Verlander’s gem goes for naught in loss
Giles squanders Verlander’s gem by yielding HR to Sanchez in 9th
Monday’s magic was gone, the electrifying ending and picturesque growl Ken Giles gave long forgotten. The Astros closer trudged off the field, a game blown and a legendary effort offset. A few boos descended down.
Most fans filed out following Gary Sanchez’s three-run home run for the New York Yankees in the ninth inning. The ones who remained to watch the Astros’ 4-0 loss Tuesday night at Minute Maid Park voiced their displeasure.
Giles arrived at the dugout and punched himself in the face in plain view of television cameras.
His glove went flying into the dugout. Equipment laying on the bench was slammed to the floor, a stunning, grisly ending to his wavering 48 hours and an offense’s inept evening.
“I screwed up a win,” Giles said afterward. “We should have won this game, we should have bounced back. I didn’t give our team a chance. Of course I’m going to be frustrated at that. This team deserves the best out of everybody, and they need me to be the best I can be and that’s what I’m going to give them from here on out.”
Twenty-four hours earlier, Giles stood before a horde of cameras and proclaimed himself back. His 13-pitch evisceration of the heart of a vaunted Yankees lineup in the ninth inning of a 2-1 win was sublime. He navigated Giancarlo Stanton, Sanchez and Aaron Hicks with ease. All struck out, producing Giles’ eighth consecutive scoreless outing.
Tuesday offered a similar gauntlet. There was no score. Justin Verlander gave the team a career-best effort and, still, he received no runs. Manager A.J. Hinch removed him after eight innings of scoreless baseball and 105 pitches.
“I wish I knew what would have happened,” Hinch said. “Obviously, that’s always the killer; it sucks when that happens.”
Aaron Judge, Didi Gregorius and Stanton loomed for the ninth inning.
Giles was summoned and an implosion began. Judge hit one for a single. Gregorius launched another for a double, the Yankees’ first two baserunners since the third inning.
A strikeout of Stanton provided little levity. Sanchez lie in wait. Pitching coach Brent Strom paid a visit. First base was open and one was out.
“You can score without getting a hit with bases loaded and one out,” Hinch said. “You’re trying to prevent one run.”
The Astros opted to pitch to Sanchez. Giles offered a slider. It was without bite. A “horrible pitch” as he termed it. Sanchez sent it to straightaway center field and admired his work, a slow walk up the first-base line signaling the end of this game.
“This crap happens,” Giles said. “Outings like this get the best of us and we have to move forward from it, you have to learn from it. As much as I want to be perfect, no one is going to be perfect in this game. There’s only a select few that I would say are perfect in this game. I have to bounce back.”
The Astros’ offense still had an at-bat, but little faith remained. The Yankees’ bullpen stifled them. They mustered six hits and stranded six baserunners. Five at-bats with runners in scoring position produced zero runs.
Yankees starter Jordan Montgomery fired seven pitches and escaped what appeared an unremarkable first inning. He exited the field without any outward signs of discomfort.
Nevertheless, Domingo German began to loosen in a Yankees bullpen out of which the final 24 outs of this game were required. Montgomery did not return, the victim of what his club termed “left elbow tightness.”
German sailed through four scoreless innings. Thirty of the 61 pitches he threw were curveballs, a steady diet on which the Astros could not feast.
“It’s a unique spot,” Hinch said. “Our at-bats were less than our best tonight. We didn’t have our best night offensively, whether that was against the bullpen or Montgomery is irrelevant.”
German permitted a baserunner in every inning he worked. Singles from Yuli Gurriel and George Springer in the second and third went for naught. A leadoff walk to Carlos Correa preceded Gurriel’s a single in the fourth. Both were stranded.
Dellin Betances threw a spotless seventh for the Yankees. David Robertson came in for the eighth, ceding a two-out single to Jose Altuve.
Verlander watched from the dugout railing on a night when he matched his career high with 14 strikeouts.
What Verlander produced bordered upon legendary, a performance against the game’s most storied franchise only three men have ever matched. Since 1908, only Urban Shocker, Pedro Martinez and Curt Schilling struck out 13 or more Yankees without yielding a walk.
There was not fancy, none of the artful mixing of pitches Charlie Morton flashed Monday. Verlander controlled the best lineup in baseball with two pitches. Fifty-seven of his 105 pitches were four-seam fastballs. Thirty more were sliders, incorporated later in the game as he adjusted to the Yankees’ hyper aggression.
“I made, if you’re talking, under a handful of mistakes in a game,” Verlander said. “I think that’s pretty doggone good for fastball control. Thankfully when I made a mistake they missed it, so my control was pretty good.”
Verlander retired the final 16 men he faced. After the second inning, only Gregorius reached base against him, and he had to drag bunt up a vacant third-base line against the shift to do so. Stanton’s three-pitch strikeout — all against fastballs — wasted the effort.
Still, he spoke of his valiance amid a silent clubhouse. Players shuffled in and out staring at the ground, straight ahead or to nowhere at all.
“Everything feels bad,” Hinch said, “when (stuff) like that happens.”