Sputterin’ Savages
YANKS FALL AGAIN, TRAIL ALCS 2-1
Adam Ottavino, Gary Sanchez and the Yankees heard it from the crowd Tuesday. It does not matter what you do from April through September; when you struggle in October, it’s an unforgivable offense in the Bronx. Sanchez, the bats and Ottavino continued their postseason slump as the Astros beat the Yankees, 4-1.
The Yankees have lost two straight games to the Astros’ aces — Justin Verlander on Sunday and Gerrit Cole on Tuesday. They are now in a 2-1 hole in the best-of-seven se- ries.
The frustration of a full Yankee Stadium was stoked by the fact that an offense that scored the most runs in baseball this season had Cole on the ropes Tuesday, but couldn’t get a run off him.
He was dominant, but not unhittable. The front-runner for the American League Cy Young threw seven shutout innings, scattering four hits and strik- ing out seven with five walks.
The Bombers got small punches in against him, with DJ LeMahieu and Aaron Judge singling to lead off the first, but could not deliver a knockout punch That was a recurrent theme on Tuesday. The Yankees went 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position and stranded nine.
In their two losses to the Astros, the Yankees were 1-for-9 with RISP and stranded 16.
Gleyber Torres hit his second homer of the ALCS, and his third home run of the postseason, in the eighth off Astros’ right-handed reliever Joe Smith. But the rest of the Yankees’ regular sluggers struggled.
“It just takes that one swing to get us rolling and break through, but we just weren’t able to get that big hit,” Judge said. “I had a situation where I had two guys on and I wasn’t able to come through. This is the postseason. You have to come through in those situations.”
And Sanchez, who is 1-for-13 in this series, and 2-for-22 with eight strikeouts in the postseason, took the brunt of the fans’ frustration when he was booed after striking out in the sixth inning.
“I’ve felt better at the plate. I haven’t gotten the results I wanted, but I have been working very hard to get back on track,” Sanchez said through Yankees interpreter Marlon Abreu. “We’ll keep working, hopefully we’ll get back on track.”
There is limited time to do it , as both Sanchez and Ottavino know.
Ottavino, who gave up the game-tying home run in
Game 2, was booed loudly because he could not hold the
Astros to a 2-0 lead. He was charged with two earned runs on a hit and a walk without recording an out. Since
Sept. 8, the usually reliable reliever has allowed six earned runs in 8.1 innings pitched.
“It’s not confidence. I think I am going to get every guy out I face.
That’s the bottom line. I know when I pitch the way I pitch, I am going to get guys out. I think right now, I am just not making pitches at a high enough clip, that I am accustomed to. I think like a week ago, two weeks ago I was a little out of whack mechanically, but then I felt like I fixed that,” Ottavino said. “So now, I don’t have a good reason for today. Last game, I threw one bad pitch, that’s a mistake that happens. Today it was only a couple pitches. I don’t have a reason that happened, but I felt like my mindset was good. I just didn’t get it done. It’s a game based on results. You have to get them.”
Ottavino was one of the Yankees’ big free-agent signings this past winter, with an eye toward having a shut-down bullpen in October. It is why the native New Yorker signed here, a chance to win in the postseason. “The regular season doesn’t matter, it’s over. It means nothing now,” Ottavino said. “I am just thinking about the next game and the next opportunity.”
If Ottavino, Sanchez and the Yankees don’t get on track, there won’t be many more of those opportunities in 2019.