ASTRONOMICAL
Houston blanks New York, wins American League title
HOUSTON — Charlie Morton and Lance McCullers combined on a threehitter, Jose Altuve and Evan Gattis homered and the Houston Astros reached the World Series for only the second time, blanking the New York Yankees 4-0 on Saturday night in Game 7 of the AL Championship Series.
Just four years removed from their third straight 100-loss season in 2013, the Astros shut down the Yankees on consecutive nights after dropping three in a row in the Bronx.
Next up for the Astros, who have Albuquerque natives Alex Bregman and Ken Giles on their roster: Game 1 of the World Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers on Tuesday night. Los Angeles opened as a narrow favorite, but Houston aces Dallas Keuchel and ALCS MVP Justin Verlander will have plenty of rest before the matchup begins at sweltering Dodger Stadium.
The only previous time the Astros made it this far, they were a National League team when they were swept by the Chicago White Sox in 2005.
Manager A.J. Hinch’s club has a chance to win that elusive first title,
while trying to boost a region still recovering from Hurricane Harvey.
“This city, they deserve this,” McCullers said.
Clutch defensive plays by third baseman Bregman and center fielder George Springer helped Houston improve to 6-0 at Minute Maid Park in these playoffs and became the fifth team in major league history to capture a seven-game postseason series by winning all four of its home games.
Morton bounced back from a loss in Game 3 to allow two hits over five scoreless innings. Starter-turned-postseason reliever McCullers limited the Yankees to just one hit while fanning six over the next four. A noted curveballer, McCullers finished up with 24 straight breaking pitches to earn his first major league save.
Combined, they throttled the wild-card Yankees one last time in Houston. Aaron Judge, Gary Sanchez and their New York teammates totaled just three runs in the four road games.
“I know people are going to talk about how we didn’t win many games on the road. There were some other teams that haven’t won many games on the road, either. We just happened to run into a very good team that just beat us,” Yankees manager Joe Girardi said.
CC Sabathia entered the game 10-0 with a 1.69 ERA in 13 starts this season after a Yankees loss. But he struggled with command and was gone with one out in the fourth inning.
Morton got into trouble in the fifth, and the Yankees had runners at the corners with one out. Bregman fielded a grounder hit by Todd Frazier and made a perfect throw home to allow catcher Brian McCann to tag Greg Bird and preserve Houston’s lead. McCann held onto the ball despite Bird’s cleat banging into his forearm. Chase Headley grounded out after that to end the inning.
Houston was up 2-0 in the fifth when former Yankees star McCann came through for the second straight game by hitting a two-run double after snapping an 0-for-20 skid with an groundrule RBI double to give Houston its first run on Friday night.
The Yankees, trying to reach the World Series for the first time since 2009, lost an elimination game for the first time this season after winning their first four in these playoffs.
New York struggled on the road this postseason, with this loss dropping the team to 1-6.