Verlander’s magic Justin time to avoid elimination
Astros ace keeps Yankees bats in check as Houston will host Game 7 Saturday
HO U STON From L.A. to New York, it is a dream matchup for so many in baseball that it has been difficult not to look ahead.
The TV networks are salivating at the thought of it and those at MLB’s head office can already hear the cash registers ringing.
But thanks to the Houston Astros, the possibility of the Los Angeles Dodgers and the New York Yankees renewing one of baseball’s greatest rivalries in the World Series will have to wait another day.
And if the Astros have another noisy statement to make, perhaps much, much longer than that.
Riding their ace starter Justin Verlander until the offence finally resurfaced, the Astros still have their eyes on Hollywood thanks to a blowout 7-1 win Friday at Minute Maid Park.
The victory evened the ALCS at three home wins apiece with the drama of Game 7 slated to unfold here Saturday night while the Dodgers wait back in L.A. for Tuesday’s World Series opener.
The stone-cold Astros offence finally surfaced in the fifth inning, interrupting what was an incredibly entertaining pitching duel between Verlander and the Yankees’ Luis Severino.
And boy did the offence start humming.
After that three-run fifth, as if to hammer home the point, they kept scoring, beating up on the Yankees bullpen for four more runs in the eighth to give them something unsettling to sleep on.
The seven Astros runs were two shy of their total from the first five games combined.
On Friday, it all started in the fifth when former Yankee Brian McCann’s double to right scored Alex Bregman to end a stretch of 16 scoreless innings by MLB’s highest-scoring regular-season team.
How about that for an unlikely power boost. McCann entered the game batting .077 in the postseason and was hitless in the ALCS.
With Severino matching Verlander in nastiness through the first four innings, Bregman was the first runner from either team to reach second base.
After George Springer walked to load the bases, Astros star Jose Altuve ripped a double to bring in two more and up the lead to 3-0.
It was as if the pressure that was lifted — not to mention the noise — had raised the Minute Maid roof right into the Texas night.
Altuve, who was hitless in the Astros three losses in New York, clearly had his confidence renewed. The diminutive MVP candidate went back for more, line driving a solo homer off of Yankees reliever David Robertson in the eighth to increase the Astros lead to 4-1.
The Bronx Bombers vainly attempted to make it interesting with runners on first and second in the seventh and a solo home run from Aaron Judge off of reliever Brad Peacock in the eighth, but the uprising was far too mild.
Using a mixture of four pitches, the 34-year-old Verlander was overpowering at times. The Game 2 winner wasn’t flawless, but he was ferocious, digging in whenever he allowed a Yankees runner on base.
The gameness was particularly in evidence in the seventh when Verlander allowed the first two runners on. But Aaron Hicks finally struck out to end a 10-pitch atbat and then Todd Frazier rocked one deep to the centre-field wall and was robbed of extra bases by a leaping Springer.
A ground out to Chase Headley followed and, 99 pitches into the game, Verlander was out of trouble and done for the night.
It started out as a pitcher’s duel — just as games 1 and 2 were here. And like every game in the series so far, the home side has emerged the winner.
The Yankees managed baserunners in each of the first three innings, but it was as if that merely heightened Verlander’s focus. And the Astros players and fans — who had heard so much about the Yankee Stadium advantage all week — made for a bursting sea of orange.
Judge was fanned by Verlander in the third and sixth innings to equal a dubious major-league record of 26 strikeouts in a single post-season.
By going deep into the game, Verlander was doubly valuable keeping the Yankees away from the beat-up Astros bullpen. And once again he proved the value of that late summer trade that bolstered the AL West champions for just such moments. He struck out eight, giving him 21 this series.
“Obviously I know this is one of the main reasons I was brought here,” Verlander said before his latest clutch effort. “I think so far I’ve done what they’ve asked or what they’ve needed of me to help the rotation and help get deep in the playoffs.”
Verlander was the final piece and, with two wins in the ALCS, undeniably a valuable one. It would have been difficult to imagine this team advancing to the World Series without the bats busting out.
“We’re pretty electric when we swing at strikes,” Astros manager A.J. Hinch said before the game.
Obviously I know this is one of the main reasons I was brought here. I think so far I’ve done what they’ve asked.