George A. King III, Post (early edition):
The Dead Bats Society has cast a deadly spell on the Yankees' lumber. And if the Yankees don't find a way to break it, their first taste of the ALCS in five years won't last long.George A. King III, Post:
After wasting a solid start by Masahiro Tanaka on Friday night, the bats didn't offer much support to Luis Severino, Tommy Kahnle and David Robertson during a 2-1 loss to the Astros in Game 2 of the ALCS on Saturday ...
Houston is the 29th team in LCS history to take a 2-0 lead since the seven-game format was introduced in 1985. Just three teams who won the first two games didn't make it to the World Series. The last team to lose the first two and get to the World Series was the 2004 Red Sox, who dropped the first three to the Yankees and rallied for four straight victories.
Justin Verlander thrilled the sold-out crowd with nine brilliant innings in which he allowed a run, five hits and struck out a season-high 13. Verlander's 124 pitches were the most he has thrown this year.
Aroldis Chapman gave up a one-out single to Jose Altuve in the ninth and he scored from first on Carlos Correa's double to right-center that Aaron Judge fielded and threw to shortstop Didi Gregorius. His throw home arrived ahead of Altuve, but catcher Gary Sanchez didn't handle it on the bounce and the Yankees were losers.
In the end, Didi Gregorius' throw home short-hopped Gary Sanchez as Jose Altuve scored from first in the ninth inning to lift the Astros to victory.Andrew Marchand, ESPN:
Yet, before the hosts copped a 2-1 win ... the Yankees did a lot to put themselves in position to go down, 0-2, in the best-of-seven affair.
One game after Dallas Keuchel handcuffed the Yankees in Game 1, Justin Verlander dominated them Saturday when he hurled a complete-game in which he allowed five hits. Verlander's 13 strikeouts were a postseason best for the right-hander who threw a season-high 124 pitches. ...
That brought things to Aroldis Chapman and the ninth inning, when the Yankees went into a ditch that finally might be too deep to escape. ...
Gregorius' throw home was ahead of Altuve, but it bounced very close to Sanchez's glove and the catcher never controlled the ball to make a tag. ...
When a team gives up four runs in 18 postseason innings and loses twice, the onus falls on the hitters, some whom are in funks so deep it's hard to see an exit.
The two main culprits are Judge and Sanchez. The rookie who set a major-league record with 52 homers has two hits in 27 at-bats (.074) since the start of the ALDS and has whiffed 19 times. In addition to being in a 4-for-30 (.133) slide since Game 1 of the ALDS, Sanchez has struck out 15 times.
On the decisive play of Game 2 of the American League Championship Series, New York Yankees shortstop Didi Gregorius let go of his relay throw like a quarterback under pressure, and he thought it would end in a completion. Gregorius believed catcher Gary Sanchez would make the catch at the plate for the out and the Yankees would prevent the winning run. ...Joel Sherman, Post:
Gregorius, just behind second base, received the ball just as Correa did a popup slide at the bag. Although Yankees manager Joe Girardi asked the umpires about it right after the play concluded, Girardi even admitted there was no interference. It was a legal slide, though it affected Gregorius as an incoming rusher might. ...
[The] throw was not perfect -- it reached Sanchez on a short hop -- but it was good enough. Even with Altuve's speed, there was plenty of time for Sanchez to make the play. ...
When the ball arrived, slightly to the left of home plate, Altuve was a good 4 feet from home. Sanchez just needed to catch the ball, but he fumbled it.
Lights, cameras, October. ...Mike Mazzeo, Daily News:
The bad at-bats and the strikeouts are mounting and the opportunities to do something about it might be dwindling. ...
[Aaron] Judge and [Gary] Sanchez were far from the only offensive culprits as Justin Verlander masterfully overwhelmed the lineup, getting ahead of 20 of the 32 batters he faced either 0-2 or 1-2 in what has become a rare postseason complete game. ...
The Yankees are batting just .200 as a team in the postseason ...
