Search

Home » Uncategories » How the Astros Stifled the Yankees in Game 3 - The New York Times

How the Astros Stifled the Yankees in Game 3 - The New York Times

The last time Gerrit Cole, one of the aces of the Houston Astros’ starting rotation, lost a game was May 22, when he coughed up six runs over five innings in a 9-4 loss to the Chicago White Sox. Since then, his run of dominance has been simply stunning: 169⅓ innings, 258 strikeouts and a 1.59 E.R.A.

That included his masterful performance at Yankee Stadium on Tuesday, when he stifled the Yankees in a 4-1 Astros victory in Game 3 of the American League Championship Series. The Yankees threw whatever stumbling blocks they could in front of Cole over seven innings — he walked five batters, matching his career high — but he danced past them each time.

The Yankees’ pitchers could not match Cole, and the result was a two-games-to-one advantage for the Astros in the best-of-seven series. With a postponement of Game 4 on Wednesday possible because of rain, the Yankees may face the daunting situation of having to beat the Astros’ other vaunted starters — Justin Verlander and Zack Greinke — to stave off elimination.

The Yankees’ starter on Tuesday, Luis Severino, looked very much like a pitcher who was making just his fifth start of the year after dealing with injuries. He walked three batters and coughed up two home runs over four and one-third innings. Then the Astros got two more runs when two normally reliable relievers — Adam Ottavino and Zack Britton — faltered.

When the Yankees finally scored their lone run — on a home run by second baseman Gleyber Torres in the eighth inning — Cole had left the game and there was not enough time for a Yankees rally.

“That’s what the best pitchers do. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to come through with that big hit,” said Yankees left fielder Brett Gardner, who has combined with catcher Gary Sanchez, designated hitter Edwin Encarnacion and shortstop Didi Gregorius to go 4 for 50 this series.

For some fans and Yankees executives, it might have been extra bitter to see Cole beat their team. Cole, who is from Southern California, grew up an ardent Yankees fan. He attended the 2001 World Series between the Yankees and Diamondbacks in Arizona and was spotted holding a sign that said “Yankees Fan Today, Tomorrow, Forever.”

The Yankees selected Cole out of high school in the first round of the 2008 draft, but he decided to attend U.C.L.A. instead. The Yankees again showed interest in Cole before the 2018 season, but the Pittsburgh Pirates, the team that selected Cole first over all in the 2011 draft, took the Astros’ offer instead.

Cole, who blossomed with the Astros, showed everyone at Yankee Stadium why he is a favorite for the A.L. Cy Young Award, along with Verlander. While Cole’s command was shaky at times on Tuesday, he escaped trouble multiple times, occasionally aided by the Yankees’ uneven plate discipline.

“You feel like you get one or two runs for Gerrit Cole, and it feels like a 10-run lead with him,” Astros right fielder Josh Reddick said, adding later, “He didn’t have his best stuff but still put up zeros for us.”

The Yankees averaged just over four pitchers per plate appearance during the regular season — making them the second-best team in baseball at driving opponents’ pitch counts up. They were also the best in baseball with runners on base. Against Cole, that discipline faded, as the Yankees swung early or chased pitches out of the strike zone.

“I always think it’s important to go in there on the hunt, especially when you’re up against a good pitcher,” Yankees Manager Aaron Boone said. “You can’t just give great pitchers strike one.”

But Cole did not make anything easy. In the first inning, Gregorius ended a bases-loaded, two-out threat when he swung at the first pitch he saw, a sweeping curveball, and hit a weak groundout to end the threat. The Yankees’ patience increased as the game went on, but so did Cole’s guile.

In the second inning, Cole wriggled out of a jam by striking out Aaron Judge with a combination of nasty sliders and curves. In the fourth, he walked back-to-back hitters — Gio Urshela and Aaron Hicks — but got a flyout from D.J. LeMahieu to end the inning.

