Yankees pull even with Astros in ALCS
Late-inning rally has New York back on even ground as series shifts to a best-of-three
NEW YORK— Lifeless, listless and about to be facing an elimination game, the New York Yankees discovered a path back into the American League Championship Series.
It came by opening the gate to the Houston Astros’ bullpen.
After being held to one hit for the first six innings — and a bloop single at that — the Yankees tore through the Astros’ wobbly bullpen and rallied for a 6-4 victory that got Yankee Stadium rocking and evened the series at two games apiece.
With the Yankees trailing 4-0, Aaron Judge blasted a solo homer off Lance McCullers Jr. to lead off the seventh — the only blemish on an otherwise sublime performance by McCullers, a righthander who had not worked into the seventh inning in four months.
More significantly, Judge’s home run sent Astros manager A.J. Hinch to his bullpen and the unravelling of the Astros began.
“The bottom line is the wheels started turning then,” said a jubilant Todd Frazier, who would end up having a role in the comeback.
Chris Devenski, the first Astro reliever to come into the game, immediately gave up a triple to Didi Gregorius, who then scored on Gary Sanchez’s sacrifice fly.
In the bottom of the eighth, the Astros then went through Devenski, Joe Musgrove, closer Ken Giles and Luke Gregerson, but they could not stem the Yankees’ surge until four runs had crossed the plate and the lead had changed hands.
Frazier started the inning with a single and pinch-hitter Chase Headley lined a hit into the left-centre field gap that sent Frazier to third. Headley, who was churning toward second, stumbled and fell and was hung up between the bases. But when shortstop Carlos Correa threw behind him to first baseman Yulieski Gurriel, Headley scrambled into second base, just beating Gurriel’s throw to second baseman Jose Altuve.
“I was going from extremely excited to extremely panicked in a matter of seconds,” a relieved Headley said afterward.
Giles came in and retired Brett Gardner on a grounder that scored Frazier, narrowing the Astros’ lead to 4-3 and moved Headley to third, where he was replaced by pinch-runner Jacoby Ellsbury. That brought up Judge, who reached for a two-strike slider from Giles that was off the plate and lined a double off the left-field wall that drove in Ellsbury and tied the score. Gregorius followed with an infield single to shortstop, finding a hole in the Astros’ shift, which sent Judge to third.
On it went. Sanchez doubled into the right-centre gap, his first hit of the series, to score Judge and Gregorius, and the Yankees improbably had gained a 6-4 lead.
“When I got to second base, my emotions were through the roof,” Sanchez said with the aid of an interpreter.
Though Gregerson came on and escaped without further damage, leaving the bases loaded, Aroldis Chapman then made the lead stand up.
When Evan Gattis hit a shallow fly ball to left field for the final out in the top of the ninth, Gardner gathered it in and the Yankees were left with a heap of momentum to carry into Game 5 on Wednesday.
They will most likely need every bit of it when they face Astros left-hander Dallas Keuchel, whom they have yet to score on in post-season play.