ASTROS UP 3-0 VS. BLANKEES
Javier, Houston bullpen combine on three-hitter, put New York on the brink
NEW YORK — Cristian Javier and the Astros’ bullpen combined on a three-hitter, Chas McCormick followed a dropped fly ball with an early two-run homer and Houston beat Gerrit Cole and the Yankees 5-0 on Saturday night to take a 3-0 American League Championship Series lead.
“That’s what the game’s about,” Astros manager Dusty Baker said. “Even though it may not be, you have to kind of fool yourself that it is a break. And it’s amazing whatever you think can happen usually does happen. That was huge.”
Some Yankees fans, already angry after two losses in Houston, booed star slugger Aaron Judge after two strikeouts and jeered manager Aaron Boone during pregame introductions.
The 106-win Astros, trying for their second straight AL pennant, improved to 6-0 this postseason. On the verge of reaching the World Series for the fourth time in six years, Houston aims to close out the series on Sunday night when Lance McCullers Jr. starts against Nestor Cortes.
Only one of 39 teams has recovered from a 3-0 postseason series deficit to win, the Red Sox against the Yankees in the 2004 ALCS. Thirty teams completed sweeps.
Christian Vazquez added a two-run single and Trey Mancini a sacrifice fly after the Astros chased Cole in the sixth inning and opened a five-run lead.
Javier pitched seven innings during the Astros’ combined no-hitter at Yankee Stadium on June 25 and was nearly as sharp this time. He didn’t allow a ball out of the infield until Giancarlo Stanton’s one-out double in the fourth — the only hit Javier allowed.
Making his first start since Oct. 1, the 25-year-old right-hander pitched 5„ innings, striking out five and walking three.
Hector Neris, Ryan Stanek, Hunter Brown and Rafael Montero followed with hitless relief, and Bryan Abreu gave up two two-out singles in the ninth.
New York, which last reached the World Series when it won in 2009, is on the precipice of elimination against Houston for the fourth time in eight seasons. After sprinting to a 61-23 record in early July, the Yankees spiraled to a 38-40 mark the rest of the way and have sputtered in the playoffs.
Judge, who set an AL record with 62 home runs during the season, went 0-for-4 and dropped to .156 with 14 strikeouts and three RBI in the playoffs, including 1-for-12 against the Astros.
“Obviously, he’s the biggest force and key in our lineup, so we need to get something from him,” Boone said. “But that said, to win these games, you need a little something from everyone. Sometimes that can be something small; sometimes it can be something big; sometimes it can be something unexpected.”
New York is hitting .128 in the ALCS with 41 strikeouts and has lost eight of 10 to Houston this year, throwing only 13 pitches with a lead. Boone shrugged off the boos.
“You can’t get caught up in that,” he said. Gold Glove center fielder Harrison Bader made a costly error in the second inning and was caught stealing second by Vazquez after a leadoff walk in the fifth.
As Bader was about to catch Vazquez’s two-out fly to right-center in the second, Judge cut in front of Bader, and the ball popped out of the center fielder’s green glove. Vazquez, thinking he was out, had already started cutting across the infield grass toward Houston’s dugout on the third-base side, then retreated to first.
McCormick, the No. 9 hitter, hit a fastball 335 feet to the opposite field, and the ball hit the right-field short porch and bounced into the seats for his second home run of the series.