“I don’t think I got one pitch over the heart of the plate,” Judge said. “When that happens, you kind of get frustrated and start to chase a little bit.”

The closest the Yankees came to scoring against Cole was in fifth inning, when Encarnacion doubled and Torres drew a hard-fought walk. Gregorius swung at the first pitch again, sending the 99-miles-per-hour fastball high and deep to right field. With Yankee fans on their feet, Reddick caught the ball on the warning track with his back to the wall. It was one of a handful of hard-hit balls this series that have seemingly died more quickly in the air, stoking speculation that the baseballs themselves have changed once again.

“I didn’t come through for the team when I had the opportunity,” Gregorius said. “Most of the game is on me.”

Added Cole, “Just boiled down to making some good pitches under pressure and getting fortunate on the Didi ball.”

The difference on the mound between the Yankees and Astros was stark from the beginning. Severino’s third pitch of the game, a wobbly slider over the plate, was clobbered over the left field fence by Jose Altuve for a solo home run. Severino managed to escape the inning without allowing another run, but it took him 36 pitches and 21 minutes.

Severino’s poor slider was hammered again in the second inning, resulting in a second-deck blast by Reddick. Trailing 2-0, Boone stuck with Severino even through a 12-minute delay before the top of the fifth inning, when home plate umpire Jeff Nelson left the game with a concussion he sustained on a foul ball.

Boone finally pulled Severino after he allowed two base runners in that inning, and Chad Green entered to neutralize the threat. But two innings later, Britton couldn’t do the same with Ottavino’s mess.

Nine of the 18 batters Ottavino has faced this postseason have reached base, including Springer (walk) and Altuve (single) on Tuesday. Britton allowed two of them to score when he unfurled a wild pitch that Sanchez couldn’t corral and Yuli Gurriel hit a sacrifice fly.

“It’s not over yet, to win the whole thing,” Ottavino said. “I get another opportunity hopefully. I’m not going to let it define me.”

With Cole on the mound, even two runs was enough for the Astros to take control of the series.

Benjamin Hoffman provided live updates and analysis from Game 3:

Inning by Inning

Luis Cessa was back to start the ninth. He got George Springer to ground out to third and Jose Altuve to ground out to short. After a two-out single by Michael Brantley — who was replaced by the pinch-runner Jake Marisnick — Cessa hit Alex Bregman in the ribs but stranded the baserunners by getting Yuli Gurriel to pop out to first.

Houston brought in its closer, Roberto Osuna, for the ninth, and he made quick work of the Yankees. He retired Gio Urshela and Aaron Hicks on fly balls to center, and he finished things off by getting a grounder to third from D.J. LeMahieu.

The Yankees finally got on the board, thanks to a solo homer from Gleyber Torres, but they trail the Astros, 4-1, with one inning left to play.

Luis Cessa came in to replace Zack Britton in the top half of the inning and he looked terrific, striking out the side on 18 pitches.

Edwin Encarnacion led off the bottom half of the inning against Houston’s first reliever of the game, Joe Smith, and was initially ruled safe on a soft grounder to third that resulted in a close play at first. After a review, Encarnacion was ruled out, drawing an intense reaction from the crowd at Yankee Stadium.

Torres brought them out of that funk quickly by launching a ball 371 feet to right, giving the Yankees their first run since the fourth inning of Game 2. Smith was pulled for Will Harris, who needed just one pitch to retire Didi Gregorius on a pop fly to third and then got Gary Sanchez to ground out to end the inning.

The Astros extended their lead and Gerrit Cole is still in the game. That’s bad news for the Yankees.

Yankees reliever Adam Ottavino was once again summoned to face George Springer — the last time that happened, Springer hit a ball that hasn’t landed yet — and he proceeded to walk the Astros’ center fielder, who then advanced to third on a hit-and-run in which Jose Altuve ripped a grounder into right field. Aaron Boone had seen enough and he replaced Ottavino, typically a dominant reliever, with Zack Britton.

