Yankees blast Astros
HOUSTON — Standing at second base after another hit Saturday night, Gleyber Torres gestured toward his teammates in the visitors dugout and smiled. In a lineup of experienced All-Stars and towering sluggers, the youngest of them all — a 22-year-old infielder from Venezuela — has been a shining star of the Yankees’ postseason.
Armed with a potent swing and an uncanny ability to adjust quickly to opposing pitchers, Torres built on his already impressive playoff run by leading the New York Yankees to a 7-0 win over the Houston Astros in Game 1 of the best-of-seven AL Championship Series on Saturday night.
In the opening act of the highly anticipated matchup between the two best teams in the AL, Torres produced three hits and drove in five of the Yankees’ seven runs. It was enough to buoy Masahiro Tanaka, the Yankees’ starting pitcher who continued his mastery of October. Tanaka’s six scoreless innings lowered his career postseason ERA to 1.32.
The ALCS was expected to be a taut showdown between star-studded lineups and pitching staffs. It may end up that way, but in Game 1, the Yankees easily dispatched the Astros and Zack Greinke, part of Houston’s vaunted starting rotation. The Yankees amassed 13 hits and forced Astros manager A.J. Hinch to use
four relievers.
Beating Greinke was critical for the Yankees. Two of the best pitchers in baseball come next: Justin Verlander in Game 2 and Gerrit Cole in Game 3. Despite Greinke’s guile and long track record in the regular season, the Tampa Bay Rays battered him for six runs in the first round of the playoffs. The Yankees scored fewer against Greinke but still enough to win.
The Yankees built their offense around two ideas: Home in on the best pitch for the hitter, and swing hard. Despite a cascade of injuries throughout the regular season, the Yankees led baseball in runs scored and fell one home run short of a major league record. The more hard-hit balls, the harder for an opposing team to field them all.
During the first three innings Saturday, the Yankees smashed some balls at well-positioned Astros fielders. There was a Gio Urshela line drive off Greinke snared by the leaping third baseman, Alex Bregman. A ball smoked by Brett Gardner was gloved by first baseman Yuli Gurriel.
The dam began cracking in the fourth inning against Greinke when the Yankees did what they had done all year: swing aggressively. During the regular season, the Yankees produced a 1.157 onbase-plus-slugging-percentage on the first pitch of a plate appearance — the highest mark in Baseball Reference’s pitch data since 1988.
D.J. LeMahieu started off the frame with a first-pitch single. He scored when Torres laced a double into the left-center field gap on the first pitch of his plate appearance. Two innings later, Torres clobbered another first pitch from Greinke but this time into the left field seats for a solo home run. It was Torres’ sixth extra-base hit in four games this postseason.
The Yankees continued to pile on after Greinke left the game. Giancarlo Stanton, who missed most of the season with several injuries but returned just in time, smashed a home run in the sixth. Torres singled in another two runs in the seventh. Urshela added his first career postseason home run in the ninth. Even on a groundout in the ninth, Torres drove in a run.
With his performance, Torres became the youngest Yankee ever to drive in five runs in a playoff game.
On the mound for the Yankees, Tanaka confounded the Astros’ powerful offense, which was the best in the majors at making contact during the regular season. He threw few pitches over the heart of the strike zone, sticking to the edges — and farther outside — with his best two offerings, a diving split-finger fastball and a biting slider.
In all, Tanaka allowed just two base runners: a single to Kyle Tucker in the third inning and a walk to Bregman in the fifth. And after Tanaka faced the Astros lineup twice, Yankees manager Aaron Boone turned the game over to his bullpen, the strength of his staff. With little resistance from the Astros, the Yankees relievers plowed through the final innings, aided by a lead that kept growing thanks to Torres.