AMERICAN LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES
■ New York Yankees center fielder Aaron Hicks (31) celebrates with Aaron Judge after hitting a three-run home run against the Houston Astros during Game 5 of American League Championship Series on Friday in New York.
NEW YORK — D.J. LeMahieu drove Justin Verlander’s second pitch over the wall, then Aaron Hicks sent the fans at Yankee Stadium into a frenzy with a three-run homer off the foul pole later in the first inning.
And just like that, the Bronx Bombers were back — in the game, and in this matchup of powerhouses.
A day after a brutal loss, and with little margin for more errors, the New York Yankees played like a 103-win team. James Paxton chilled Houston’s bats and the bullpen followed with shutdown relief to beat the Astros 4-1 Friday night, cutting their AL Championship Series deficit to 3-2.
Now the teams will rush to Texas, where the series resumes Saturday night without a day off. With pitching plans disrupted by a rainout earlier this week, both teams are expected to go all-bullpen in Game 6. But Gerrit Cole, 19-0 since May, looms as the Astros’ starter on Sunday if New York manages to extend the matchup to the seven-game limit.
Paxton, a fishing aficionado born outside Vancouver in Ladner, British Columbia, wore three-quarter-length sleeves on a night with a gametime temperature of 52 degrees. That was the coldest for a Verlander start since last year’s ALCS opener at Boston — he had on long sleeves and half of Houston’s fielders had hoodies or balaclavas.
After lasting just 2 1/3 innings in Game 2, Paxton struck out nine in six innings, allowing four hits and four walks. Punching his pitching hand into his glove after big strikeouts, he saved his biggest emotion for his 112th and final pitch: a flyout by Yordan Álvarez that Brett Gardner caught in front of the left-field scoreboard with a runner on.
Zack Britton retired Michael Brantley and Alex Bregman to escape trouble after Houston put on two runners in the seventh against Tommy Kahnle, then struck out two in a perfect eighth.
Aroldis Chapman finished with a
1-2-3 ninth.
Paxton outpitched Verlander, an eight-time All-Star and former AL MVP and Cy Young Award winner. Verlander allowed a pair of first-inning homers for the first time in 28 postseason starts and gave up four runs in an inning for the first time since Houston acquired him from Detroit in August 2017.
Verlander retired 10 in a row after Hicks’ homer and wound up allowing five hits in seven innings with nine strikeouts and no walks.
A night after the Yankees made four errors in one of their messier games of the season during an 8-3 loss, Paxton fell behind after 14 pitches. George Springer reached on an infield hit, took second on Gary Sánchez’s passed ball, advanced on a groundout and scored when Paxton bounced a breaking ball off Sánchez’s glove for a wild pitch.