Britton got a grounder to first from Michael Brantley, which resulted in D.J. LeMahieu grabbing the ball and running at Springer, who was hung up between third and home. Springer successfully stalled the play to the point where Brantley and Altuve were able to advance to second and third before Springer was tagged out.

The Yankees intentionally walked Alex Bregman to face Yuli Gurriel with the bases loaded, but then Britton began to struggle with the control of his sinker. He bounced one pitch well before it got to the catcher — getting lucky when the ball caromed off the home plate umpire — and bounced a second one that got away from Gary Sanchez, allowing Altuve to score.

Gurriel then added a fourth run for the Astros with a deep fly to left that brought Brantley home.

Gerrit Cole’s half of the inning was not nearly as eventful. He got through LeMahieu, Aaron Judge and Brett Gardner in order. He’s retired seven consecutive batters.

After a lengthy fifth inning, things sped back up in the sixth.

Tommy Kahnle replaced Chad Green and had a fairly quiet 1-2-3 inning, getting all three outs on fly balls to the outfield.

Gerrit Cole matched Kahnle in the bottom half of the inning, striking out Gary Sanchez, retiring Gio Urshela on a pop-up in foul territory that was nabbed by Alex Bregman, and finishing things off by striking out Aaron Hicks.

With Cole at 102 pitches, his night may be nearing its end, though he was allowed to throw 118 in Game 2 of the division series.

After a lengthy delay at the start of the inning because of an injury to the home plate umpire, Luis Severino was surprisingly sent back to the mound for the Yankees. He was not out there long.

The Yankees’ ace briefly rewarded Aaron Boone’s faith, retiring Jose Altuve on a grounder to short, but after Michael Brantley singled and Alex Bregman walked, Boone made the move to Chad Green, who had been warming up in the previous inning. Green needed just two pitches to retire Yuli Gurriel on a liner to center, then he struck out Yordan Alvarez to strand the baserunners he inherited.

Severino ended up throwing 97 pitches, 14 more than his previous season-high. He allowed five hits and three earned runs, striking out six and walking three, with the only real damage coming on the solo homers he allowed to Jose Altuve and Josh Reddick.

In the bottom half of the inning, Gerrit Cole showed little rust despite having been idle for 32 minutes, allowing a two-out double to the slumping Edwin Encarnacion and a walk to Gleyber Torres. Didi Gregorius put a charge into a 98.6 mile-per-hour fastball, sending it to the right-field warning track, but Reddick settled under it to get the final out of the inning.

The delay at the start of the inning was the result of Jeff Nelson, the home plate umpire, being removed as a result of his having taken a foul ball off his facemask in the fourth inning. He was replaced by Kerwin Danley, who had previously been at second base, and the players were idle for around 17 minutes as Danley got ready. There will be no umpire in left field for the remainder of the game as a result of Nelson’s removal.

Houston’s advantage in durability of its starters will, apparently, be a factor tonight, with Gerrit Cole cruising and Luis Severino’s day nearing its end.

In the top half of the fourth, Severino allowed just one hit — that wasn’t his fault — recording a second consecutive scoreless inning. He struck out Carlos Correa and got Josh Reddick to pop out to short, but Brett Gardner lost track of a fly ball off the bat of Martin Maldonado, letting it fall to the warning track for a double. Severino then struck out George Springer to end the inning.

Severino has been at his best over the last two innings, and has six strikeouts so far, but he’s up to a season-high 90 pitches. With Chad Green warming up, the rest of this game will almost certainly be handled by the Yankees’ bullpen.

Cole, on the other hand, got quick outs from Didi Gregorius (popout to catcher) and Gary Sanchez (strikeout on a checked swing) before walking Gio Urshela and Aaron Hicks, with a stretch in which eight of nine pitches were balls. Cole escaped when D.J. LeMahieu hit a long fly ball to center for the third out.

