DH Chases away slump
THE ONE silver lining for Yankee designated hitter Chase Headley entering Game 5 was that he had decent numbers against Astros ace Dallas Keuchel. Headley had been producing very little this postseason prior to Wednesday night’s ALCS tilt at the Stadium — 2-for-19 in this year’s postseason — but the former Bombers third baseman-now-DH broke out big against Keuchel and Houston pitching in the pivotal Game 5, going 3-for-4 with a run scored. Two of Headley’s hits Wednesday came off Keuchel.
“I think you just have to keep in mind that sometimes in 15 at-bats things aren’t going to go your way,” said Headley.
Headley, who was a career 6-for-24 against Keuchel entering Wednesday, including the postseason, tagged the southpaw for a single in the third, and another base hit in the fifth with one out. On the latter, Alex Bregman’s throwing error allowed Headley to advance to second. He eventually scored the Yankees’ third run of the game on a Gary Sanchez single.
Headley doubled off Will Harris in the sixth, but he and Greg Bird were left stranded. Headley grounded out in his last at-bat in the eighth, but by then the Yankees were in full control. Throughout the night, Headley said the cheering from the sold-out crowd of 49,647 reminded him “of college football games.”
“I haven’t seen anything like it in Major League Baseball since I’ve been here,” said Headley of the Stadium crowds during this playoff run. “They’re going crazy the entire game. It’s a huge advantage for us.”
In the Game 4 win Tuesday night, Todd Frazier called Headley’s bumbling, tumbling journey on the base paths the “biggest play” of that game, but on Wednesday, Headley had a more measured performance, with no hijinks.
“I think guys have a lot of confidence that eventually we’re going to break through,” Headley said of the club’s ability to get to both Keuchel and Cleveland ace Corey Kluber — twice — in the division series. “I’ve been incredibly impressed with the poise we’ve shown as a club. We struggled individually, struggled as a team, we made mistakes that maybe even cost us a game, but there was never any panic.”