Joe Girardi said he is not going to change the lineup "because if you just start moving people around trying to play a hot hand, it doesn't necessarily work" ...
[Judge] continues to be baffled in particular by breaking balls away. ...
[Sanchez] has been particularly susceptible to breaking balls in the dirt and now seems to be thinking too much and getting caught between pitching speeds. He has had six straight games with multiple strikeouts.
Since the AL wild-card game, [Aaron] Judge is 2-for-27 with two RBIs, five walks and 19 strikeouts, while [Gary] Sanchez is 0-for-11 with a walk and eight strikeouts over his last three games. ...John Harper, Daily News:
Overall, Judge and Sanchez have combined to go 10-for-65 in the playoffs (.154) with five extra-base hits, seven RBIs and 34 strikeouts.
Sanchez: "Right now I'm not getting the results I want." ...
The question with Judge going forward as he continues to grow and evolve following a phenomenal rookie campaign: Can he hit good pitching consistently, or is he just a mistake hitter? ...
As for Sanchez, he looks completely out of whack, much more-so than Judge ...
The Yankees were hoping the game would come down to a battle of the bullpens, believing that is their one significant edge over the Astros in this ALCS. ...Mike Vaccaro, Post:
And though the Yankee bullpen was outstanding in emergency service ... Aroldis Chapman lost it in the ninth inning on a daring baserunning play by — who else? — Jose Altuve.
Altuve, who singled in the ninth for his 13th hit in this post-season, ran through the third base coach's stop sign on Carlos Correa's double to right-center. ...
Joe Girardi argued that Correa interfered with Gregorius' throw, and indeed replay showed there was contact with their lower bodies, but the umpires said the game was over.
Carlos Correa's ball found the gap, Didi Gregorius' throw was off-line — did Correa interfere with him on the play? No one protested, so apparently not — and Jose Altuve slid across with the game-winning run ...[Note: Actually, Verlander is the 19th pitcher since 2009 to throw at least 120 pitches in a postseason game (and he's done it seven of those 19 times). Verlander's start on Saturday was the eleventh postseason game since 2011 in which the starter threw more than 120 pitches:
What will appeal to the old-school Gibsonian spirit that lurks inside so many contemporary baseball fans is that Verlander threw 124 pitches at a time when nobody throws 124 — certainly not in a playoff game.
Justin Verlander 2011 ALCS Game 5 133 pitches Justin Verlander 2012 ALCS Game 3 132 pitches Roy Halladay 2011 NLDS Game 5 126 pitches Justin Verlander 2017 ALCS Game 2 124 pitches Dallas Keuchel 2015 ALDS Game 3 124 pitches Clayton Kershaw 2013 NLDS Game 1 124 pitches Johnny Cueto 2015 WS Game 2 122 pitches Justin Verlander 2012 ALDS Game 5 122 pitches Jacob deGrom 2015 NLDS Game 1 121 pitches CC Sabathia 2012 ALDS Game 5 121 pitches Justin Verlander 2012 ALDS Game 1 121 pitchesAll of the above pitchers won their game, except for Halladay. He lost 1-0, allowing a triple and a double to the first two batters in the top of the first inning.]
Peter Botte, Daily News (early edition):
An early call on a Jeffrey Maier-like play -- ruled a home run for Carlos Correa -- went against the Yanks, and the Bombers suddenly find themselves in an 0-2 hole for the second straight playoff series this October following another 2-1 loss on Saturday to the Astros ...Dan Martin and George A. King III, Post:
Correa's fourth-inning home run to the opposite field was just out of 6-foot-7 right fielder Aaron Judge's reach and deflected off the glove of a young fan dressed in a rainbow Astros jersey seated in the front row beyond the wall. The fan later was identified as 12-year-old Carson Riley of Liberty Hill, Texas.
Luis Severino lasted just four innings on Saturday, but unlike his other brief postseason start, this time it wasn't because of ineffectiveness.Peter Botte, Daily News:
Instead, Severino was the victim of bad luck, as he appeared to take a comebacker from Yuli Gurriel off his left wrist in the bottom of the fourth ...
