YANKEES STAVE OFF ELIMINATION
NEW YORK — A day after his club made a wreck of Game 4, Yankees manager Aaron Boone hadn’t deviated from his usual calm and confident position.
“This is sports, man,” Boone said outside his office before Friday night’s Game 5, with the Yankees facing elimination in the AL Championship Series. “Just when you think you know what’s going to happen, the script can flip.
“The one thing I know is we’ll come ready to go.”
Wobbly at the start, Yankees lefty James Paxton survived the first inning, limiting the Houston Astros damage to just one run.
What happened next — against Houston’s Justin Verlander, no less — fired up a tepid Yankee Stadium crowd and started the ALCS road back to Houston.
D.J. LeMahieu led off the Yankees’ first inning with a homer to right and Aaron Hicks banged a three-run shot off the right-field foul pole, providing the devastating blows in a 4-1 win.
And from the ashes of a three-game losing streak, the Yankees suddenly have renewed hope — though they’ll have to win two consecutive games at Houston to capture their first pennant since 2009.
Saturday night’s Game 6, a quick turnaround due to Wednesday’s rainout, could be a bullpen battle between both clubs, with the Yankees’ J.A. Happ and Houston’s Jose Urquidy getting the bulk work.
And Houston would have Game 3 winner Gerrit Cole ready to start a Game 7.
This was exactly the kind of start the Yankees feared, with Paxton and catcher Gary Sanchez struggling to get on the same page and some sloppy elements creeping into the Yanks’ game.
George Springer’s leadoff infield hit rolled under Paxton’s glove and couldn’t be handled cleanly by second baseman Gleyber Torres, who made two of the Yankees’ four errors in Thursday’s 8-3 Game 4 loss.
A passed ball pushed Springer to second and a groundout moved him to third, where he scored on a wild pitch — a bounced breaking ball that drew more boos than groans from a suspect sellout crowd.
Alex Bregman’s bid for a double was tracked down by left fielder Brett Gardner and Paxton got Yuli Gurriel to fly out, completing a difficult opening inning for a starter who lasted just 2 1/3 innings in Game 2.
But this was not the Verlander who lasted 6 2/3 innings in that Game 2 at Houston, a 32, 11-inning Astros win that knotted the bestof-five at two games apiece.
Verlander had watched from the bench as Houston won Games 3 and 4 at the Stadium, with the Yankees leaving a raft of runners in scoring position.
Aaron Judge’s two-run homer was the only damage against Verlander in Game 2.
Leading off Game 5, LeMahieu jumped him for the Yankees’ first postseason leadoff homer since Derek Jeter in Game 3 of the 2009 ALCS against the Angels.
Following that liner into the lower rightfield stands, Judge singled sharply to left and Torres lifted a double to left.
With one out, the switch-hitting Hicks smashed a full-count pitch off the right-field foul pole.
It was Hicks’ first homer since July 24, due to a torn flexor tendon that cost him over two months and nearly ended his season.
Hicks started Games 3, 4 and 5 in center field, his first starts since the Aug. 3 injury.
Giancarlo Stanton made his first start since Game 1, due to a strained right quad, and went 0 for 3 with two strikeouts as the cleanup hitter.
Verlander (9 strikeouts, 0 walks) wound up pitching seven innings and yielding just one more baserunner, but it was too late.
Paxton (9 strikeouts, 4 walks) went six innings, Zack Britton recorded four outs — rescuing Tommy Kahnle, who left two aboard in the seventh — and Aroldis Chapman recorded the final three outs, sending the series back to Houston.