Astros hurlers stifle Yankees; Nationals sweep Cardinals
Astros ride dominant pitching, long ball to convincing victory in the Bronx Zoo
From one ace to another, Justin Verlander knew Gerrit Cole would be fine once he got out of the first inning at the Bronx Zoo known as Yankee Stadium.
So never mind that the Houston Astros starter allowed back-toback singles to open the game and needed a bases-loaded groundout from Didi Gregorius to end the first. Everything was cool.
“Once he got out of the first inning, I knew he would be fine,” Verlander said of Cole, who pitched seven shutout innings and paced the Astros to a decisive 4-1 win over the Yankees and 2-1 series edge in the best-of-seven ALCS. “Second time pitching at Yankee Stadium and a lot of stuff happening. There are a lot of good hitters over there and they have good at-bats.
“You have to make the pitches.” Cole certainly did that. It’s rather comical to think that he didn’t have his nastiest of stuff in Game 3, yet still elevated the frustration level of Yankees hitters and their fans.
Cole allowed an uncharacteristic nine baserunners (four hits and five walks), marking just the fourth time in 36 starts this year that many have been on the paths. Not that it mattered.
“Obviously fastball command was a bit of a struggle for some reason, and I don’t have a reason right now,” Cole said. “But I know I’ll be better next time.”
Scary thought. In three post-season appearances this fall, Cole has allowed just one run, and that’s in 22.2 innings of work.
“He’s just a special pitcher,” said Astros right fielder Josh Reddick, whose second-inning solo homer was a perfect complement to Jose Altuve’s blast in the first. “He’s obviously used to striking out 10-15 guys a game, and a guy who didn’t have his best stuff still puts up zeros.
“That’s pretty spectacular.” Even with Cole allowing baserunners, there never was a sense among the sellout crowd of 48,998 that the 29-year-old righthander was in any type of danger.
Nasty when needed, Cole has won 19 consecutive decisions dating back to May 27, the longest streak in MLB history.
His latest effort gives the 2017 World Series champs an excellent opportunity to take a stranglehold on the best-of-seven ALCS, whenever it may resume.
Game 4 is scheduled for 8:07 p.m. ET today, but heavy rains are scheduled to hit New York City in the afternoon.
“We ended up with nine baserunners against him and you kind of sign up for that,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “It’s obviously a little frustrating we weren’t able to break through with him. But I think up and down, we gave ourselves a chance. And facing a guy like that, you kind of want that traffic.
“He made big pitches when he had to.”
SEVENTH HEAVEN
One of the top handicapping angles heading into this ALCS was that, for the Yankees to have a chance to advance, they had to take at least one game from either Verlander or Cole.
So far they’re 0-for-2, and while no one in a Houston uniform wants to think about the series going this far, the pair of aces are now set up to start Games 6 and 7 respectively, should it go that far.
“It goes without saying that any time you can target another day for (Cole) to pitch, it feels pretty good,” Astros manager A.J. Hinch said. “I think there’s a lot of baseball left to play before that factors in.”
Hinch was impressed with the way Cole dug in when the Yankees put some runners on base.
“I think he’s the best pitcher in baseball right now,” Hinch said. “His competition is right next to him in the clubhouse (Verlander). They’re certainly a good pair.”
JOSE CAN YOU SEE
They were three batters and two nights apart, but the Carlos Correa-Jose Altuve combo was a one-two knockout punch for the Astros.
When Altuve hit a solo shot to give the Astros a 1-0 lead two batters into Tuesday’s game, whatever intimidation that accompanies a visit to Yankee Stadium immediately began to ease.
“We were very confident because of the way Game 2 ended,” Altuve said of Correa’s walkoff homer in the 11th inning. “That created some momentum.
“Thank God I hit the ball out. For us, it was really important to score before they did.”
His first-inning homer was Altuve’s fourth of this post season and 12th all time in the playoffs, matching George Springer’s club record. And this after hitting a career-high 31 in the regular season.
The dozen dingers are also the most by a second baseman in MLB playoff history.
AROUND THE BASES
The Yankees avoided a shutout when red-hot Gleyber Torres hit a solo homer in the eighth inning. He now has three homers this post-season, the most by a Yankee player under the age of
23.
A game that took three hours
■ and 44 minutes to complete was delayed by 15 minutes when home plate umpire Jeff Nelson took a ball to the face and suffered a concussion.
Second-base ump Kerwin Danley
■ took over behind the plate, but the delay was for Danley to change equipment.
Cole on in-game adjustments
■ to sharpen up his curve ball: “Once I found it, I felt confident having it in my back pocket. The fastball command came around in the fifth. Sometimes it comes and goes, but tonight I was able to make pitches when I needed to.”