*Photo from the Darien Times*
Houston leads series 3-1
Zack Greinke bounced back, George Springer and Carlos Correa homered, and the Houston Astros hammered the New York Yankees early and often to win game 4 of the ALCS by a 8-3 score. Houston now has a stranglehold on the series, and can clinch the AL pennant with a game 5 win. After dominating Houston in game one, Masahiro Tanaka had no such luck in game 4, as Houston knew what was coming at them.
The Yankees scored first, in the first inning, when Brett Gardner drew a bases loaded walk. In the 3rd, Springer took a splitter from Tanaka into the left field seats for a 3 run homer to put Houston ahead 3-1. It stayed that way until the 6th inning, when Correa took a 0-1 pitch into the left field seats for a 3 run bomb to make it 6-1 Houston. In the bottom half, Gary Sanchez hit a two run homer to make it 6-3 Astros. In the 8th, Alex Bregman scored on a fielding error, and Michael Brantley hit an RBI single in the 9th to make it 8-3.
Greinke only went 4 1/3 innings for Houston, but he had a much better start then he did in game one. He gave up one run on 3 hits and 4 walks. Ryan Pressly got the win, as he finished the 5th after Greinke left. Roberto Osuna got 4 outs to down the Yankees in the 9th. After the game, manager AJ Hinch had praise for the bullpen, saying that ''So far this series our bullpen has been huge to complement a really good starting rotation." The Astros are tired of all the talk of them tipping pitches, with Correa saying that ''I think it's disrespectful that every time we score a lot of runs, people talk about tipping, nobody was tipping today and we scored, what, eight runs? We're great hitters. We've been doing it for a whole season.''
Tanaka took the loss for the Yankees, going 5 innings and giving up 4 runs on 4 hits and two walks. He struck out just one hitter. The Yankees are now at risk of not making the world series this decade, something that hasn't happened since the 1910's. They also committed 4 errors, the most ever by a home team in a playoff game. Manager Aaron Boone said that ''We played poorly tonight, there's no other way to explain it, and we need to flush this immediately.'' CC Sabathia came to pitch in relief, but had to leave due to a left shoulder injury. As he is retiring after the season, he likely walked off the Yankee stadium field for the last time. He was removed from the ALCS roster earlier this morning.
The Astros pushed the Yanks to the brink with the win, and will look to secure their second AL pennant in 3 years when they send Justin Verlander to the mound for game 5 on regular rest. The Yankees hope to send the series back to Houston, and they send game two starter James Paxton to the mound on regular rest.
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