Yankees give up six ninth-inning runs in embarrassing walk-off loss to Astros

HOUSTON — Brutal. Awful. Stunning. Embarrassing.

All of those words can be used to describe the Yankees’ 8-7 loss to the Astros on Sunday afternoon at Minute Maid Park, but even they wouldn't fully do it justice.

Jose Altuve, the player Yankees fans love to hate more than any other — and more than a few Yankees aren’t too far behind when it comes to that feeling — hit a walk-off three-run homer off Chad Green to cap a six-run ninth for the Astros, who avoided a three-game sweep. Entering the ninth, they had scored two runs in 26 innings in the series.

"It's another gut punch that we've had. We've had a number of those, obviously, here in the first half," said Aaron Boone, whose club pulled into the All-Star break tied for third in the AL East, eight games behind the Red Sox.

Five Astros pitchers threw 212 pitches, only 106 for strikes, and the Yankees (46-43) drew 14 walks. Despite going 3-for-16 with runners in scoring position and stranding 14, they led 7-2 going into the ninth.

Domingo German, who entered the game in the seventh after Jameson Taillon pitched a solid six innings, allowed an infield single by Yuli Gurriel and a double by Kyle Tucker to begin the inning.

Green, who brought a 0.51 ERA in his previous 11 appearances into the day, allowed a two-run double by Chas McCormick and an RBI double by Abraham Toro to make it 7-5. After a single by pinch hitter Jason Castro put runners at the corners, Martin Maldonado lined softly to short for the only out Green was able to record. Altuve then lofted a 1-and-1 curveball over the leftfield wall to send the Yankees to arguably their worst first-half loss — of which there is no shortage of candidates.

"We were three outs away from a really good road trip. Now this kind of leaves a sour taste in our mouths for three days," Green said. "Up five runs [going] into the ninth, we should win that game 99% of the time."

On May 6, Altuve had hit a three-run homer off Green in the eighth inning that gave the Astros a 5-3 lead in a 7-4 victory, which also prevented a three-game sweep.

This being Yankees-Astros, there was additional drama and fun.

After the joyous Astros dogpiled Altuve at the plate, Maldonado was the instigator in ripping the second baseman’s jersey off. Altuve gleefully pranced about bare from the waist up as his teammates and the crowd of 37,928 roared.

"It was awesome to get in that little dogpile at the end and seeing his shirt absolutely shredded to pieces," McCormick told Houston reporters.

That stemmed from the trolling of Altuve that occurred from the opposing dugout in the last two games of the series.

While rounding the bases on his third-inning homer Saturday night, Judge cinched the top of his jersey together, a la Altuve when he arrived at home plate after hitting the walk-off homer off Aroldis Chapman that sent the Astros to the 2019 World Series.

It has long been rumored/speculated that Altuve was wearing a buzzer or some device that helped him hit that homer and that he didn't want to get his shirt stripped off that night.

"Whenever they keep the roof closed here, it’s pretty chilly, so I was just letting my team know to button up a little bit," Judge said Saturday, not attempting to hide a smile.

Maldonado responded by pulling down the top of his jersey — look, no buzzer! — after his third-inning homer Sunday.

After Tim Locastro started the fourth with a homer that gave the Yankees a 2-1 lead, Rougned Odor draped him in a jacket as he got to the dugout, a nod to Judge’s comment the night before. After hitting a three-run homer in the eighth to make it 7-2, Sanchez did an even more expressive gesture with his shirt than Judge had and also received the jacket treatment from Odor.

Boone dismissed the notion that the Astros were sparked by the trolling.

"I really don’t even have any interest in it," he said. "We coughed up a 7-2 lead. I don’t think it had anything to do with any of the extra stuff people are talking about."

By Erik Boland

erik.boland@newsday.comeboland11

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.