Houston Astros Combine to No-Hit New York Yankees
Houston Astros starter Cristian Javier was on his game on Saturday, striking out 13 New York Yankees hitters in seven innings of work.
He also didn't allow a hit through the seventh, but his 115 pitches at the time were way too much for manager Dusty Baker, who took him out of the game.
Luckily, relievers Hector Neris and Ryan Pressly were plenty good enough to finish the job, combining for the 14th no-hitter in franchise history.
Houston, who lost the first game of the four-game set in New York off an Aaron Judge walk-off single, came back to tie the series on Friday and were looking to at least salvage a series split with a win on Saturday.
The pitching ended up not being a problem at all and the offense was just good enough to give Javier, Neris and Pressly plenty of breathing room to take care of business at the plate.
Things were scoreless until the top of the seventh inning when rookie J. J. Matijevic took Yankees starter Gerrit Cole deep off a 99.7 MPH fastball.
Jose Altuve followed in the top of the eighth with the second solo blast for the Astros in as many innings. An insurance run in the ninth finished off the scoring and the pitching took care of the rest.
It's just the second time since 1958 that the Yankees have been no-hit, and both of those times were combined no-hitters falling victim to the Astros.
Additionally, it's just the third time this year that New York has lost back-to-back games, the last time being in late May when the Tampa Bay Rays took the final two games of a four-game set at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida.
Houston, on Sunday, has the opportunity to win three of four and give the Yankees their first three-game losing streak of the year.
