THIRD IN A SERIES
Rally after 28 scoreless innings goes for naught as bullpen blows lead in 9th
The Astros felt triumphant for clinging to a meager lead to beat the Yankees in the first of four games they would play this week. Their few hits seemed clutch. Their fifth starter performed like an ace. Their closer dominated.
The perspective changed in the disappointing days that followed. They did not sense when Jose Altuve stepped on home plate in the fourth inning Monday that he would be the last Astro to score for the next 28 innings. They trusted Ken Giles would not implode in a 4-0 loss Tuesday and Dallas Keuchel would not falter in another 4-0 loss Wednesday.
They arrived at the seventh inning of the Thursday finale against the Yankees down 3-0.
The end of a drought does not begin with a downpour but a few drops. Through three infield singles, a line drive to shallow right, a hit batter and a wild pitch, the Astros took a 4-3 lead. Carlos Correa struck a thunderous 446-foot solo home run an inning later.
Their five runs were difficult to get. And they were not enough.
Relievers Will Harris and Brad Peacock blew the lead, and the Yankees squelched the last bit of hope in Houston. After a two-out threat in the bottom of the ninth, closer Aroldis Chapman struck out Jose Altuve to seal a 6-5 win.
“It’s frustrating because we were behind for so long in this series,” manager A.J. Hinch said after the Astros’ third consecu-
tive loss. “A split’s not necessarily something to celebrate, but we should’ve won today.”
Yankees starter Masahiro Tanaka kept hitters off-balance with an off-speed arsenal. Only 15 of his 83 pitches were fourseam fastballs.
Lance McCullers Jr. spun himself into trouble early in the game, but he subdued the most potent offense in baseball through seven innings to give the Astros a chance.
They experienced déjà vu when Yuli Gurriel and Josh Reddick muscled leadoff singles in the bottom of the seventh. They had done so in the same spot a night earlier only to be left stranded.
But Alex Bregman loaded the bases this time after a long replay review confirmed Tanaka hit him with a pitch.
Given their poor swings of late, the Astros could not get an extra-base hit. They didn’t need one to end their scoreless spell.
Marwin Gonzalez squibbed the first pitch from reliever Chad Green. The ball slowly rolled toward short, letting Gurriel cross home without a throw. Then Brian McCann lined another first pitch to score Reddick.
A passed ball sent Bregman scrambling home and catcher Gary Sanchez to the backstop. Sanchez, who averages 87 mph on his throws, whipped the ball errantly toward the plate. As Bregman slid in safely, he used his padded baserunning glove to shield his face from the bullet Sanchez had rifled.
George Springer fired back. He hit a hard grounder off Green’s leg. Green managed to throw out Springer, but not before Gonzalez scored as the fourth run of the inning.
With the roof closed, Correa’s homer, his fifth of the season, banged off a window and bounced back over the tracks to put the Astros up 5-3 in the eighth.
The Minute Maid Park crowd roared, relieved by the familiar sight. The last time the Yankees played there, the Astros won Game 7 of the American League Championship Series.
The Astros looked and felt reenergized.
“It was a rough series for the team offensively,” Correa acknowledged.
“When you don’t hit, it sucks the life out of your whole team a little bit,” Hinch said.
Chris Devenski had needed just 12 pitches to strike out the side in the eighth, but he watched from the dugout and Giles sat in the bullpen while Hinch opted for Harris to close the game.
“A leadoff walk — that’s the one thing I’d like to have back,” Harris said later.
Other than that, Harris credited the Yankees for following with two two more hits to load the bases without recording an out.
Peacock could not clean up the mess. Gleyber Torres, the ninth hitter, hit a two-run single to tie the score and put runners at the corners.
Peacock managed to get Aaron Judge to ground out, but the Astros could not pull off a double play, and Aaron Hicks scored the go-ahead run.
Hinch suggested that if he could redo his decisions, he might have sent Devenski out for a second inning.
“He had done his job, and we were in the perfect pocket,” Hinch said. “It’s just not the way we win. I guess that was an option, sure.”
When asked what dissuaded him from using Giles, who was two days removed from punching himself in the face for losing a game, Hinch offered only three words: “I picked Harris.”
Chapman dealt his nastiest heaters to earn two outs quickly. They reached triple-digit velocity and cut in violently to righties. Swinging through a thirdstrike wild pitch and scurrying to first base might have been the best chance pinch hitter Evan Gattis had to keep the Astros alive.
Then Springer singled, and the crowd rose again. Jose Altuve batted with a chance to salvage days of inferior play and emphasize a message the Astros have stood by since beginning their season as defending champions.
“We’re the team to beat,” Giles had said Monday.
Chapman unleashed three pitches to Altuve, none slower than 100 mph. Altuve struck out swinging to finish 0-for-5.
The Astros had downplayed this rematch of the American League Championship Series before it unfolded.
“Any time you lose a game like that, it’s not going to feel too good. But as big as this series could have been for us with them across the way, it hurts a little more,” Reddick said. “Especially because we had so much faith in ourselves to beat these guys.
“We’re going to forget about it,” Reddick added.
They will head to the Bronx for the next rematch on Memorial Day.