‘BIG MAPLE’ DELIVERS FOR BRONX BOMBERS
Canadian hurler Paxton stymies Astros to send ALCS back to Houston for Game 6
There was always going to be an element of risk mixed with some doubt for both the player and his new baseball team.
But Canadian James Paxton believed he was ready for the brighter lights and the New York Yankees needed a stud for their starting rotation.
So with the man they call Big Maple successfully transplanted to the Bronx on a desperate Friday night at Yankee Stadium when his team needed him the most, how would it unfold?
The lefty delivered a mammoth moment for the storied franchise, tossing a critical post-season victory for a frustrated group of Yankees and their fans. Striking out nine Houston Astros batters through a grinding six innings of work, Paxton helped the Yankees to a 4-1 Game 5 win that fended off elimination in the ALCS.
The best-of-seven series resumes in Houston on Saturday night with the Astros leading 3-2 and having yet another opportunity to advance to the World Series.
Staked to a three-run lead in the first inning, thanks to a solo home run from DJ Lemahieu and a three-run blast from Aaron Hicks, Paxton showed himself and his relatively new team plenty on a boisterous night at the great stadium.
Feeding off the electricity of the sellout crowd of 48,483, he seemed to get stronger as the frigid night went on, striking out nine in total.
Five of those came in his last three innings of work, and the total was more than any Canadian pitcher had recorded in an MLB post-season game.
The Yankees certainly needed that kind of a performance to extend the series and got it from a pitcher that manager Aaron Boone believed had the tools and the personality to survive on the biggest stage.
“He’s got to go out and pitch well and set the tone for us,” Boone said prior to the game. “We want to get on that plane to Houston now and that all starts with Pax.”
Actually, the initial tone that played out was the last thing the Yankees needed. The game actually started with an infield single, a passed ball, a walk and a wild pitch to give the Astros a 1-0 lead before a ball was even hit out of the infield.
When the Yankees finally showed some pop with four runs in the bottom half, there were sighs of relief all around.
From Paxton, who could get back to the mound and buckle down. From the crowd, which was still burning from the sloppy loss the previous night. And from Boone, who was no doubt feeling the heat.
The Astros, after all, had Justin Verlander on the mound, a guy who hadn’t allowed that many runs in an inning since joining the team in 2017.
Predictably, the Houston ace settled in for his usual brilliance, leaving Paxton to keep the savvy Astros hitters at bay. In fact, after allowing the four runs, Verlander pitched a one-hit shutout the rest of the way.
But Paxton was undaunted.
Not by the situation and not by the fact he went just 21/3 innings in Game 2 back in Houston.
The Ladner, B.C. native didn’t have a clean three-up, threedown inning, but with his breaking ball at its vexing best and a fastball still touching 96 miles per hour late in his outing, the Astros never threatened to score under his watch.
The fact that Paxton appeared to get stronger the deeper he went only added to the drama. When Boone came out for a chat in the sixth, the Yankee skipper was initially booed, then cheered as the 30-year-old southpaw sent him back to the dugout with assurances he was fine.
It wasn’t always pretty and Verlander was certainly more efficient, but Paxton allowed just four hits and four walks. His 112 pitches were the most any Yankees pitcher had tossed all season.
It was a major moment for Paxton, who had spent the entirety of his career in the relative familiarity of the Pacific Northwest with the Mariners. But when Seattle dealt him to the sport’s most impassioned franchise, Paxton’s world was about to change.
He set career highs in wins and starts in his first season with the Yankees, much of it setting the stage for a Friday night in October and his team facing elimination.
Big Maple meet the Big Apple. A match that for one night, anyway, was a perfect post-season fit.
BACK TO HOUSTON
So with a long flight and a quick turnaround prior to Game 6 Saturday night at Minute Maid Park, will Astros manager A.J. Hinch go to his other ace, Gerrit Cole?
“You know, Game 6 is tomorrow,” Hinch said prior to the game.
“I’ve said this for the first four games and leading into Game 5: we have a single mindset of a single game.
“I have a plan and we’ll discuss it (Saturday) if there is a game.”
AROUND THE BASES
For the first time since he suffered a minor quad injury in Game 1, Yankees slugger Giancarlo Stanton was back in the lineup.
Inserted at DH, Stanton was booed lustily after strikeouts in the first and sixth innings ... It was a historical hurdle facing the Yankees after falling into a 3-1 series hole. In the 86 previous 3-1 situations in either LCS or World Series play, 73 teams holding the lead went on to win the series.