Houston Astros Take 3-0 ALCS Stranglehold over Yankees

The Houston Astros took a 3-0 ALCS lead over the New York Yankees in a 5-0 rout at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx.

Author:
Ben Silver
Publish date:
Oct 22, 2022 8:55 PM EDT

In this story:

The Houston Astros are no stranger to early leads. They jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the ALDS before sweeping the Seattle Mariners and took a 2-0 lead over the New York Yankees going into ALCS Game 3 at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx.

Chas McCormick helped the Astros secure another 2-0 lead in the second inning Saturday evening.

Houston went down somewhat quietly in the first, facing Yankees ace Gerrit Cole, the same for New York's hitters facing Christian Javier, making his first start since Oct. 1.

There were two outs in the second when the Astros started their rally. Christian Vázquez blooped an easy fly ball to center field that Harrison Bader dropped when he got too close to right fielder Aaron Judge.

It was an avoidable mistake, and it cost the Yankees dearly when McCormick lined a homer over the right field short porch.

Then, for three and a half innings, silence.

Javier was truly dominant, holding the Yankees scoreless for 5.1 innings, allowing just one hit and three walks. He struck out five.

In the sixth inning, while Javier still remained in the game, the Astros offense came to life once again.

Alex Bregman led off with a double to left field and Kyle Tucker walked to put a second runner on with none out. Yuli Gurriel singled to chase Cole from the game and load the bases up for Trey Mancini, facing Lou Trivino.

Mancini hit a sacrifice fly that scored one, but it was Vázquez who came through with the back-breaking hit. He blooped a single to Giancarlo Stanton in left field. A natural DH, he was unable to get a good break on a catchable ball, but Gurriel read the contact perfectly from second.

He scored just a few steps behind Tucker from third to give Houston an unreachable 5-0 lead.

With one out in the sixth, Dusty Baker went to Hector Neris to stop the bleed with a runner on first. Neris performed as advertised, silencing the Yankees in the sixth while Ryne Stanek did the same in the seventh, striking out the side in just his second relief appearance of the postseason.

The eighth inning would go to former top prospect Hunter Brown. Looking just to prevent a big inning, it couldn't have started worse as Brown walked both Josh Donaldson and Oswaldo Cabrera to put two on with none out.

But Brown turned things around. He worked a fly out from Jose Trevino and a line out from Anthony Rizzo. Finally Rafael Montero got warmed up in the 'pen and came into to replace Brown.

Yet, the man he would face was the most intense hitter in baseball, but not so in the postseason. Montero continued that trend, getting Aaron Judge to ground out and end the eighth.

Bryan Abreu came out to shut the door on the Yankees in the ninth, he had electric all postseason and quickly got two outs on the Yankees with a groundout of Stanton and a strike out of Gleyber Torres.

Now only one out away from a 3-0 series lead, things began to unravel. Matt Carpenter singled as did Harrison Bader to begin threatening. Joshua Miller came out of the dugout to calm down Abreu, and he did.

A strikeout of Josh Donaldson ended the game, and the bulk of the Yankees hopes for the series. Houston will look to close out the series at 6:07 p.m. CDT with Lance McCullers Jr. taking the mound and facing Nestor Cortés.