"I told them I was good," Severino said. "They told me they saw something. I didn't agree with that. I wanted to pitch. ... Maybe I swung my arm. My arm feels 100 percent great. ... I was feeling great and wanted to give them six or seven innings."
Severino had been cruising along, matching three early zeroes on the scoreboard with veteran stud Justin Verlander, when Carlos Correa launched a video-confirmed home run ...
Either way, Severino pressed on in an attempt to keep the deficit against Verlander at one run. But after throwing one errant changeup way off the plate to the next batter, Marwin Gonzalez, Severino made a circular stretching motion with his right arm, causing Girardi and a trainer to immediately sprint out of the dugout. ...
Severino clearly was still displeased a couple of hours later, after he'd failed to convince Girardi or the medical staff to allow his duel with Verlander to continue.
NYDN: "Yankees must find right answers to 5 crucial questions for ALCS comeback vs. Astros"
ReplyDelete[T]he Yanks have lost two games by the slimmest of margins, and should climb right back into the series with the next three in the Bronx.
But it would help if they can come up with the right answers to Five Important Questions coming out of Games 1 and 2:
1. Can the Yankees Slow Altuve Down?
2. Can the Yankees Take Advantage of the Astros' Bullpen?
3. Will Aaron Judge and Gary Sanchez Hit Elite Pitching?
4. Will Sonny Gray Pitch Like a No. 2 Starter?
5. Can Chapman Adjust to the Astros' Fastball-Loving Hitters?
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They "should climb right back into the series"? .. Hooooo-kay, whatever you say.
Ken Davidoff, Post:
ReplyDelete"If they lose Game 3 Monday night at Yankee Stadium, then they have to start reaching for 2004 Red Sox comparisons, a territory no team wants to explore given no other team besides that one (against the Yankees, of course) has climbed out of an 0-3 hole in more than a century of postseason ball."
ELIAS:
ReplyDeleteDallas Keuchel and Justin Verlander are the first pair of teammates in MLB history to win and strike out at least 10 batters apiece in Game One and Game Two of a postseason series.
The only other duo to win and strike out 10-or-more batters in two straight games in the same postseason series was Don Drysdale and Sandy Koufax, in Games Four and Five of the 1965 World Series against the Twins.
It was the Astros' seventh postseason walkoff win, in 33 postseason home games. That is a walkoff percentage of 21 percent, by far the highest among teams with at least 20 postseason home games.
Altuve is now 13-for-23 this postseason, with multiple-hit games in five of the six contests in which he has appeared. Altuve's .565 batting average is the third-highest through six games in a single postseason among players with at least 20 at-bats, trailing only the Giants' Will Clark in 1989 (.625, 15-for-24) and the Cardinals' Pepper Martin in 1931 (.571, 12-for-21).
In the final game of the ALDS, Marwin Gonzalez threw out Mitch Moreland at home in the Astros 5-4 win. In the first game of the ALCS on Friday, Gonzalez again threw Greg Bird out at the plate. On Saturday, in Game Two, the Astros nabbed Brett Gardner trying to stretch a double into a triple on a relay from Reddick to Carlos Correa to Alex Bregman. It is the first time in the last 14 postseasons that a team has had outfield assists in each of three straight games. The last team to do it was the 2003 Red Sox, who defeated the A's, in the ALDS by taking the final three games, in which outfield assists were provided by Manny Ramirez from left field, Johnny Damon from center, and Trot Nixon from right.
The two 2-1 Astros' wins in Games one and Two marked the third time in postseason history that a team won the first two games of a series, scoring two-or-fewer runs in each. The Yankees did it in the 1950 World Series in Philadelphia, 1-0 and 2-1, en route to a four-game sweep, and Cleveland did it in Games One and Two of the 2016 ALCS, 2-0 and 2-1, against the Blue Jays. Cleveland won that series, four games to one.
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