Special "Yankee Elimination Day" Edition
American League Championship Series
Game 1: Astros 2, Yankees 1
Game 2: Astros 2, Yankees 1
Game 3: Yankees 8, Astros 1
Game 4: Yankees 6, Astros 4
Game 5: Yankees 5, Astros 0
After Game 5
Game 6: Astros 7, Yankees 1
George A. King III, Post:
The Yankees' improbable run toward a World Series ticket will end Saturday night in ecstasy or heartbreak.Dan Martin, Post:
With a chance to win the ALCS on Friday night by beating the Astros at Minute Maid Park, the Yankees were dominated by Justin Verlander and done in by Luis Severino's wildness and Houston's punishing of David Robertson's pitches. ...
In order to get to the World Series for the first time since they won it in 2009 the Yankees need to do something they haven't done much of this postseason: Win away from The Bronx.
They are 1-5 outside of Yankee Stadium and 6-0 inside it. ...
Severino allowed a walk and a single through four, but melted in the fifth when he gave up three runs, issued three walks and was tagged for two-run double by Jose Altuve and an RBI double by Brian McCann.
"After the first batter got a leadoff walk everything happened so fast," Severino said. "I didn't know what happened." ...
Altuve greeted Robertson with a leadoff homer in the eighth and the next three batters doubled, singled and doubled. Dellin Betances replaced Robertson and gave up a sacrifice fly to Evan Gattis to make it 7-1. ...
Every voice in a very quiet clubhouse expressed confidence in Sabathia ...
Luis Severino didn't show any signs of discomfort after four innings on Friday night, like he appeared to do in his previous start.Mike Mazzeo and Kristie Ackert, Daily News:
Maybe he should have.
The right-hander was brilliant through four innings in Game 6 of the ALCS, but fell apart in a hurry in the fifth ...
The trouble began when Severino walked Alex Bregman to lead off the inning. He got Marwin Gonzalez to ground out and Bregman moved to second. A four-pitch walk to Evan Gattis followed before Severino got ahead of Brian McCann 0-2.
But McCann stayed alive and hit an RBI ground rule double to right to give Houston the lead.
Another four-pitch walk to George Springer led to a visit from pitching coach Larry Rothschild, and after getting Josh Reddick to fly to shallow center, Severino was close to escaping having allowed just one run.
But Jose Altuve ripped a two-run single to left to make it 3-0 and Severino's outing was over.
Verlander fended off the potent Bombers for the second time in the ALCS, going seven scoreless innings while striking out eight, as the Astros forced a decisive Game 7 ...Mike Mazzeo, Daily News:
Verlander went the distance while striking out 13 in the Astros' walk-off victory over the Yankees in Game 2. He has allowed just one run in 16 innings in the ALCS while striking out 21.
This time, he got some help from his defense, as George Springer made a leaping catch at the wall to rob Todd Frazier of extra bases with two on in the seventh. ...
The Bombers also blew a chance in the sixth with two on and two outs, when Gary Sanchez inexplicably hit a check-swing grounder to short with the count 3-0. ...
Judge struck out twice to tie Alfonso Soriano's all-time record for strikeouts in a postseason (26). ...
Verlander has pitched in five elimination games in his career. He is now 4-1 in those games with a 1.21 ERA and has posted 24 straight scoreless innings in those games.
Todd Frazier thought it was gone off the bat.Dan Martin, Post:
"I could've sworn it was going out," Frazier said. "That's one of the best balls I've squared up all season."
The Yankees were down 3-0 when Frazier drilled a 96-mph fastball from Justin Verlander out to deep center with two on and one out in the seventh. ...
But next thing Frazier knew, George Springer was making a leaping catch in front of the wall ...
The Bombers have scored just three runs in Houston, compared to 19 in the Bronx. ...
The Yankees didn't just squander a chance to get to the World Series when they lost to the Astros 7-1 in Game 6 of the ALCS.Peter Botte, Daily News:
They also lost Chad Green for Saturday's Game 7, since he tossed 2.1 scoreless innings in the defeat.
