*Photo from the Los Angeles Times*
Houston leads series 2-0
Finding themselves ahead early, business got taken care of. Alex Bregman homered, Framber Valdez shined, and the Houston Astros defeated the New York Yankees with a 3-2 victory on Thursday night in Houston.
After winning game one against the Yankees on Wednesday, the Astros came out and took care of business again, winning by a one run margin for the first time in this series to take a two game series lead. The Astros are still undefeated in the postseason with a 5-0 record so far.
One big reason for the Astros success has been the long ball. The Astros have scored 20 runs in 5 postseason games so far, and 16 of those 20 runs have been homers. Over the 5 games, Houston's lineup has hit 10 home runs this postseason, and their margin of victory has been two runs or less in each of their 5 games. Regardless, they'll take the wins.
Astros manager Dusty Baker said of the homers that "You hate to live and die by the home run, but you'll take them when you can get them. You don't see many rallies with three or four hits in a row, period. That's the same way during the regular season. It's a different game now."
The first two innings of play went scoreless, before Houston got on the board in the 3rd inning. Bregman blasted a ball to the Crawford Boxes in left field, hitting a 3 run home run to make the Astros lead 3-0. In the 4th, Anthony Rizzo drove in a run on a groundout, and Gleyber Torres scored Giancarlo Stanton on an infield single to cut the deficit to 3-2, but Houston held on from there.
Valdez was the game two starter for the Astros, and he shined under the spotlight. Valdez allowed two runs on 4 hits, issuing no walks and striking out 9 hitters over 7 innings pitched to get the win. Bryan Abreu came on and got a hold with a scoreless 8th inning, and Ryan Pressly got his 3rd save of the playoffs in the 9th.
The defining moment of Valdez's start came in the 4th. He made a play on a comebacker but dropped the ball and then made a bad throw. That advanced the runners to second and 3rd with no outs. Instead of folding, Valdez locked in and allowed the two runs to score, but limited the damage all around.
Valdez said of his 4th inning that "To be quite honest, I think back in 2019 I probably would have been done with the game. I probably would have lost all focus there at that moment. But those are all things that we work on and just continue working hard to be able to focus better and get better in the game."
For the Yankees, Luis Severino took the mound and ended up with the loss, allowing 3 runs on 5 hits and one walk in 5 1/3 innings pitched. Jonathan Loaisiga came on with two shutout innings, and Wandy Peralta pitched 2/3 of an inning to wrap things up.
Up next, the series shifts to New York for at least a game 3 and 4, with game 3 on Saturday afternoon in the Bronx. Cristian Javier starts for the Astros as they look to take a commanding 3-0 series lead, while Gerrit Cole goes for the Yankees as they try to get back in the series.
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