THREE-RUN BLASTS BY SPRINGER AND CORREA, SOLID RELIEF WORK PUT YANKEES ON BRINK.
Astros use 3-run homers by Springer, Correa plus clutch relief to open 3-1 lead
NEW YORK — The Astros dealt close to danger, daring the Yankees to swing the balance of this game and series so many times. This ballpark bordered on deafening or delirious while they tossed each pressure-filled pitch. One mistake would put the place into pandemonium.
Ryan Pressly perceived the tension. The Yankees sent the heart of their order to face him, a wunderkind followed by a weathered slugger. The bases were full in the fifth inning. Only one was out. Houston held a tenuous two-run lead.
Pressly punched out Gleyber Torres on six pitches. Edwin Encarnacion saw six, too, and felt the same fate. The stadium fell silent. Pressly pumped his fists and yelled aloud. Not another sound was heard. Life left the stadium as the Astros struck out another slumping slugger.
Control of the American League Championship Series belongs to Houston. The Astros extinguished excitement each time it arrived, neutralizing a noisy crowd while creating countless cheers of their own.
Houston won 8-3, placing it 27 outs away from their second American League pennant. Home runs from George Springer and Carlos Correa contributed all but two runs. They’ve now hit home runs in the same postseason game six times — more than any other set of major league teammates.
The Astros were clutch in every imaginable way, pitching into and out of trouble with little fear. New York bungled its way through a wretched display, committing four errors and refusing to convert countless opportunities. A fully-rested Justin Verlander awaits them on Friday.
Houston starter Zack Greinke grinded through 4⅓ innings. Fourteen final outs belonged to a bullpen that put on a clinic. Save for Gary Sanchez’s two-run home run against Josh James in the sixth, the Astros’ relievers were wonderful. A five-run lead made the mistake moot.
Against Greinke and the two relievers who followed him, New York batted five times with a runner in scoring position and produced no hits. The lineup coaxed six walks and managed nothing, overpowered by an impressive effort of clutch pitching that Greinke began.
Greinke walked three in the first inning. Two were on four pitches. DJ LeMahieu led off the game with a four-pitch free pass. Brett Gardner got another with the bases loaded, gifting the Yankees an early advantage.
Not since April 16, 2007 had Greinke walked three batters in the first inning of a game. He was just a 23-year-old Kansas City Royal then, armed with far more velocity than he now possesses. The passage of time sapped some zip.
Greinke’s entire game is now predicated upon pinpoint placement of the baseball. His changeup and curveball can be lethal if his fastball command cooperates.
In 33 regular-season starts this year, Greinke walked three men just twice. He matched the mark in Thursday’s first inning. Brad Peacock hurried to warm in the bullpen while the bases loaded.
Gary Sanchez stood in after Gardner’s bases-loaded walk. He saw three pitches and swung over a two-strike slider. Greinke sauntered from the mound after a 28pitch ordeal. Peacock stood down in the bullpen. The sequence seemed prescient.
Greinke grinded through the next four frames. Command of his fastball improved dramatically. New York could not resist his changeup. LeMahieu singled in the fifth to break a streak of eight straight Greinke sat down. Aaron Judge drew a walk, bringing manager A.J. Hinch from the dugout. He summoned Pressly.
Pressly’s prior postseason performances were putrid. Opponents struck nine hits and scored four times in 1 ⅔ innings. Hinch trusted his All-Star’s sterling stuff over an unpleasant, small sample size.
A walk to Aaron Hicks loaded the bases. James hurried to warm. Hinch stuck with Pressly, who collected the two most crucial strikeouts of the game. Greinke’s evening was saved. Just one earned run sat on his line. He struck out five on a night where he dueled the Yankees’ most menacing postseason arm.
Masahiro Tanaka’s postseason pedigree is unmatched. Among starting pitchers who’d started at least seven playoff games, only Sandy Koufax possessed a lower earned-run average.
His six scoreless innings against the Astros in Game 1 made him the first major leaguer to allow two or fewer earned runs in each of his first seven playoff starts. The Astros chased constantly, drawing Hinch’s chagrin. The lineup’s underwhelming postseason performance has been permeated by overaggression.
Tanaka required just 68 pitches to spin six scoreless innings in Game 1. Houston exhausted him for 69 through four frames on Thursday. Michael Brantley drew a first-inning walk and Yuli Gurriel scalded a second-inning splitter that could not find grass.
The at-bats were unproductive in the moment but foreboding for the future. In the first two innings, Houston struck balls with exit velocities of 113.1 mph, 107.8 mph and 104.3 mph. None fell for hits. The hard contact against Tanaka invited optimism. Actualizing it on the scoreboard was the Astros’ goal.
To begin the third, Robinson Chirinos coaxed a four-pitch free pass. Josh Reddick rifled a single to short right field. Springer arrived in a stupendous slump, just 4-for-34 during the teams’ two postseason series. Tanaka tossed him two splitters. The first sailed outside. The second sat too far up.
Springer smacked it into the left field seats. The three runs it scored were more than Tanaka ever yielded in a postseason start.
Springer passed teammate Jose Altuve for the franchise’s all-time postseason home run record and afforded his team a lead it never relinquished.
Tanaka lasted until the fifth. LeMahieu booted Bregman’s leadoff ground ball, ending his evening. Chad Green ambled in, allowing Yordan Alvarez to single before Correa came up.
The shortstop saw a slider before feasting on an 0-1 fastball. Correa crushed it into the left field seats. He rounded first base and brought his hands again to his ears, reprising his iconic image from his walk-off in Game 2. He urged the crowd to cheer.
He heard nothing but silence.