Torres on a tear with homer, five RBIS
ALCS: YANKEES 7, ASTROS 0
HOUSTON» Gleyber Torres kept up his October surge with a homer and five RBIS, Masahiro Tanaka polished his playoff resume and the New York Yankees blanked the Houston Astros 7-0 Saturday night in the AL Championship Series opener.
With so much attention focused on the Astros aces, Tanaka showed he more than belonged on this stage, too. He threw one-hit ball for six innings to outpitch Zack Greinke, improving to 5-2 with a 1.32 ERA in the postseason.
Torres did his part in this matchup of 100-win behemoths with a go-ahead double, a solo homer, a two-run single and an RBI grounder. Moved up to third in the batting order after mashing in a sweep of Minnesota, the 22year-old star became the youngest AL player to drive in five runs during a postseason game.
Giancarlo Stanton and Gio Urshela also homered and right fielder Aaron Judge turned in the key play, catching a line drive and doubling Alex Bregman off first base when it was still 1-0.
The Yankees will try to build on their early momentum when James Paxton starts against 21game winner Justin Verlander in Game 2 on Sunday night.
Houston hardly looked like a club that led the majors with a franchise-record 107 victories. Jose Altuve, Bregman and their teammates were held to three singles.
The Astros had homered in 30 straight games — every game since Aug. 31 — and their streak was the second-longest in majorleague history behind a 31-game string by the Yankees this year.
Greinke, acquired at the trade deadline for these kind of moments, produced another lackluster playoff start.
Tanaka, who won Game 1 of the ALDS, struck out four and walked one. He faced the minimum through six innings thanks to a pair of double plays. Three relievers finished up the shutout.
Torres picked up right where he left off in the division series where he hit .417 to lead the team — he batted sixth in those games, but was moved higher as manager Aaron Boone tinkered with his lineup to break up the team’s lefty hitters.
Torres put the Yankees out front with an RBI double in the fourth.
There was one out in the sixth when he hit a fastball from Greinke into the seats in left field. Greinke knew it was gone off the bat, and pounded his fist into his glove as soon as Torres left the batter’s box.
Stanton homered with two outs in the sixth.