How can an inning be more perfect than perfect? Luis Severino showed how by retiring the side in order in the top of the third, using just six pitches for three outs. He dispatched three terrific hitters in Alex Bregman, Yuli Gurriel and Yordan Alvarez.

Gerrit Cole responded by using 14 pitches to get through Brett Gardner, Edwin Encarnacion and Gleyber Torres in the bottom half of the inning.

This matchup of aces is suddenly looking like one.

Josh Reddick did not start Games 1 or 2 for Houston, but Manager A.J. Hinch liked the matchup of his left-handed outfielder against Luis Severino. The hunch proved wise as Reddick jumped on a 1-2 slider and launched it 410 feet to right for a 2-0 lead.

Severino struck out Martin Maldonado and George Springer, and appeared to be out of the inning when he induced a soft comebacker from Jose Altuve. But Severino awkwardly tried to backhand the ball with his glove, letting it squirt away from him, and Altuve reached via error. As a result, Severino was forced to throw six more pitches to get out of the inning (on a strikeout by Michael Brantley) and is up to 62 through two innings. He has not been allowed to throw more than 83 since last season.

Gerrit Cole got two quick outs before getting into a bit of a battle against Aaron Hicks, who fouled off five pitches in a 10-pitch walk. D.J. LeMahieu singled up the middle, putting Cole in trouble for a second consecutive inning, but he struck out Aaron Judge — Cole’s first strikeout of the game — to escape the jam.

Both teams loaded the bases in the first inning, but a combined six runners were stranded, as Houston got off to a 1-0 lead on Jose Altuve’s solo homer.

Luis Severino needed just two pitches to retire George Springer on a grounder to third, but then he hung an 88 mile-per-hour slider to Altuve, which Houston’s second baseman launched 420 feet to center, giving the Astros a 1-0 lead.

After the homer, things slowed down considerably. Severino walked Michael Brantley on eight pitches, and needed 11 to strike out Alex Bregman in a foul ball-filled at-bat. Yuli Gurriel got an infield single on a ball that Didi Gregorius took a long time to corral at shortstop, and Yordan Alvarez walked to load the bases for Carlos Correa. While Severino got out of the inning when Correa popped out to second, the Yankees’ ace needed 36 pitches to get three outs. Considering Severino’s lack of durability since returning from injury, that could prove to be a huge issue.

The Yankees got a pair of unusual hits to start the bottom half of the inning. D.J. LeMahieu led off with a sharp grounder that ricocheted off second base and Aaron Judge beat the shift with a grounder to where a second baseman would normally have been. Gerrit Cole got the first out on a fly ball to center from Brett Gardner, and the second with an infield fly from the ice-cold Edwin Encarnacion, but he walked Gleyber Torres on four pitches to load the bases for Didi Gregorius. Cole escaped the jam when Gregorius grounded out to second to end the inning.

The Yankees are shaking things up slightly, with Aaron Hicks, who had been injured, starting for the first time since Aug. 3. The Astros, meanwhile, have flipped Jose Altuve to the No. 2 spot and moved Michael Brantley to No. 3. Gerrit Cole’s preferred catcher, Martin Maldonado, will start in place of Robinson Chirinos.

1. D.J. LeMahieu, 1B

2. Aaron Judge, RF

3. Brett Gardner, LF

4. Edwin Encarnacion, DH

5. Gleyber Torres, 2B

6. Didi Gregorius, SS

7. Gary Sanchez, C

8. Gio Urshela, 3B

9. Aaron Hicks, CF

1. George Springer, CF

2. Jose Altuve, 2B

3. Michael Brantley, LF

4. Alex Bregman, 3B

5. Yuli Gurriel, 1B

6. Yordan Alvarez, DH

7. Carlos Correa, SS

8. Josh Reddick, RF

9. Martin Maldonado, C

After a memorable American League Championship Series between the Yankees and Astros in 2017, it was clear that both teams would continue to compete in an arms race for control of baseball’s junior circuit. The Yankees traded for Miami’s Giancarlo Stanton — at that point the reigning N.L. most valuable player — while Houston sent four prospects to the Pittsburgh Pirates for Gerrit Cole, a starting pitcher who over the previous two seasons had gone 19-22 with a 4.12 E.R.A. in 319 innings of work.

