Cocky Keuchel now sez Bronx ‘no joke’
Yankee Stadium got to Dallas Keuchel. A day after saying he relished pitching in the hostile ballpark in the Bronx, the Astros lefty admitted the pinstripes patrons made his night tougher. “New York is no joke. Yankee Stadium is a tough place to play,” said Keuchel, the Astros ace who couldn’t get out of the fifth inning of Game 5. “And it was rocking these three games. But it’s going to be rocking Friday for us.”
Pitching in a huge spot for the Astros, Keuchel allowed four earned runs on seven hits as the Yankees snapped a 14-inning postseason scoreless streak against him.
“Most frustrating point is I didn’t pick the guys up. They were looking to me to saddle up and get this thing going again,” Keuchel said. “Seems like they made the necessary adjustments and put the ball in the right spots. When you play at home, things like this happen. That’s why it’s so hard to win on the road in the playoffs.
Tuesday, Keuchel said how much he enjoyed being booed during introductions at Yankee Stadium.
“That’s also one of the joys is when you’re doing your job correctly as a visiting player for the visiting team against the Yankees, people always are going to have choice words for you. So I fully expect that,” Keuchel had said. “But to have some boos last night getting introduced, that was a nice feel. You get boos against the evil empire at the home turf, it makes you feel good just because you’re doing your job correctly. “Obviously my job is to win for the Astros.” Wednesday night, he did not do his job and the Bronx let him know that.
BIG ONE FOR SEVERINO
One. It’s the amount of outs Luis Severino recorded in the AL wild-card game.
It’s also the amount of wins the Yankees now need to reach the World Series.
The Bombers will send their 23-year-old righty back to the mound on Friday in Game 6 at Minute Maid Park, looking for that final W to get into the Fall Classic.
“It’s incredible, amazing,” Severino said of the opportunity. “I just want to do the best I can to get us to the World Series.”
Severino has been able to right himself since his one-out clunker, striking out nine over seven innings in Game 4 of the ALDS, while throwing four innings of one-run ball in Game 2 of the ALCS before he was pulled for precautionary,reasons by Joe Girardi.
But it turned out that Severino was fine. “I feel 100%,” said Severino, who felt fine all along.
“I can go all the way. My arm feels good and my body feels great.”
Asked if he’ll be able to control his emotions with so much on the line, Severino responded: “I will try my best. It won’t be easy. But I will try my best.”
As Severino put it, no one expected the Yankees to even be in the playoffs. Now, he has a chance to pitch them into the World Series.
GLEYBER HITS
Here’s some good news for the 2018 Yankees. Top prospect Gleyber Torres continues to make strides in his recovery from season-ending Tommy John surgery on his left elbow.
“After long months of recovery I can finally hit again and that makes me super happy,” Torres tweeted Wednesday. “Now let’s keep working and keep improving.”
Despite suffering the significant injury, MLB. com has Torres ranked as its No. 1 prospect in all of baseball.
“I anticipate him, as long as he gets back on track, making his MLB debut at some point when a need arises in 2018,” Brian Cashman recently told WFAN. “I don’t see it happening out of the gate because he hasn’t had a full season at Triple-A.”
HOLLIDAY NOT HANGING IT UP
If designated hitter Matt Holliday never gets another at-bat this postseason — when he’s played in just Game 1 of the ALCS — he doesn’t want to hang up the spikes just yet.
“If I had to say right now, I’d like to play,” Holliday, 37, said when asked before Game 5 of the ALCS at the Stadium if he’d like to continue his career in 2018.
Holliday signed a one-year, $13 million deal before the ’17 season to be the Bombers’ primary DH. Multiple injuries — a viral infection and a lumbar strain — sidelined him for long stretches of the regular season, and when the playoffs began, he was relegated to the bench in favor of Chase Headley and Jacoby Ellsbury.
Holliday said he would “absolutely” consider signing again with the Yankees if an opportunity this winter presented itself, although that scenario is very unlikely with all the Bombers’ young talent coming and Holliday’s age.
IN THE CLUTCH
The Yankees went 5-for-13 with two outs in Game 5. … They are 5-1 when scoring first in the postseason. … They are trying to become the 14th team in MLB history to rally from an 0-2 deficit in a best-of-seven postseason series. … The Bombers are batting .324 with runners in scoring position during the series. The Astros are batting just .148 in that category. … Aaron Judge’s 24 strikeouts during the postseason are the second highest all-time (Alfonso Soriano, 26 times in 2003).