Astros hold on, win Game 1
Houston’s play at plate turns out to be the difference
HOUSTON — By scoring more runs in the regular season than any team in the past eight years, the Houston Astros forged their identity as an offensive dynamo with the ability to slug its way into the World Series.
But on Friday night, they won with two arms — Dallas Keuchel’s left and Marwin Gonzalez’s right.
Dallas Keuchel dominated the Yankees again, striking out 10 in seven scoreless innings to lead the Houston Astros past New York, 2-1, in the AL Championship Series opener.
Keuchel continued his mastery of the Yankees by blanking them for seven innings, while Gonzalez made a perfect throw to nail Greg Bird at the plate in the fifth inning. And in so doing, the Astros proved they can win low-scoring games as well as slugfests.
Yankees starter Masahiro Tanaka held Jose Altuve and company to four hits, none of which went for extra bases, leaving the Astros to score their runs the hard way in the fifth inning. Altuve reached on an infield single, stole a base and scored when Carlos Correa punched a single to left. Two batters later, Yuli Gurriel lined an RBI single up the middle. And that was it.
The team with the biggest boppers relied on its pitching to carry it through. Keuchel has always saved his best for the Yankees dating to his seven shutout innings in the 2015 wild-card game.
He gave up one unearned run in six innings against them earlier this season, and with the Astros needing him to deliver in Game 1, he scattered four hits in seven innings.
Keuchel struck out 10 batters, joining Mike Scott and Nolan Ryan in the 1986 NLCS as only the third pitchers in Astros history to record a double-digit strikeout game in the playoffs.
Gonzalez got a big-time assist with his throw in the fifth inning. Gonzalez fielded Judge’s single to left field and came up throwing and made a perfect strike to catcher Brian McCann to retire Bird at the plate.