*Photo from Pinstripe Alley*
Houston leads series 2-1
Gerrit Cole kept the hitters at bay, Jose Altuve homered, and the Houston Astros beat the New York Yankees 4-1 to take a 2-1 lead in the best of 7 ALCS. Cole didn't have his best stuff on display, but it was enough to hold off the Yankees. Cole said the difference was ''Just boiled down to making some good pitches under pressure."
Altuve jumped on Luis Severino in the first inning, launching a solo homer to left field to give Houston an early lead. In the second inning, Josh Reddick belted a solo homer into the second deck in right field to make it 2-0. In the 7th, Altuve scored on a wild pitch and Yuli Gurriel hit a sac fly to score Michael Brantley to make it 4-0. The Yankees got their run on a Gleyber Torres solo homer in the 8th.
Cole went 7 innings for Houston, giving up 4 hits and 5 walks, but no runs. Roberto Osuna worked the 9th to get his first save of the postseason. Manager AJ Hinch said of Cole's performance that ''I think he's the best pitcher in baseball right now, Gerrit is locked in. And to see him do it on the big stage in a playoff game with the magnitude of this game, it was pretty awesome.'' Hinch went on to say that ''He's exceptional. And he gets better and better and better, once he found his curveball, it was pretty lights out. I think he finished his outing as strong as ever.'' Osuna said of the Astros chances in the ALCS that there was ''Two more to go, I'm excited."
Severino went 4 1/3 innings for the Yankees, giving up two runs on 5 hits and 3 walks. He struck out 6 in a losing effort. Manager Aaron Boone said of Cole's performance that ''It's obviously a little frustrating we weren't able to break through with him, but I think up and down we gave ourselves a chance. And anytime you're facing a guy like that, you want that kind of traffic. And we had that in several innings. He made big pitches when he had to.'' Didi Gregorius struggled, grounding out with the bases loaded to end the first inning, and just missing a homer in the 7th. He said that ''Most of the game was on me, I didn't come through, so I was the one that failed, not the whole team.''
Game 4 has been postponed, so the teams should be going to their game one starters on regular rest. For the Yankees, it would be Masahiro Tanaka. For Houston, it would be Zack Greinke.
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