Las Vegas Review-Journal (Sunday)
Astros batter listless Yankees
Javier headlines 3-hitter, Mccormick homers for 3-0 lead
NEW YORK — Cristian Javier and the Houston Astros aren’t just beating the Yankees, they’re chomping them up. And now Dusty Baker’s team is on the verge of an astonishing four-game sweep.
Javier and Houston’s bullpen combined on a three-hitter, Chas Mccormick followed a dropped flyball with an early two-run homer and the Astros beat Gerrit Cole and the Yankees 5-0 on Saturday night to take a 3-0 AL Championship Series lead.
“We’re not going to come out any slower than we did today,” Mccormick said after setting off another round of the Chas Chomp celebration in Houston’s dugout. “We’re going to be ready to play tomorrow and go for the sweep.”
Trying for their second straight AL pennant, the 106-win Astros improved to 6-0 this postseason and need one win for their fourth World Series trip 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, Boston against the Yankees in the 2004 ALCS. Thirty teams completed sweeps.
Mccormick, the No. 9 hitter, launched his second home run of the series for a 2-0 second-inning lead after Gold Glove center fielder Harrison Bader let Christian Vázquez’s flyball bounce out of his green glove for an error.
“It’s a loud atmosphere. … Calling it until the very end and we both got a little spooked,” Bader said. “He’s like 9 feet tall, so you don’t want to get anybody hurt.”
Aaron Judge had sprinted over from right and cut in front of him.
“At the last second I hear him. I’m trying to get out of the way,” Judge said. “I definitely messed him up on that play.”
Mccormick drove a fastball 335 feet to the opposite field, and the ball hit the right-field short porch and bounced into the seats.
It would not have been a homer at any other major league ballpark, according to Statcast.
“That’s what the game’s about,” 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.”
Houston loaded the bases in the sixth and chased Cole. Trey Mancini followed with a sacrifice fly off Lou Trivino and Vázquez added a tworun single.
Javier pitched seven innings during the Astros’ combined no-hitter at Yankee Stadium on June 25. Making his first start since Oct. 1, the 25-year-old righthander gave up one hit, struck out five and walked three in 5 1/3 innings. He didn’t allow a ball out of the infield until Giancarlo Stanton’s one-out double in the fourth.
Héctor Neris, Ryan Stanek, Hunter Brown and Rafael Montero followed with hitless relief, and Bryan Abreu gave up a pair of 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.