YANKEES EDGED IN GAME 1 OF ALCS

Blow chance against Keuchel in Game 1

HOUSTON — On many a night against Dallas Keuchel, including the wild-card game two years ago, the Yankees have walked away whistling with admiration at the soft-tossing lefty’s brilliance. On this night, after a 2-1 loss to the Astros in Game 1 of the ALCS, at least some of them had to walk away thinking they’d let the noted Yankee-killer off the hook, even if they wouldn’t quite say it. Keuchel was tough again but far from his precision-pitching best. Yes, they only managed four hits in seven innings against him, and he did ring up 10 strikeouts, but Yankee hitters took more quality rips and hit more balls hard than they ever have against him. In fact, there was a stretch in the fourth and fifth innings when six of eight Yankees hit the ball on the screws, and yet they came away with nothing, largely because Greg Bird got thrown out at the plate on Aaron Judge’s single to end the fifth inning on the biggest play of the game. It was 2-0 Astros at the time, and had Bird scored there, the complexion of the game might well have changed dramatically. At the very least, the Yankees would have had two runners on base in a 2-1 game with Gary Sanchez at the plate, at a time when Keuchel was wobbling, leaving a lot of pitches up in the strike zone. As Joe Girardi said, “We were having better at-bats. If Bird’s safe, maybe really get to him that inning.” And after the game Keuchel himself admitted, “I kind of faltered there in the fourth and fifth innings, and I was lucky to get it back.” So the Bird play proved pivotal, and here’s the thing: I’m still trying to figure out how he got thrown out at the plate when he had a running jump with two outs and a 3-2 count on Judge. Bird is slow, obviously, but it looked like he didn’t break quickly enough on Keuchel’s delivery, and that wound up costing him. Girardi admitted, “You think it’s a ball that, with the count 3-2, he’s going to score.” It still took an accurate throw from left fielder Marwin Gonzalez, but even then Bird might have been safe if he’d made a good slide to the outside edge of the plate.

Instead he slid directly into Brian McCann’s tag, even veering slightly toward the catcher, it seemed.

Afterward Bird admitted he was cautious about taking off too early on a 3-2 count, saying he feared a pickoff move by Keuchel.

“I was making sure he didn’t make an inside move on me,’’ Bird said. “But I thought I got a decent jump.”

With a wry smile he added, “I wish I was a little faster.”

It was Bird, of course, who got the Yankees on the board with a home run in the ninth, but those little things, the jump off of second, the slide, make the difference in the postseason when games are often as low-scoring as this one.

Otherwise the difference in the game was really Jose Altuve, as Masahiro Tanaka pitched another strong game, going six strong innings, mostly matching Keuchel on this night.

Altuve, however, showed why he’s such a strong MVP candidate, along with Judge, with a strong all-around game, going 3-for-4, making a great play at second, using his speed to steal the first run of the game. “He did it all,’’ Judge said afterward. In the end, then, it was the same old story: the Yankees can’t beat Keuchel and his baffling array of sinkers and change-ups. He lowered his ERA to 1.09 against them in eight starts, including the postseason — the lowest all-time among pitchers with at least 50 innings pitches against the Yankees.

But this was a night when, at least for a couple of innings, he was more vulnerable than they’ve ever seen him. Judge came the closest to saying as much.

“When you’re getting in good counts like we were,” he said, “and getting some pitches to hit, you’ve got to take advantage against a guy like that, because you know you’re going to get many opportunities.”

Indeed, Keuchel seemed to get a second wind after escaping the fifth on the play at the plate, and went back to sinking his two-seamer and his change-up below the knees, frustrating the Yankees in his usual manner.

So now they find themselves down 0-1 in the series, a deficit that won’t faze them after they came back from 0-2 against the Indians.

Judge even smiled after the game and said, “We’re right where we want to be. We like being in situations where we’ve got our backs to the wall.”

He was being lighthearted, but he and the Yankees know they better not push their luck against the Astros. Those comebacks don’t happen on command.

For that matter, the Yankees may wind up looking back at this Game 1 with great regret, for down deep they know they missed an opportunity against their tormentor.