It may have seemed like the Yankees had positioned themselves to dominate, but since those deals, Stanton has been riddled with injuries, producing a total of 4.4 wins above replacement, while Cole, with help from Houston’s spin-rate factory of analytics and coaching, has produced 8.4 WAR for the Astros.

Making matters worse, Cole’s role, durable starting pitcher, is the most glaring area of need for the Yankees in their quest to win the team’s 28th World Series title. He has topped 200 innings in each of the last three seasons, and in both of his starts in Houston’s division series win over Tampa Bay, he pitched into the eighth inning and earned the win.

In fact, Houston has not lost a game with Cole starting since July 12, and Cole has not personally picked up a loss since May 22 — a span of 24 starts.

With the series tied at one game apiece, the Yankees will host the Astros for Game 3, and they will have their best starter — Luis Severino — going against Cole. On his best days, Severino can match Cole’s talent, but the Yankees’ ace barely pitched this season because of injuries and has not lasted longer than five innings since Sept. 19 of last season. In seven career postseason starts, he has only made it out of the fifth inning once.

By comparison, Cole has gone into the sixth inning or beyond in 23 of his last 24 starts, with the lone exception being Houston’s last game of the regular season, when he pitched five easy innings to secure his 20th victory and then was pulled so he could rest up for the playoffs, having thrown just 92 pitches.

  • George Springer broke out of his postseason funk — at least temporarily — with his solo homer off Adam Ottavino in the fifth inning of Game 2. The focus on slumping Astros now turns to Yordan Alvarez, the team’s phenom of a designated hitter, who hit 27 homers in just 87 games during the regular season but is 0 for 7 against the Yankees and batting .231 overall in the postseason without no home runs. Alvarez did not get a chance to face Severino during the regular season, but he did hit home runs off J.A. Happ (a starter currently serving as a reliever) and Tommy Kahnle.

  • The Yankees have their own slumping slugger in Edwin Encarnacion. The veteran D.H. is 0 for 8 against Houston with six strikeouts after hitting 34 homers during the regular season (21 for Seattle, 13 for the Yankees). He is 4 for 21 over all in the postseason, and considering all of his value comes from his bat, that’s a problem. Similarly, Brett Gardner, who had a career year offensively, is struggling against Houston’s pitching, going 2 for 9 with a pair of singles. In an amusing quirk, however, Gardner’s single in the top of the sixth inning of Game 2 — which served as the front half of a play in which Carlos Correa’s crucial throw home nailed D.J. LeMahieu, saving a vital run — was the Yankees’ last hit until Gardner singled again in the 11th.

  • The forecast for Game 3 is ideal, with temperatures currently in the mid 60s for first pitch and expected to drift downward to around 60 by 7 p.m., according to AccuWeather. The teams will want to enjoy that as Wednesday’s forecast for Game 4 calls for heavy rain and temperatures in the high 50s. If the game is postponed, it would be rescheduled for Thursday. That would give the Yankees’ overworked bullpen some extra rest, but it would also allow Houston to give more-than-expected rest to its Big Three starters (Justin Verlander, Zack Greinke and Cole).

Let's block ads! (Why?)



"how" - Google News
October 16, 2019 at 12:03AM
https://ift.tt/35wa22Z

How the Astros Stifled the Yankees in Game 3 - The New York Times
"how" - Google News
https://ift.tt/2MfXd3I

Bagikan Berita Ini

0 Response to "How the Astros Stifled the Yankees in Game 3 - The New York Times"

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

Powered by Blogger.