HOUSTON – Aaron Judge made a drive in the eighth inning and everyone thought it was going to be a home run right away. But Kyle Tucker caught the ball at the top of the right field wall and fans at Minute Maid Park, which was all standing and waving orange towels, were stunned for a moment. But they started to cheer again after a few seconds.
On Thursday night, the New York power hitter made an attempt to hit a home run against reliever Bryan Abreu. It was the Yankees‘ last best chance to steal a win. If the Yankees don’t want to lose to the Astros again, who beat them in both the 2017 and 2019 ALCS, they’ll have to turn things around starting Saturday in the Bronx, when Gerrit Cole takes the mound. But a lot depends on their offense which has so far fizzled out in the first two games in Houston.
The Yankees’ offense failed against Valdez
Framber Valdez, who started for Houston, pitched well for seven innings. He struck out nine batters, gave up four hits, and didn’t walk anyone. Ryan Pressly finished it off in the ninth. And the only runs the Yankees scored against him were runs that Valdez himself gave them.
In the fourth inning, Valdez made two mistakes on a comebacker by Stanton. He dropped the ball and then threw to first base without looking. With one out, Anthony Rizzo and Gleyber Torres reduced the Astros’ lead.
Tim Locastro was on first base when the Yankees have the tying run, but Pressly got Matt Carpenter out to end the game.
Carpenter, who missed two months of the postseason because of a broken left foot, said, “If we want to win, we need to find a better way, just have to figure out how to do it.” The pinch hitter is now 0-for-7 with seven strikeouts.
The hitting plan proved futile
With one out and the Yankees down by one run, right-handed batters Jose Trevino and Isiah Kiner-Falefa were on the bench. Yankees manager Aaron Boone probably thought that Higashioka “could hit and tie the game with one swing.” It was a good plan on paper than having a different hitter with the Nos. 8 and 9 batters coming up next.
Anyway, Higashioka struck out against Valdez for the third time on Thursday. In the end, Matt Carpenter came in for Higashioka as a pinch-hitter in the ninth inning and made the last out. Higashioka has started the last three games with Severino, and Severino is likely to get another start before Higashioka does.
But Trevino hasn’t been as good offensively as he was in the first half of his All-Star season. In the postseason, he’s gone 1-for-15 with a sacrifice fly. But Judge didn’t do so well in Houston because of its size. Kyle Tucker caught his shot at the wall, giving the Houston Astros a 3-2 win and a 2-0 lead in this best-of-seven series.
The Yankees didn’t have a very good offense against Cleveland in the Division Series that they won. In Houston, their bats fell more silent and couldn’t do any magic against the American League beast, who is still beating them. So far in the ALCS, two of the best-starting pitchers in the league—Cy Young’s favorite Justin Verlander in Game 1 and 17-game winner Framber Valdez in Game 2—have beaten the Yankees badly.
Luis Severino made a blunder
One fastball that caught too much of the plate ruined Severino’s first start. With two outs and Bregman on first and second, Severino threw a 97 mph fastball right after a good change-up that made Bregman swing and miss. Neither Severino nor Higashioka thought it was a badly placed pitch.
But it wasn’t high enough or far enough inside to stop Bregman from hitting it over the left field wall (about 360 feet away), giving Houston a 3-0 lead. Before that, Bregman had only gone 3-for-19 (.158) against Severino and didn’t hit any home runs.
But Severino kept pitching until the sixth and got Yordan Alvarez out twice. At the end of the fifth inning, Severino got Alvarez to swing and miss at a 99 mph fastball on the second pitch, leaving a runner at first.
Jose Altuve ran over
After not getting a hit in 16 at-bats during the ALDS, Jose Altuve is now 0-for-23 in this postseason, but he was robbed of two hits on Thursday when he went 0-for-4. Altuve’s first-inning single was stolen by Oswald Peraza, a rookie shortstop for the Yankees, with a field-and-spin move on a grounder headed to left field.
And in the seventh, Altuve’s 107 mph smash knocked second baseman Gleyber Torres down. Torres caught the ball on the first hop, flipped it to Peraza, and they started a spectacular double play that ended the inning.
Isiah Kiner-Falefa was taken out of the Game 2 lineup and replaced by Jose Peraza. Oswald Cabrera went back to left field, Stanton went back to DH, and Harrison Bader, who was 1-for-3 with a walk, moved up to bat first.
The top of the ninth was about five minutes late because security at Minute Maid Park was shockingly bad.
An Astros fan ran across the field to hug Altuve at second base before five people in uniform pulled him away, put him on the ground, and led the reluctant man off the field.
In Game 2, the Yankees struck out 13 times. In the first game of the series, they struck out 17 times. But the Yankees have had six hits three times, five hits twice, and now four hits once in their seven playoff games.
The Yankees haven’t won a postseason series after losing the first two games since the 2017 ALDS when they came back to beat Cleveland in the last three games of a best-of-five series.
Can the Yankees’ offense get back on track? What changes do you suggest?
