Astros beat Yankees 4-0 in Game 7 of ALCS
They win ALCS to reach their first World Series since 2005.
Houston will face the Dodgers in the World Series, which opens Tuesday at Dodger Stadium.
HOUSTON — Fifty feet from home plate, Jose Altuve’s bat hit the ground. The baseball touched down 314 feet farther, in the third row of right-field seats. He had swung hard, and he had not let go. The smallest man on the field carried his weapon until he was certain that his home run was a home run, that his Houston Astros had a two-run fifth-inning lead, that their season was a step closer to lasting at least another week.
Then, he flipped it. He flipped it with so much joy, and maybe a bit of revenge seeking. Soon, his dreams were fulfilled. Buoyed by their star and two standout pitching performances, the Astros shut out the New York Yankees 4-0 on Saturday night at Minute Maid Park, surviving a hardscrabble American League Cham-
pionship Series and securing their spot in the 2017 World Series.
“I didn’t know what to do,” Altuve said. “I was just running. But that bat flip was for my team. I love my team.”
Several Astros said Altuve’s celebration was meant as a response to Yankees reliever Tommy Kahnle’s fist pumps as he walked off the mound earlier in this series.
“He got beat, and he showed him up a little bit,” said right fielder Josh Reddick, the ex-Dodger. “There’s nothing wrong with that. We felt like he was showing us up over there at Yankee Stadium.”
The real revenge rested in the outcome, the Astros winning backto-back elimination games to cut short the upstart Yankees’ season. Houston’s only World Series visit, in 2005 when the Astros were in the National League, ended in a sweep at the hands of the Chicago White Sox. This year, a date with the Dodgers awaits, beginning Tuesday at Dodger Stadium. Dallas Keuchel will face Clayton Kershaw in Game 1 in a matchup of left-handers.
In this series, no road team won. The Astros have lost only twice at Minute Maid Park since Hurricane Harvey made landfall Aug. 25.
Much of the sold-out crowd stood through Saturday’s first inning. Each out fostered more excitement, as Astros starter Charlie Morton sliced through the Yankees.
When Yuli Gurriel sliced a drive to right to begin the second, Aaron Judge quickly turned and chased it 15 steps to the right-field wall. He left his feet as he neared the wall and reached his glove out in time to prevent a homer. Yankees starter CC Sabathia raised his arms and held them there for 10 seconds.
In the fourth, Evan Gattis banged a Sabathia curve off the facade beyond left-center field, too far to defend. New York manager Joe Girardi stuck with Sabathia three batters longer, summoning a reliever only when Reddick, he of the 0-for-22 start to this series, singled. Kahnle induced a doubleplay ball with his first pitch, holding the Astros lead at 1-0.
Morton’s first pitch of the fifth elicited action: Greg Bird whacked it into right for a double. Morton struck out Starlin Castro, then fired four consecutive balls to Aaron Hicks. The last escaped catcher Brian McCann, allowing Bird to advance to third. Bird went home when Todd Frazier chopped a ball to third, but Astros third baseman Alex Bregman fielded it quickly and threw well and low to McCann.
Somehow, McCann caught it inches from the dirt, applied the tag, and held on. The Astros were soon out of it.
In the bottom of the inning, they challenged the Yankees again. Altuve bashed the one-out blast before Carlos Correa and Gurriel notched back-to-back singles. McCann saw five consecutive changeups from Kahnle and lashed the fifth down the right-field line. Correa scored easily, and Astros third base coach Gary Pettis liberally sent Gurriel, trusting that catcher Gary Sanchez would fumble the throw home, as he did all series. Pettis was correct.
After Morton’s exit, manager A.J. Hinch used Lance McCullers for four innings, so bypassing his roster’s underbelly, its struggling group of relievers. McCullers has always been capable of dominance, and Saturday he pitched at his best, spinning his vicious curveball into and out of the strike zone as desired, striking out six Yankees, holding them to two baserunners. His last 24 pitches were all curveballs.
“That’s my best pitch,” McCullers said. “I’m coming at you with it.”
When McCullers finished the eighth by striking out Judge on three pitches, he let out a primal yell. When a popup soared off Bird’s bat for the final out, the stadium crescendoed into a frenzy. Five minutes after it finished, fans broke out into the first of what will be many chants.
“BEAT L.A.! BEAT L.A.!”
‘BEAT L.A.! BEAT L.A.!’ —Houston Astros fans, chanting at Minute Maid Park after the team advanced to the World Series against the Dodgers