Yankees overpower Astros, pull within 2-1.

Aaron Judge hit a three-run homer and a made pair of sparkling catches, leading CC Sabathia and the Yankees over the Houston Astros, 8-1, Monday night in New York, cutting their deficit to 2-1 in the best-of-seven AL Championship Series.

Sabathia allowed three hits over six scoreless innings for his first postseason win in five years. Todd Frazier hit a goahead, three-run homer for the Yankees, who stopped a seven-game ALCS losing streak dating to Sabathia’s victory over Texas in 2010.

Sonny Gray starts Game 4 Wednesday on 11 days’ rest, likely against Brad Peacock or Lance McCullers Jr.

Back in the Bronx after a pair of 2-1 losses in Houston, the Yankees led 8-0 after four innings. Houston scored on a bases-loaded walk in the ninth before postseason star Jose Altuve grounded into a game-ending double play with the bases loaded.

Maddon defends his strategy: Cubs manager Joe Maddon stood by his decision not to use all-star closer Wade Davis in Chicago’s loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 2 of the NL Championship Series and questioned the criticism coming his way.

Maddon insisted that Davis was only available for one inning in a save situation. He dismissed the second guessing, a day after John Lackey gave up a three-run homer to Justin Turner in the ninth to send Los Angeles to a 4-1 win and a 2-0 series lead.

Game 3 is Tuesday at Wrigley Field, with Yu Darvish starting for the Dodgers and Kyle Hendricks pitching for the Cubs.

Maddon said Davis was still limited after a seven-out save in Chicago’s wild Game 5 victory over Washington in their NL Division Series.

“I don’t understand why that’s difficult to understand,” he said. “And furthermore, you have to also understand it wasn’t the last game of the year — or the second-to-thelast game of the year. It was about winning eight more games. All these things are factors. I really hope that you all understand that social media doesn’t count at all. Twitter doesn’t count at all. And really, as sports writers, you should be doing a better job than relying on Twitter to write a story, quite frankly.”

The Cubs are in a difficult spot, trailing the team that led the majors with 104 wins. But they’ve come back before, rallying from 3-1 down in the World Series last fall to beat Cleveland for their first championship since 1908. In the Division Series this year, they pulled out a 9-8 victory at Washington after they failed to close out the Nationals at Wrigley Field.

The Dodgers know better than to start planning a championship celebration.

“I think up to this point we’ve done everything we can to put ourselves in a good position, but there is a long way to go,” manager Dave Roberts said. “And this team, the Cubs are not going to quit fighting and competing.”