Alex Bregman's three-run blast is the difference in Yankees' ALCS Game 2 loss to Astros
HOUSTON — It still is accepted as gospel in far too many corners of the Yankees' organization that they were cheated out of a World Series bid in 2017 because of the Astros' illegal sign-stealing scheme that involved the banging of trash cans.
But the cold truth was the Yankees didn’t hit nearly enough in the four games at Minute Maid Park in that American League Championship Series, which they lost in seven games.
They’re off to a similar start in this season's ALCS, and at this point, the Yankees will be fortunate to make it back to Minute Maid Park for a sixth game, let alone a seventh.
Held to four hits, they dropped a 3-2 decision to Houston on Thursday night in front of a loud sellout crowd of 41,700. That gave the Astros a two-games-to-none edge in the series. After an off-day Friday, the series will resume at Yankee Stadium with Gerrit Cole on the mound, likely against either Cristian Javier or Lance McCullers Jr.
The Yankees, who struck out 17 times in their 4-2 loss in Game 1, struck out 13 times Thursday. Nine came against Framber Valdez, known primarily as a groundball pitcher. Valdez, 17-6 with a 2.82 ERA this season, allowed two runs (both unearned as they came after a double-error he committed in the fourth) and four hits. He did not walk a batter and was given all the runs he needed on Alex Bregman's three-run homer off Luis Severino in the third inning.
The Yankees were inches from taking the lead in the eighth against righthander Bryan Abreu, who took over for Valdez. He walked Harrison Bader with one out and Aaron Judge followed by driving a first-pitch slider to deep right, where Kyle Tucker drifted onto the warning track, reached up and made the catch at the very top of the wall. Bader alertly tagged and took second, but after getting ahead 3-and-0, Giancarlo Stanton struck out looking at a 99-mph fastball.
Asked if he thought Judge’s ball was gone, Aaron Boone said: “Yeah. Who would have thought . . . I think the roof open kind of killed us. I think it's a 390 ball. I think it was like 106 [mph off the bat] or whatever. . . . I didn't think like he smoked it like a no-doubter, but it felt like his homers to right."
Judge begged to disagree, and he should know, given that he played rightfield. “No, not with the way the wind was playing,'' he said. "It was blowing pretty hard out to leftfield, so I kind of hit it to the wrong part of the park, that’s for sure. I was out there for eight innings on defense, so I felt that wind kind of howling, so the minute I hit it, I knew kind of what the result would be.”
Comparing Bregman's 360-foot homer with Judge's 345-foot non-homer, Severino said: “They hit it at 91 [mph] . . . Judge hit it at 106. So they got lucky.”
In the ninth, Ryan Pressly, after a delay of a couple of minutes as a fan ran onto the field to hug Astros second baseman Jose Altuve, struck out Anthony Rizzo and Gleyber Torres before walking Josh Donaldson. Pinch hitter Matt Carpenter, who went 0-for-4 with four strikeouts in Game 1, struck out swinging to end it. He is 0-for-7 with seven strikeouts in the postseason.
Severino began the third by getting ahead 0-and-2 on No. 9 hitter Martin Maldonado — who hit .186 with 116 strikeouts in 344 at-bats in the regular season — but hit him in the left forearm with a fastball. After Altuve struck out and Jeremy Pena singled, Yordan Alvarez pulled a hard grounder to first. Rizzo fired to second for the second out, but Alvarez beat Oswald Peraza’s relay to Severino covering first.
Severino then got ahead 1-and-2 on Bregman, but he hit a drive well into the Crawford Boxes in leftfield to give the Astros a 3-0 lead.
“I think all of the guys [pitchers] kind of cruised through the entire rest of the game, other than that inning,'' Kyle Higashioka said. "For us to get beat by one swing of the bat, it’s kind of tough to swallow.”
The Yankees are 9-for-65 (a .138/.200/.262 slash line) with 30 strikeouts and four walks in the two games against the Astros. Overall in the postseason, they are 37-for-219 (a .169/.252/.338 slash line) with 83 strikeouts and 21 walks in seven games. They have scored only 24 runs, with 18 of the runs coming on 11 home runs.
“We’ve got a great offense,'' Judge said. "I think we just have to go back to what got us to this position, what helped us win the division, and we’ll be where we want to be. If that’s contact, if it’s moving guys over, if it’s coming up with that big hit . . . we’ll figure it out.”
Astros pitchers dominating Yankees hitters is no aberration. In the regular season, the Yankees scored 22 runs in seven games against Houston and were 33-for-219 (.151) with 67 strikeouts. Aside from Judge's game-winning hits in their two walk-off wins, they never led at any point. Bader's home run in the second inning of ALCS Game1 gave them their only in-game lead this season, and even then, the Astros tied it in the bottom of that inning.
“I think we have to shorten up a little bit, try to put the ball in play,'' Stanton said. "You never know what could happen if you put the ball in play . . . I don’t think we’re trying to do too much. We all have to make mid-at-bat adjustments in order to put the ball in play. The game’s extremely fast and they’re reading swings, reading body language. You’ve got to be able to counteract that.”
“Their pitching’s good, they’re a good staff,'' Carpenter said. "They’ve got good arms and they’ve executed well, but it’s not an excuse, we’ve got to still find a way. If we want to win, we to have find a way, myself included, have [good] at-bats against them.”
The Yankees came back in the fourth, aided, oddly enough, by Valdez. Judge led off with a single to left and Stanton hit a soft comebacker. Valdez bobbled it for error No. 1, then threw wildly to first for another error, which put runners at second and third. Rizzo’s groundout to first drove in a run and Torres’ infield single to short made it 3-2.
“I thought early on we had some good at-bats against him, even that first inning when he went one, two, three,'' Boone said. "I thought Bader had a good at-bat, Judgie got into a good count, smoked the ball to center. I think a little bit similar to [Game 1 starter Justin] Verlander, I thought he got into a really good rhythm there in kind of the middle innings and really started landing his curveball exactly how he wanted to, to go with his sinker, and we just weren't able to mount enough. Obviously, we got a gift there on the error and a good job of putting a couple balls in play to get right back in the game. But we got to find a way to break through against these guys.”
The Yankees did have one defensive highlight. Jonathan Loaisiga walked Maldonado with one out in the seventh and Altuve followed with a wicked ground shot that looked as if it would get through for his first hit of the postseason. Torres instead made a pretty stop and subsequent flip to Peraza, who spun 360 degrees and fired in the dirt, but Rizzo made a flashy scoop to complete a 4-6-3 double play.
Erik Boland started in Newsday's sports department in 2002. He covered high school and college sports, then shifted to the Jets beat. He has covered the Yankees since 2009.
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