KEUCHEL DEFUSES THE BOMBERS
Bearded Houston starter tames Yankees’ big bats for Game 1 win, writes Rob Longley.
HOUSTON Any day of the week, any situation, Dallas Keuchel loves facing the New York Yankees.
But never has that feeling been more powerful than on Friday night at a fired-up Minute Maid Park.
As he has done throughout his career, the bearded, cocksure starter shut down the Bronx Bombers in dominant fashion, leading the Astros to a 2-1 win in the opening game of the AL Championship Series.
Helped by just enough offence from his potent AL West teammates, Keuchel was masterful, just as he has been throughout his career against the storied Yankees.
Pitching seven shutout innings, the lethal lefty became the first Astros pitcher to strike out 10 in a post-season game since the great Nolan Ryan did so in the 1986 NLCS.
And with Ryan himself in the house, it was just what Houston manager A.J. Hinch expected when he named Keuchel his Game 1 starter.
In six previous appearances against the Yankees, Keuchel had a minuscule 1.41 ERA in 442/3 innings of work, including two complete games and one shutout.
None of those had the stakes of the opening game of the bestof-seven series, however, and Keuchel certainly rose to the occasion with one of the better shutdown performances of this post-season.
Rarely has he been better or more motivated than he was before a sellout crowd of 43,116 in a city anxious to celebrate given all it’s been through in recent weeks.
“Your adrenalin in the postseason is unlike any other and it really varies from start to start,” Keuchel said before the game. “Not to say the pressure is more, because I don’t really believe in pressure.
“It’s more of getting yourself ready for moments like this. And when you’re a good team, the regular season is getting you ready for the post-season.”
The Astros were indeed ready for this one and had to battle for every inch on the base paths thanks to a stellar start from the Yanks’ Masahiro Tanaka, who allowed just four hits and two runs in six innings of work.
The offence may not have been humming the way it was for so much of the Astros’ 101-win regular season, but with Keuchel on the mound and some stellar defensive play, they showed just how tough an out they will be in October.
Tanaka didn’t allow a hit until the fourth inning and an infield single from Jose Altuve at that. The fleet Astros MVP candidate promptly stole second and was driven home by a Carlos Correa single to open the scoring.
Correa then plated on another single from first baseman Yuli Gurriel (big brother to Toronto Blue Jays prospect Lourdes Gurriel Jr.) and the Astros were staked to a 2-0 lead.
Then the defence and Keuchel’s grit took over.
The Yankees opened the fifth with a Greg Bird single and he advanced to second on an error. After inducing a pop-up of Todd Frazier and striking out Brett Gardner, Keuchel was left to stare down an ice-cold Aaron Judge.
This time the Yankees rookie slugger delivered, belting a single to left field. But just when it looked like Judge was going to have some offensive say after a miserable ALDS, the arm of Astros left-fielder Marwin Gonzalez interjected. A bullet throw and slick tag from Astros catcher Brian McCann nailed Bird at the plate and the 2-0 lead was intact.
Their lone run came with two out in the ninth when Bird jacked a solo home run to right field.
The bottom of the fourth and top of the fifth were, in a nutshell, what this series is about in terms of the challenge faced by
Your adrenalin in the post-season is unlike any other and it really varies from start to start. Not to say the pressure is more because I don’t really believe in pressure.
the Yankees.
The Astros used their speed to manufacture runs off a sharp Tanaka and some defence to complement the coolness of Keuchel. And with Justin Verlander on the mound for Saturday afternoon’s Game 2, the Astros have a chance to leap out to a significant early lead.
While Keuchel was the force on this night, Altuve was brilliant as well.
He makes things happen at the plate, on the base paths and on defence. The fleet second baseman made a nice diving stab of a Didi Gregorius rip to get the second out of the fourth inning and bring the crowd to their feet.
And the Judge storyline will continue to be a big one in this series, especially for games here in Houston. Every time Altuve came to the plate, he was greeted with chants of MVP and responded with a 3-for-4 night. For Judge, it was a chorus of boos.
And whenever the count got to two strikes on the Yankees’ rightfielder, the crowd rose to its feet.
As lean as the game was offensively for the visitors, they had a chance to turn it around with one swing in the eighth. With runners at first and second, the Yanks’ ALDS hero Gregorius came to the plate.
Instead of getting his team back in it, however, Gregorius went down swinging to Astros reliever Ken Giles.
The Yankees may be the upstart team of these MLB playoffs, a young group that has arrived in the final four earlier than many expected. But against a team loaded to win now — and certainly capable — it won’t be easy to continue that run.