Astros blank N.Y. to reach World Series
HOUSTON — Charlie Morton and Lance McCullers combined on a three-hitter, Jose Altuve and Evan Gattis homered and the Houston Astros reached the World Series for only the second time, blanking the New York Yankees 4-0 Saturday night in Game 7 of the A.L. Championship Series.
Just four years removed from their third straight 100-loss season in 2013, the Astros shut down the Yankees on consecutive nights after dropping three in a row in the Bronx.
Next up for the Astros is Game 1 of the World Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers on Tuesday. Los Angeles open as a narrow favourite, but Houston aces Dallas Keuchel and ALCS MVP Justin Verlander will have plenty of rest before the matchup begins at Dodger Stadium.
The only previous time the Astros made it this far, in 2005, they were a National League team and were swept by the Chicago White Sox.
Manager A.J. Hinch’s club has a chance to win that elusive first title, while trying to boost a region still recovering from Hurricane Harvey.
“This city, they deserve this,” McCullers said.
Clutch defensive plays by third baseman Alex Bregman and centre fielder George Springer helped Houston improve to 6-0 at Minute Maid Park in the playoffs, becoming the fifth team in major league history to capture a seven-game post-season series by winning all four of its home games.
Morton bounced back from a loss in Game 3 to allow two hits over five scoreless innings. Starter-turned-post-season-reliever McCullers limited the Yankees to just one hit while fanning six over the next four.
A noted curveballer, McCullers finished up with 24 straight breaking pitches to earn his first major league save.
Combined, they throttled the wild-card Yankees one last time in Houston. Aaron Judge, Gary Sanchez and their New York teammates totalled just three runs in the four road games.
“I know people are going to talk about how we didn’t win many games on the road. There were some other teams that haven’t won many games on the road, either. We just happened to run into a very good team that just beat us,” Yankees manager Joe Girardi said.
C.C. Sabathia entered the game 10-0 with a 1.69 ERA in 13 starts this season after a Yankees loss. But he struggled with command and was gone with one out in the fourth inning.
Houston was up 2-0 in the fifth when former Yankees star Brian McCann came through for the second straight game by hitting a two-run double after snapping a 0-for-20 skid with a ground-rule RBI double to give Houston its first run on Friday night.
The Yankees, trying to reach the World Series for the first time since 2009, lost an elimination game for the first time this season after winning their first four in these playoffs. New York struggled on the road this postseason, with this loss dropping the team to 1-6.
After going 0 for 5 with runners in scoring position through the first three innings, the Astros got on the board with no outs in the fourth with the 405-foot shot by Gattis off Sabathia, which made it 1-0.
Altuve launched a ball off Tommy Kahnle into the seats in right field with one out in the fifth for his fifth homer this post-season. It took a while for him to see that it was going to get out, and held onto his bat until he was halfway to first base before flipping it and trotting around the bases as chants of “MVP” rained down on him.
Altuve finished 8 for 25 with two homers and four RBIs in the ALCS after hitting .533 with three homers and four RBIs in the ALDS against Boston.