Yankees complete comeback
NEW YORK — Now we have a series.
Yes, the pesky Yankees did it again in another remarkable night of Bronx brilliance Tuesday night.
And after a dramatic 6-4, comeback win over the Houston Astros, the best-of-seven ALCS is now all square at two wins apiece.
The Yankees were once again led by their lately maligned superstar Aaron Judge, who got things started with a solo homer in the seventh and was central in the massive four-run eighth with his two RBI double.
With Game 5 at Yankee Stadium on Wednesday, the momentum has swung decidedly in the favour of the Pinstripers, especially now that Judge is catching fire and the rest of the New York offence is coming along for the ride.
Judge has a homer in each of the past two games and is swinging with confidence, bad news for an Astros team that seemingly had things well in hand after capturing the first two games in Houston.
They will certainly be regretting the one that got away on Tuesday. After the top of the seventh, they had jumped out to a 4-0 lead, thanks in large part to a three-run double by Yuli Gurriell in the previous inning.
But, just as they did in the wildcard game win over Minnesota and from an 0-2 deficit to the Indians in the ALDS, the Comeback Kids of the Yankees were having none of it.
And with back-to-back wins here they’re now guaranteed to swing this series back to Houston for at least one game as they improved to 5-0 at home this post season.
The Yankees resilience was in picture-perfect display when they turned that 4-2 deficit into a 6-4 lead by the time the Astros came to the plate for the ninth.
The eighth alone was a thing of beauty, as the Yankees destroyed Astros closer, Ken Giles. A Todd Frazier single to lead off was followed by a Chase Headley double and a sac fly by Brett Gardner to cut the lead to 4-2.
Enter Judge, who doubled off the wall to tie it followed by a Didi Gregorius single to give the Yankees their first lead of the night. And just to add to the fun, Gary Sanchez had his first hit of the ALCS and brought home one more run for security.
Suddenly, a Yankees offence that sputtered through the first two games of the series is ripping it up with 14 runs in the two games played here.
Though he didn’t get the win, the Yankees got just enough from starter Sonny Gray, who wrestled with control but allowed two runs off of one hit in five plus innings of work.
Houston starter Lance McCullers had a decent outing as well, lasting six plus innings and giving up just two hits, one of them the solo shot to Judge.
The Astros offence, which had scored just five runs in the first 31 innings of the series, showed some life with the Gurriel double but little did they know, the Yankees offence was just heating up.
And perhaps shocked by the Yankees big eighth, there was no rally to be had in their last at bat. Closer Aroldis Chapman came on for a one-two-three ninth, including two strikeouts, to secure the save.
This is somewhat familiar territory for the Yankees in their long and storied history. Six previous times they have rallied from an 0-2 deficit to win — the first begin the 1956 World Series vs. the Dodger and the most recent this year’s ALDS against Cleveland.
And who would wager against it happening again?