Yanks ahead of schedule
Pennant nears as NY top Astros
NEW YORK — Prepare yourselves, Red Sox fans. The Yankees are one win away from the World Series.
In what was supposed to be a rebuilding year, the rivals from the Bronx have rebuilt ahead of schedule. They’re young, they’re confident, and they’ve taken control of the American League Championship Series after a 5-0 win against the Astros yesterday in Game 5 at Yankee Stadium.
“It’s great,” Aaron Judge said. “But we’re not done.”
The Red Sox might have won the division, but the Yankees are a win away from the pennant, and they’re built for the long haul.
Four of the runs were driven in by Judge, Greg Bird and Gary Sanchez — all homegrown players, 25 years old or younger, with just 128 combined games of major league experience coming into this season. None will be eligible for free agency until 2022 at the earliest.
The other Yankees run came courtesy of Didi Gregorius, an unheralded defensive shortstop when he replaced Derek Jeter three years ago, now an emerging, if unexpected, cleanup hitter at age 27.
The Yankees’ Game 6 starter tomorrow in Houston will be 23-year-old Luis Severino, who stumbled badly in the wild card game but kept the Yankees alive with a key Game 4 win in the Division Series. He allowed one run in four innings in ALCS Game 2, and his regular season numbers were even better than Astros Game 6 starter Justin Verlander.
“I’ve been incredibly impressed with the poise we’ve shown as a club,” Yankees third baseman Chase Headley said. “We struggled individually as a team. We made mistakes that maybe even cost us a game. But there was never any panic. I always trusted that we could win the next game.”
With a 3-2 advantage, the Yankees have the upper hand, but they’ll have to win a game in Houston to clinch the series. That’s no easy task, as the Red Sox can attest after being thoroughly outplayed at Minute Maid Park during their ALDS.
In fact, the Red Sox might be in the best position to fully appreciate what the Yankees did yesterday. Not only did they finish off three straight wins against the Astros, they did it by punishing left-handed ace Dallas Keuchel and by silencing Houston’s best-inbaseball offense.
Yankees starter Masahiro Tanaka was masterful. Following the worst regular season of his career, Tanaka has allowed just two runs in 20 innings this postseason. His seven shutout innings yesterday were reminiscent of a nearly identical pitching line in Game 3 of the ALDS against Cleveland, when the Yankees were facing elimination.
After Astros first baseman Yuli Gurriel opened the second inning with a booming double, Tanaka retired the next three batters without the ball leaving the infield. He handled the final out himself, fielding a soft comebacker and tossing to first base to leave Gurriel stranded at third.
From there, it was a steady barrage of strikeouts and ground balls whenever Tanaka needed them.
Two more grounders left a runner stranded in the third inning. When Gurriel came back to the plate in the fourth, he struck out swinging so hard his helmet fell off. When the Astros put two on in the fifth, Tanaka struck out George Springer looking at a fastball on the black, then struck out Josh Reddick swinging at a splitter that disappeared off the plate.
Tanaka retired the last eight batters he faced, five on strikeouts, leaving the final six outs for high-octane reliever Tommy Kahnle, himself a former Yankees minor leaguer who was reacquired at the trade deadline.
Keuchel simply could not keep pace.
Yankees second baseman Starlin Castro connected for a two-out double in the second inning. Needing just one out, and with a lefton-left advantage against Bird — lefties hit just .145 against Keuchel this season — Keuchel couldn’t strand the runner. Bird lined an RBI single for an 1-0 lead.
An inning later, Brett Gardner scored from first base on Judge’s double down the line. Two innings after that, Sanchez singled in a run and Gregorius singled in another. Sanchez homered off reliever Brad Peacock in the seventh, giving Sanchez five RBI in the past two days.
“(Keuchel) lives at the edges and goes not miss the glove,” Judge said. “We just got some big hits in key situations.”
With that, the Yankees had control of the game and the series.
They finished second in the AL East, fell behind in the wild card game, lost the first two games of the Division Series, and lost the first two of the ALCS, but now the Yankees are a win away from playing in the World Series.
Sorry, Red Sox fans. The rebuilding seems complete.