This Justin: Yanks can’t touch righty

HOUSTON — The legend of Justin Verlander is just bigger in Texas. The big right-hander threw seven scoreless innings Friday night and picked the Astros off the verge of elimination and gave them new life.

With the 7-1 win at Minute Maid Park, the American League Championship Series will go to a decisive Game 7 on Saturday.

The Astros know they wouldn’t still be playing this season without an extraordinary effort by Verlander.

“He’s been everything that we could have hoped for and more,” Astros manager A.J. Hinch said. “This guy prepares. He rises to the moment. He’s incredibly focused, locked in during games, and emptied his tank tonight.

“And I’m so proud of him because I know how much it means to him. I know how much he puts into these outings,” Hinch said. “He chose to come here for games like this and beyond. We hope we all get to see him pitch again.”

Pitching in his fifth career elimination game and for the fourth straight time, he held off the end of the season. Verlander pitched seven scoreless innings Friday night, struck out eight and walked one. He is now 4-1 in elimination games and has posted 24 straight scoreless innings in those games. He is the first pitcher in postseason history with three consecutive scoreless starts in elimination games.

“He’s as good as they come. What he does on the mound is incredible,” Astros catcher Brian McCann said. “He’s in total control of what he is doing. He can read hitters. He knows tendencies.”

He worked around trouble in the sixth and seventh to pick up his second win in this ALCS.

After walking Greg Bird and hitting Starlin Castro to lead off the seventh, Verlander had to empty the tank to get out of the inning. He struck out Aaron Hicks after a taxing 10-pitch battle and then got a tremendous leaping grab from George Springer on Todd Frazier’s fly ball to center before coaxing a ground ball from Chase Headley to get out of the inning.

Then his night was done.

“There’s no point in saving anything,” Verlander said.“So when it came down to it that sixth and seventh, back-to-back, I mean it really did, it took a lot out of me. Especially kind of back-to-back stressful innings like that.

“And for me, my focus — when I look back at the 3-2 slider to Hicks was probably the pitch of the game for me,” Verlander explained. “You could look at it and say the 3-0 slider to Sanchez, but there were two outs in that situation. To Hicks, 3-2 there, if I don’t execute that and he takes it or, you know, worse, then it’s a totally different ballgame.”

But he did, and that just added to Verlander’s legacy here. Since waiving his no-trade clause to be traded from Detroit, Verlander is undefeated. He’s 8-0, including 3-0 in the postseason.

“It’s pretty amazing to me how quickly these fans have bonded to me. And vice versa. I feel it, I appreciate it, especially on the field,” Verlander said. “But around town, everybody is just wishing good luck. A fresh face, people — a lot of times in new cities, if they’re not baseball fans they might not recognize me. But it seems like a lot of people here, they’re involved and they want this team to win and they always come up and give me their blessing and want me to know they care, and that means a lot.”