And a rough outing from David Robertson may have given the struggling Houston offense a lift with a four-run eighth inning that put the game away ...
It started when Jose Altuve led off with a homer off Robertson. ... Things only got worse for Robertson, who allowed all four runs without retiring a batter. ...
What had been a tight game the Yankees could have chalked up to another tough performance by Justin Verlander turned into a rout that gave Houston's lineup a reason to be confident.
Joe Girardi's diminished confidence in All-Star setup man Dellin Betances was bound to come back and bite the Yankees during this postseason run, and this likely was that time.Joel Sherman, Post:
David Robertson, so reliable since his reacquisition in late July and through most of October, was entrusted with keeping the Yanks close when he was summoned with a two-run deficit in the eighth inning of Game 6 ...
The righty reliever promptly was smacked for a solo homer by Jose Altuve — and surprisingly was left in to allow three more hits without recording an out — as the Astros ran away with a 7-1 victory ...
Betances essentially had lost any meaningful relief role with multiple late-season and postseason bouts with wildness. ...
Robertson ... [had] posted a 1.03 ERA over 30 games down the stretch of the regular season, and a 1.64 ERA through his first six postseason appearances.
Not this time. The overdue Astros' lineup knocked him around — Altuve's homer, plus a hard-hit double by Carlos Correa, a single by Yuli Gurriel and a two-run double by Alex Bregman. It was the first time in Robertson's 10-year career that he allowed at least four hits without recording an out. ...
Girardi probably should have pulled Robertson a batter or two earlier once Houston had extended the lead to further preserve him for Saturday. ...
Notably, Chad Green recorded seven outs in relief of Luis Severino bridging the fifth and seventh innings, likely burning him for Game 7, as well.
The Yankees are back to their comfort zone, which is to say they are in the most uncomfortable of places.
Four times already this October, they have played elimination games — twice when it was sudden death for both teams — and four times they played on. ...
Now they get it once more. Against the Astros. Game 7. Saturday Night Survive. Win and go to Los Angeles for the World Series. Lose and go home to New York for winter. ... For the 2017 Yankees, it will be the difference between exhilaration and extinction. ...
Todd Frazier conceded "momentum might have shifted a little bit" again in this best-of-seven ...
Game 7: Astros 4, Yankees 0
George A. King III, Post (early edition):
Frame it any way you want but the fact that the Yankees had two chances to win one game and go to the World Series but failed paints the season as a disappointment. ...Mike Mazzeo, Daily News (early edition):
The Yankees recovered from losing the first two games at Minute Maid Park to win three straight at home and had two chances to put the Astros to sleep and failed.
The Astros, who held the Yankees to three runs in the four games played at Minute Maid, will face the Dodgers in the World Series. ...
According to a TV report CC Sabathia was fighting a bug when he took the mound where he lasted 3.1 innings, gave up a run, five hits and walked three. Tommy Kahnle followed and surrendered three runs in the fifth when Jose Altuve hit a solo homer and former Yankee Brian McCann delivered a two-run, two-out double.
CC Sabathia had been the team's stopper all year ... But the 37-year-old veteran didn't have it on this night. He his [sic] command failed him, and was he [sic] frequently in trouble.John Harper, Daily News:
The Astros finally broke through in the fourth, when Sabathia hung a breaking ball and Evan Gattis blasted it 405 feet for a leadoff solo shot that put Houston on top 1-0. Sabathia lasted just 3.1 innings, giving up five hits and walking three.
The Astros tacked on three more runs in the fifth against Tommy Kahnle, who hadn't allowed a run the entire postseason. Jose Altuve led off with an opposite-field homer, while ex-Yankee Brian McCann, who is still being paid partially by the Bombers, ripped a two-run double into right to make it 4-0 Houston. ...
They had their best chance to make something happen in the fifth after Greg Bird roped a leadoff double to right. But Bird, who is extremely slow, made his second blunder on the basepaths in the series, staying inside the baseline and sliding right into Brian McCann's tag at home following Todd Frazier's weak grounder to third.
The Yankees finally ran out of comebacks in this postseason ...Ken Davidoff, Post:
That didn't take any of the sting out of losing on Saturday night, however, or the last two nights, really.
