HOUSTON — Aaron Judge ran up the primary bottom line together with his bat in his proper hand within the eighth inning Thursday night time, hoping he’d damaged the spell. The Yankees slugger watched in virtually disbelief because the fly ball he hit arduous died simply over the right-field warning observe and Houston proper fielder Kyle Tucker ran again and simply grabbed it.
Minute Maid Park is seemingly the place the Yankees bats have come to die. Framber Valdez was dominant, identical to Justin Verlander the night time earlier than, because the Astros beat the Yankees 3-2 in Game 2 of the American League Division Series.
The Astros take a 2-0 lead within the best-of-seven collection, which heads again to the Bronx for Game 3 on Saturday. The Yankees have their ace Gerrit Cole set to start out the crucial tilt at Yankees Stadium. MLB groups taking a 2-0 collection’ lead in a best-of-seven have gone on to win in 74 of 88 (84.1%) collection all-time. The Astros have now received eight of 9 residence playoff video games all-time in opposition to the Yankees. The Astros pitching has restricted the Bombers to simply 13 runs throughout these eight losses.
In the primary two video games of this collection, the home-run reliant Yankees’ offense has one homer, scored a complete of 4 runs and struck out 30 instances. They had been 1-for-5 with runners in scoring place Thursday night time and are 1-for-9 within the collection.
Valdez was dealing Thursday. He held the Yankees to 2 runs, each unearned due to his personal fielding and throwing errors, scattering 4 hits. The lefty didn’t stroll a batter and struck out 9.
The Yankees scored their two runs with a bit assist from Valdez. Judge singled to steer off and Valdez’s fielding error allowed Giancarlo Stanton to achieve after which when he threw broad of first base, it allowed Judge to take third. Judge scored on Anthony Rizzo’s floor out and Stanton on a Gleyber Torres single.
With Torres on, Josh Donaldson, hit doubled for his first extra-base hit since Oct. 1 earlier, struck out. It was Donaldson’s eleventh strikeout in 24 postseason plate appearances.
The Bombers had the tying run on first within the ninth with two outs, when Donaldson labored a stroll off Ryan Pressly.
It was a disappointing night time for Luis Severino, who was superb. He held the Astros to a few runs on 5 hits over 5.1 innings. He struck out six and walked one.
Severino, making his eleventh postseason look, misplaced every of his two regular-season begins in opposition to Houston, permitting 5 earned runs in 12 mixed innings for a 3.75 ERA. He misplaced these video games by scores of 3-1 and 2-1.
He was 0-2, 4.15 ERA in three profession playoff begins in opposition to them coming into Thursday night time’s recreation. The Astros held the Yankees to only one run in all three of these video games.
Minute Maid Park, the place he has made six appearances within the playoffs, has at all times introduced again some unhealthy reminiscences for him and the Yankees. They misplaced within the ALCS to the Astros in 2017 and 2019.
Severino had a lot better stuff than he did Saturday night time in Cleveland. He ramped up his fastball to 99 miles an hour — to strike out Yordan Alvarez to finish the fifth. He bought 13 swings and misses, together with 10 on that fastball.
He made one actual mistake. Severino began out the underside of the third by hitting Houston catcher Martin Maldanoado with a pitch. He struck out the struggling Jose Altuve, bought one other out on Yordan Alvarez’s fielder’s alternative after which bought forward of Alex Bregman 1-2, earlier than the Astros third baseman crushed a three-run homer on Severino’s 97-mile-an-hour fastball. He retired the subsequent eight batters he confronted, however when he gave up a one-out single to Kyle Tucker within the sixth, Aaron Boone shortly went out to get him.
Jonathan Loaisiga gave up a single to Yuli Gurriel after which coaxed a double-play grounder out of Aledmys Diaz.
“I think about our losses here, That’s the only thing that came to my mind,” Severino mentioned. “I think all the guys that have been here since then have to remember that. They have to remember that feeling and try to not feel the same way this year, try to be better, try to go out there with that mentality and win games.”
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Source: www.bostonherald.com