did get a little nervous initially but we’ve already done one segment of ‘Baseball Tonight, ‘ so I’m good now”, he said. This season, the team has hit a lot of home runs, stolen a lot of bases and come up big defensively.
“When we left spring training, it wasn’t what I expected”, Girardi said.
For the Yankees, the loss will make this the team’s sixth straight season falling short of the World Series, the longest gap since a long dry spell from 1982 to 1995. Maybe we were out of gas, maybe we were too banged up. What made the performance even more impressive was that it came on three days rest; the first time Keuchel has pitched under those circumstances in his career.
It begins with pitching and the Yankees thought they had it. Masahiro Tanaka was victimized once again by the home run ball and he gave the Astros two opportunities to hit the ball out of the park as Colby Rasmus and Carlos Gomez went after the first pitch in the second and fourth innings. Pinch runner Jonathan Villar stole second and scored on Jose Altuve’s weak two-out single to left. This season, he missed six weeks with a knee injury. Brett Gardner took Ellsbury’s spot in center field and atop the batting order.
Pazos got the lefty opening created when CC Sabathia left the team this week to enter an alcohol rehabilitation center. But it was a lineup dominated by thirtysomethings, and thirtysomethings in hellacious slumps. He struck out three. In his last 19 post-season at-bats with runners in scoring position, Rodriguez has zero hits. Even if you’re in the wild card, as we saw past year with Kansas City, then you can go pretty deep.
The Houston Astros were Major League Baseball doormats for many years, but their promising young players have developed into prime-time performers and it was time for a champagne party in the visitors’ clubhouse on Tuesday.
There is reason for hope among the younger Yankees.
If you have access to a cable subscription, you can watch the game online for free through Fox Sports GO. Luis Severino, a 21-year-old right-hander, joined the rotation in August and showed promise, as did Bird and Refsnyder. The hits allowed were all singles and no Yankees baserunner got past second base.
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The Yankees were written off before the season as an aging club that would not contend. Instead, a few of the old war horses such as Rodriguez and the now-injured Mark Teixeira powered the team to success.