The Yankees came here with a 3-2 series lead sure they could find a way to break through in Minute Maid Park, but they couldn't carry over the momentum from those three wins in the Bronx, mainly because they couldn't hit a lick in Games 6 or 7.
This ... Yankees season concluded with a sting of reality Saturday night ... The proper order of things reasserted itself in time to send the Yankees east, toward New York and the offseason, instead of west, toward Los Angeles and the World Series.Joel Sherman, Post:
Now batting for the proper order of things, Brian McCann.
Yes, the 2017 Yankees' highest-paid catcher will be in the Fall Classic, thanks in large part to his own American League Championship Series performance. The ex-Yankee, pushed overboard to make room for Gary Sanchez, delivered the biggest hit in ALCS Game 7 to lead his Astros to a 4-0 victory, the AL pennant and a World Series date with the Dodgers ...
With the Astros owning a tight, 2-0 lead in the fifth, McCann connected on a two-out, 2-and-2 off-speed pitch from Tommy Kahnle and ripped it into the rightfield corner, scoring Carlos Correa from third and Yuli Gurriel from first to double Houston's lead. The ballpark, crazy loud all night, erupted.
In the end, the rotation ran out of gas, the offense ran into problems away from home and Greg Bird just ran too darn slowly.Mike Vaccaro, Post:
Add it all up and the Yankees just weren't good enough ...
The Astros outplayed the Yankees over 18 innings in Games 6-7, excelling in every phase and every way. ...
[O]ver the last two games, Severino and Sabathia lasted just a combined eight innings. The bullpen — such a powerful force throughout most of the postseason — was pedestrian. The Yankees scored just one run in the final two games and just three in total in four games in Houston in this series, and the Yanks won just once in seven road games in these playoffs.
Every now and again, someone would open the main door leading to the clubhouse, and the silence would be replaced by the tinny, distant evidence of sustained joy. The Astros were celebrating a second-ever World Series appearance on the field, most of the 43,201 folks who'd watched were still in the house.History
Fireworks crackled. Horns blared. Music boomed. ...
Then the door would shut again, and the Yankees would be alone with the quiet ...
In the end, though, all that mystical stuff is fun to talk about, but not nearly as useful as getting big hits, making key pitches, executing pinpoint plays. And across these last two nights in Texas, it was the Astros who did every one of these, the Yankees who came up wanting. ...
Only one team goes home happy, and there was little happiness in this room. ...
The door opened again, and in the distance was more music. ... Life goes on. Baseball season goes on. Out west.
But the Yankees were headed east.
YED 2001 - November 4
YED 2002 - October 5
YED 2003 - October 25
YED 2004 - October 20
YED 2005 - October 10
YED 2006 - October 7
YED 2007 - October 8
YED 2008 - September 23
YED 2010 - October 22
YED 2011 - October 6
YED 2012 - October 18
YED 2013 - September 25
YED 2014 - September 24
YED 2015 - October 6
YED 2016 - September 29
YED 2017 - October 21
David Ortiz celebrates YED!
LOOKOUT! Big Papi @davidortiz has some champagne too. 🍾🍾 https://t.co/1J1NvzjTTW— FOX Sports: MLB (@MLBONFOX) October 22, 2017
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ELIAS:
The Astros held the Yankees to three runs in the four ALCS games played in Houston — the fewest runs surrendered by any MLB team in four home games over a best-of-seven postseason series. The previous record was also set against the Yankees: In the 2001 World Series, the Diamondbacks limited the Bombers to five runs over the four games played in Phoenix (all of which the D-backs won).
The Yankees are now 14-13 all-time in winner-take-all postseason games.
Every Astros batter contributed at least one hit in their Game Seven victory, marking only the third time that every player who came to the plate for a team in a winner-take-all postseason game made at least one hit. It last happened in Game Seven of the 2004 ALCS, when the Red Sox completed their unprecedented comeback from a three-games-to-none deficit by defeating the Yankees, 10-3, and advancing to the World Series. All 10 players in the Red Sox lineup had at least one hit in that game.
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