*Photo from the Houston Chronicle*
Houston leads series 1-0
The opening salvo of this year's ALCS went to the home team. Yuli Gurriel homered, Chas McCormick added a homer of his own, and the Houston Astros defeated the New York Yankees with a 4-2 victory on Wednesday night in Houston.
So far this postseason, the Astros are still undefeated, now sitting at a 4-0 record after sweeping the Seattle Mariners in the ALDS and taking game one of the ALCS. This time, it was production from the bottom of the lineup, with Gurriel and McCormick homering, and Martin Maldonado driving in a run.
Astros shortstop Jeremy Pena said of the lineup depth that "I would say that's what makes us so good. We pick each other up on any given night. Sometimes when we don't put together quality at-bats our pitchers carry us. And when they don't have their day on the mound we carry them with the lineup. As I said, that's what makes us a great team."
It was Harrison Bader who started the scoring, hitting a solo home run in the top of the second inning to put the Yankees ahead 1-0. With McCormick on first in the bottom of the second, Maldonado doubled to right field, scoring McCormick to tie the game. Gurriel then hit a 6th inning solo shot to put the Astros ahead by a 2-1 score.
One batter after Gurriel homered, McCormick came up and did the same, hitting a solo homer to right field to make the Astros lead 3-1 after 6 innings. One inning later, Pena hit a solo blast to left center field, making the score 4-1. Anthony Rizzo hit a solo homer in the 8th to bring the Yankees within 4-2, but the Astros shut the door after that.
The game one starter for the Astros was Justin Verlander, who picked up the win with one run on 3 hits and one walk in 6 innings pitched. Hector Neris came on and pitched a scoreless 7th. Rafael Montero got the first two outs of the 8th, before Ryan Pressly came on and got the 4 out save.
Verlander was another big story for the Astros. In addition to just one earned run, he racked up 11 strikeouts in this one, including a stretch of 6 in a row. He set the MLB record by throwing the 8th game of at least 10 strikeouts in his playoff career, and got to 219 playoff strikeouts, passing Clayton Kershaw for the most in baseball history.
Astros manager Dusty Baker said of Verlander that "When he got the strikeout to Donaldson, boy, that was huge. This guy, he can get out of trouble. And then the strikeout to Carpenter, he dialed it up. He got it together. He was actually better between 80 and 100 than he was prior to that. He was dealing."
It was Jameson Taillon starting for the Yankees, allowing one run in 4 1/3 innings pitched. Clarke Schmidt got the loss, allowing two runs on two hits in one inning. Frankie Montas allowed a run in one inning, with Lou Trivino and Miguel Castro picking up scoreless appearances.
Yankees star outfielder Aaron Judge said of the Astros pitching that "They’ve got a great staff, top to bottom. They’ve got great arms out of the ‘pen that are effective on both sides of the plate and good starting pitchers that can mix three to four pitches. It’s a tough matchup, but you want to compete against the best. That’s what we’ve got in front of us. We’ve got to go out and do our job."
Up next, game two of the series is on Thursday night in Houston. Framber Valdez starts for the Astros as they look to take a two game lead, while Luis Severino goes for the Yankees as they try to force a game 5 with a series tying win.
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