Houston holds serve at home to doom NY
Astros headed to 2nd World Series, to face Dodgers after shutting out Yankees in Game 7 of ALCS
All the magic that the New York Yankees could mine from this coming-ofage season had carried them to the brink of a World Series.
But their hopes of a pennant ended in Game 7 on Saturday night, dashed by a Houston Astros club that flaunted its home-field advantage in the AL Championship Series.
Jose Altuve’s solo home run started a three-run fifth inning against reliever Tommy Kahnle, whose greatest regret was a spinning change-up that ex-Yankee Brian McCann whacked for a tworun double.
And the Astros advanced to the World Series with a convincing 4-0 win before 43,201 delirious fans at Minute Maid Park, celebrating Houston’s second pennant – their first as an AL club. They went in 2005 as the National League’s representatives and were swept by the Chicago White Sox.
On Tuesday night, the NL champion Dodgers will host Houston in Game 1 of the World Series.
“I like the fact that we’ve been through some elimination games with this group,” Yankees manager Joe Girardi said before Game 7.
Starting with their come-from-behind wild card win, the Yankees were 4-0 in elimination games – taking three straight from the Indians to conclude the best-of-five Division Series.
Yankees veteran starter CC Sabathia exited after 31/3 innings, but Girardi’s bullpen formula didn’t hold up.
Having pitched 21/3 innings in their Game 6 loss, Yankees right-hander Chad Green was unavailable, while starter Lance McCullers Jr. came out of the Houston bullpen for the final four innings.
Just as the Yankees’ pitching shut down the potent Houston lineup in Games 3, 4, and 5 in New York, the Astros muzzled the Bombers’ bats at Minute Maid.
In 36 innings over four ALCS games, the Yankees scored a grand total of three runs here. And on Saturday night, it began with Charlie Morton’s five scoreless innings.
Morton gave up just two hits and a walk with five strikeouts, and the right-hander received a touch of good fortune in the fifth.
With the Astros leading 1-0, Greg Bird led off the inning with a double.
Bird moved to third on a wild pitch/ walk to Aaron Hicks, but Bird was cut down at the plate on Todd Frazier’s slow roller to third base.
A charging Alex Bregman fired home, just in time for McCann to apply a deft tag that prevented the tying run from scoring. But the Yanks still operated with hope. Here was the stat everyone in Yankees Universe clung to heading into Game 7: In 13 starts this year following a Yankees loss, Sabathia was 10-0 with a 1.69 ERA.
And that included his ALCS Game 3 start, when the Yankees arrived back in the Bronx trailing 0-2 after Houston’s pair of 2-1 victories at home.
Sabathia authored six scoreless innings, Morton was knocked out in the fourth, and the Bronx Bombers went on to sweep all three games at Yankee Stadium – bringing them to the brink of their first pennant since 2009.
But Justin Verlander continued his ALCS brilliance, out-pitching Luis Severino in Game 6 and setting up the Yankees’ first postseason Game 7 since the 2004 ALCS loss to the storybook Red Sox.
Sabathia danced out of trouble during his first three innings, and Aaron Judge saved him a run – giving the Yanks an early jolt, defensively.
Leading off the second inning, Yuri Gurriel’s long fly to right was raced down by Judge, who made a leaping grab – his glove extended over the wall – to rob a home run.
As Judge bounced off the wall and tumbled to the warning track, Sabathia threw both arms up in celebration, overjoyed to see the 6-foot-7 rookie slugger rise and show the baseball.
But after stranding five baserunners – three in scoring position – over the first three innings, Sabathia didn’t make it out of the fourth.
Hitless in seven ALCS at-bats, Gattis drove one over the fence to begin the fourth and two of the next three batters reached base.
And after Josh Reddick had finally snapped an 0-for-22 ALCS streak with a single to left, Kahnle entered and immediately got George Springer on a double play grounder to end the inning.
Yet, like David Robertson in Game 6, Kahnle couldn’t muster the magic he’d produced this October, essentially a surrogate for Dellin Betances; the Yanks couldn’t trust the All-Star setup man in any key ALCS spots due to his faulty command.
But with one out in the fifth, Altuve’s fifth homer of the postseason sent the capacity crowd at Minute Maid Park into a deafening, orange-towel waving bedlam, quickly followed by another hearty round of “M-V-P, M-V-P” chants.
With the voting having already taken place before October’s arrival, Altuve seems favored to win the MVP award, though Judge’s sensational September is likely to make him a strong second – if not a candidate to win it outright.
During the ALCS, “Altuve’s been really big here and Aaron’s had some big at-bats for us as well, he’s hit some homers,” Girardi said before the game. “I think they’ve each had their moments.”
And if the MVP balloting had occurred on Saturday, “this game could sway some people, I’m sure,” Girardi said.
While there is seemingly no end to the Altuve superlatives, if his inspirational play and flair for the dramatic lead the Astros to four more wins against the Dodgers, we just might have to come up with a few more.