Yankees' bats explode late as they cruise past the Astros 13-4

After a late night loss and a devastating injury, the Yankees looked to bounce back against the team with the best record in baseball, the Houston Astros. The Yankees had plenty of opportunities against the Astros’ pitching, and they initially failed to capitalize. However, after Lance McCullers was pulled, the Yankees put together an impressive run against the Houston bullpen to beat the Astros 13-4. Most of the damage was a result of base hits and a monster grand slam by Brett Gardner.

Photo Credit: David J. Phillip | AP

The Yankees started off the first inning with little noise other than an Aaron Judge walk, which is an extremely common occurrence. The Astros did not take long to get a run on the board, as George Springer led the game off with a double down the line and eventually scored off of a sacrifice fly off the bat of Jose Altuve.

The Yankees had runners on second and third after two errors and an infield hit for Chris Carter, who was getting his first start since rejoining the team. Carter worked a 3-1 count and would eventually hit a hard ground-out to Carlos Correa to end the threat.

The Yankees had a lead-off double off the bat of Brett Gardner to start the third inning. After a Jacoby Ellsbury and Aaron Judge strikeout, Didi Gregorius picked up his teammates by slashing a double down the right field line to drive in Gardner and tie the game at a run apiece.

The Yankees continued to hit McCullers well in the fourth as a long single by Austin Romine and double by Ronald Torreyes put runners on second and third with no outs. After a Tyler Wade strikeout, Chris Carter was once again given an opportunity to drive in some runs. A nostalgic strikeout later, Austin Romine was thrown out at home plate during Brett Gardner’s at-bat as the result of an unlucky bounce that followed a wild pitch.

Photo Credit: David J. Phillip | AP

The Astros had runners on second and third of their own to start off the home-half of the fourth inning for former Yankee Brian McCann. Michael Pineda got a huge strikeout of McCann, but another former Yankee, Carlos Beltran, hit a ground ball to Torreyes for an RBI ground-out, which gave Houston a 2-1 lead. Marwin Gonzalez then followed up with a single up the middle to extend the Yankees deficit to two runs.

Michael Pineda did not have his best stuff tonight, but pitched well enough to keep the Yankees in the game. Unfortunately the Yankees had plenty of opportunities to score off McCullers, but McCullers always came through with a clutch strikeout or allowed a weakly hit ball.

McCullers pitched himself into trouble once again in the sixth and was pulled from the game by AJ Hinch with one out and runners on first and second base. Michael Feliz relieved him and allowed Ronald Torreyes to hit an RBI single to score Didi Gregorius from second base to make it a one-run game. Tyler Wade was unable to follow-up and struck out, which brought up Chris Carter once again.

Despite all the negativity surrounding him, Carter came through and hit a hard line drive off of Correa’s glove to tie the game at three runs apiece. The hits continued as Brett Gardner hit a base-hit into right field, to score Torreyes and give the Yankees the lead. Ellsbury followed suit with a single of his own to extend the lead to 5-3. A wild pitch walk to Judge allowed another run to score to make it a three-run deficit for the Astros.

Photo Credit: David J. Phillip | AP

Pineda came back out for the sixth inning with a chance to win the game and sat down the Astros 1-2-3. The final out of the inning was bobbled by Carter, and he seemingly unintentionally flipped it to Michael Pineda for the force out at first base.

The Yankees bats continued to pour it on the Astros as they loaded the bases with no outs in the top of seventh. After two quick outs, Brett Gardner put the nail in the Astros’ coffin with a grand slam to make the score 10-3.

Bryan Mitchell would come on to pitch the remainder of the game for the Yankees, with a big lead to back him up. He would allow a single run off the bat of Jose Altuve.

The Astros would go on to pitch outfielder Nori Aoki in the ninth. He walked the first two batters he faced, and then allowed a double to Carter, sac-fly to Gardner, and an RBI ground-out to Jacoby Ellsbury to make the score 13-4.

The Yankees will look to secure a series win tomorrow as Jordan Montgomery (6-4 3.53 ERA) takes the hill to oppose the Astros’ starter Francis Martes (2-0 5.51 ERA).

Winning Pitcher: Michael Pineda (7-4 4.12 ERA): 6 IP, 7 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 3 K, 0 HR

Losing Pitcher: Michael Feliz (4-2 3.89 ERA): 0.1 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 1 K, 0 HR

Notables:

Didi Gregorius: 2-5, 2B, RBI, R

Ronald Torreyes: 3-3, 2B, RBI, 2 R, BB

Brett Gardner: 3-5 1 2B, HR (grand slam, 15), 6 RBI, 3 R

Austin Romine: 2-4 2 R, BB

Jose Altuve: 2-2, 2 RBI, R

Marwin Gonzalez: 2-4, RBI

Lance McCullers: 5.1 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 6 K, 0 HR

  

Article by: Ryan Thoms
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