Yanks back in business
Unlike Red Sox, NY catches up to Astros
NEW YORK — For a while there, eight days were all that really separated the Red Sox from the New York Yankees. Each team had seen just how relentless these Houston Astros could be, and what little margin for error they left in a short series.
The Sox fell behind 2-1 in the Division Series. The Yankees were in the same spot in the American League Championship Series.
What now separates the Red Sox and Yankees is what happened in Game 4 of the ALCS yesterday.
Batting around in the eighth inning, the Yankees did what the Red Sox could not do eight days earlier. New York came from behind, tied the series and stunned the Astros with a 6-4 win at Yankee Stadium.
“The series wasn’t over after two games,” Astros manager A.J. Hinch said. “It’s certainly not over after four.”
The Division Series was finished after four.
The Sox were stifled by Astros pitching for backto-back losses at Minute Maid Park, and they were rejuvenated by an offensive outburst in a Game 3 win at home. It had been a remarkably similar story in the ALCS. But where the Red Sox folded, the Yankees found fresh life. Where the Sox took an early lead and lost it, the Yankees fell behind and came back.
Trailing 4-0 in the seventh inning, the Yankees had just one hit. Their potent bullpen had faltered, and their dangerous offense had gone silent until Aaron Judge led off the seventh with his second home run in as many nights.
“Sometimes I feel like we like playing with backs against the wall,” Judge said.
Didi Gregorious followed with a triple, then scored to cut the lead to 4-2. Todd Frazier and Chase Headley opened the eighth inning with back-to-back hits to put the tying run on base. Judge doubled off the wall to tie it, a shot that was maybe 2 feet away from his second home run of the game, before Gary Sanchez doubled into the right-center field gap to put the Yankees ahead.
It was Sanchez’ first hit of the series.
“Emotions are raw,” Sanchez said. “You’re standing on second base and can’t even control them.”
All season, Red Sox manager John Farrell touted his team’s resiliency, and with good reason. The Sox won 16 times when trailing after six innings. They had 43 comefrom-behind victories and 10 walkoff wins. But even when they scored 10 runs in Game 3 of the Division Series, the Red Sox never sent 10 batters to the plate in an inning the way the Yankees did in the eighth yesterday.
“Just get a guy on, get a guy over, that kind of thing,” Headley said. “I think guys really bought into that. The only way you can put up that type of inning is when you have a bunch of different guys contribute and put up good at-bats.”
As he’s done all postseason, Yankees manager Joe Girardi was aggressive going to his bullpen. He pulled starter Sonny Gray in the middle of an at-bat in the sixth inning. Grey had allowed just one hit and thrown just 85 pitches, but reliever David Robertson had earned a Houdini nickname for his ability to wiggle out of trouble. Robertson wound up walking Jose Altuve and allowing a threerun double to Yuli Gurriel, and the Astros tacked on another run when Starlin Castro made an error at second base in the seventh.
“When I came out, numerous guys came up and said, ‘Don’t worry, we’re going to get these guys,’” Gray said.
The Yankees did get those guys. New York scored against Lance McCullers, Chris Devenski, Joe Musgrove and Ken Giles. The Red Sox scored at least one run against each of those four in the Division Series as well, but in Game 4, they went down in order in the seventh and eighth innings. That’s when the Yankees did all of their damage yesterday.
New York’s next challenge: It has to win at least one game pitched by either Dallas Keuchel or Justin Verlander, and it has to win at least one game in Houston.
The Red Sox couldn’t do either of those things.
“I look up and down the board in other series and you see guys are struggling,” Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. “It’s such a short sample size that I think our guys have done a good job not getting caught up in it. You’re seeing the best pitching staffs. You’re seeing good starters, strong bullpens, and I think it’s one day at a time. It’s one at-bat at a time. And those guys came up big for us today.”
It will be Masahiro Tanaka against Keuchel in tonight’s Game 5 to determine who’s on the verge of a World Series when the ALCS shifts back to Houston.
And the series will shift back to Houston.
The Red Sox never got back there.