HOUSTON — The dragon remains to be alive, robust and nonetheless residing right here at Minute Maid Park. The Yankees introduced the very best document in baseball right here to begin the second half of the season and obtained a impolite reminder that the Astros are nonetheless their largest impediment of their strategy to actually have a likelihood to win their first World Series since 2009. The Astros swept the Yankees in a doubleheader to begin the second half Thursday.
“October is a different ballgame. Things are completely different, teams are different. So this is just kind of a practice test,” Aaron Judge mentioned. “Every time we play, it’s a little practice test. See how we stack up and take your notes and then we’ll get ready for the real thing.”
The Astros used the Yankees’ personal components for achievement within the first half to beast them Thursday: versatility. They scratched out a walkoff 3-2 win on JJ Matijevic’s single within the first sport. Houston hammered dwelling runs and piled on early to face up to a late three-run bomb by Judge to win 7-5 within the night time cap.
With the sweep of the doubleheader, the Astros (61-32) are three wins behind the Yankees (64-29) within the American League race for the very best document. The Astros went 5-3 in opposition to the Yankees this season, a poignant reminder of what Houston has all the way down to them up to now.
The Astros have been the Yankees playoff Kryptonite, with the Bombers dropping the AL Championship Series to them in each 2017 and 2019 and the Wild Card Game in 2015.
“Ultimately we may have to slay the dragon. Right?” Yankees supervisor Aaron Boone mentioned when requested if the Astros have a psychological edge. “It doesn’t matter. Doesn’t matter if you ask the question, it doesn’t matter what my answer is right. If it comes down to October the proof will be in the pudding.”
What the Yankees can take away from Thursday, with lower than two weeks till the commerce deadline, is that they have room to enhance.
Luis Severino went down with a strained lat muscle proper earlier than the All-Star break. Domingo German was their insurance coverage plan coming into the season, however he didn’t look sharp Thursday night time. In his first begin since July 31, 2021, German allowed 5 earned runs on six hits in three innings. He walked one and struck out two. German gave up back-to-back homers to Alvarez and Bregman within the first. JP Sears, who allowed a two-run homer to McCormick within the sixth, didn’t stroll a batter and struck out one in three innings of labor.
Judge’s 410-foot bomb within the prime of the ninth, his major-league main thirty fourth of the season, reduce the Astros result in two and the Yankees had the tying run on the plate when Matt Carpenter grounded right into a game-ending double-play.
In the primary sport, Alex Bregman led off the ninth with a first-pitch single and Aledmy Diaz doubled off Michael King to place runners in scoring place for Matijevic. The Yankees needed to rally within the prime of the ninth simply to get it to that time.
DJ LeMahieu lined his ninth dwelling run of the season off Cristian Javier within the fifth inning. That snapped 11 innings that the Bombers had been held scoreless by the Astros’ proper hander. It was one in all simply two hits the Yankees obtained off Javier in 5 innings of labor.
Jordan Montgomery held the Astros to 2 runs on seven hits. He walked one and struck out eight. It was his seventeenth begin permitting three earned runs or much less, tied for essentially the most this season.
He gave up an RBI-single to Bregman within the first and a run-scoring double within the second to catcher Korey Lee.
The Yankees can take away classes from this collection. They had been already searching for pitching on the commerce market earlier than Thursday, this makes it extra of a precedence. Another bat to face good pitching is perhaps what’s wanted to get them over this hurdle.
Judge and Boone weren’t panicking about having to face the Astros once more simply but.
“I’m kind of focused on one the last thing you said; that we have the best record in baseball,” Judge mentioned when requested concerning the Astros hanging over the Yankees’ heads. “Like I said, they’re great, they’re a great team and I’m not gonna sit here and dwell on things that happened in the past, no matter what good or bad. So we’ll see what comes up, what happens down the stretch, but I’m focused on this year and this team. We have a good ball club here, we have to stay within ourselves and focus on ourselves.”
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Source: www.bostonherald.com