Astros ride seven shutout innings from ace Keuchel to take Game 1 of ALCS
HOUSTON – The Yankees ran through all the advanced analytics preparing for the League Championship Series, broke down the Astros’ lineup with the help of scouting reports, video and all the sabermetrics they could digest. And still, they knew their chances of beating the Astros in Game 1 required a little luck, too.
They needed Dallas Keuchel to be Corey Kluber – an ace who suddenly loses his stuff in October. Big ask, right? Maybe too big. The Yankees never broke through on Keuchel as they did against Kluber in the Division Series and instead fell just short in a 2-1 loss on Friday.
It was an important opening salvo for Houston, although not a catastrophic one for the Bombers. All they have to do is split the first two games at Minute Maid Park and then go to work on the back end of the Astros’ rotation in Games 3-4-5 at the Stadium this week. But that means beating Justin Verlander Saturday afternoon, which is another way of saying the Yankees need Luis Severino to throw another masterpiece.
One thing is certain, though: If Game 1 served as any kind of lesson, it’s that the Astros are as good as advertised this month. Maybe better. Keuchel, who came into the game with a career 1.41 ERA against the Bombers, the best regular-season mark in the last 60 years against them with a six-start minimum, threw seven shutout innings and allowed only four hits.
“He didn’t make a single mistake,” said Starlin Castro. “You went up looking for something over the plate, but everything was on the corners. He didn’t given us anything to hit.”
Even before taking the mound, Keuchel had stripped the Yankees of their most cherished weapon – the long ball. He’d hadn’t surrendered a home run to the Bombers in 188 at-bats. There were 25 more at-bats in Game 1 with the same result: no HRs, only 10 strikeouts and plenty of soft outs.
So how did the Yankees lose this one? Because Greg Bird’s solo HR off Ken Giles with two outs in the ninth was too little, too late. And because Masahiro Tanaka was only a rung or two below Keuchel. He pitched well enough to win on most nights – just not this one.
And here’s one more what-if. Had Bird been blessed with even half the quickness on the bases as he has with the bat, the Yankees might’ve broken through on Keuchel in the fifth. That might’ve changed everything. As it turned out the game’s defining moment occurred moments after Bird was thrown out trying to score from second on Aaron Judge’s two-out single to left.
The Yankees were trailing, 2-0, but finally stringing together good at-bats against Keuchel. Judge’s line drive would’ve paid a dividend – except that Bird was doomed. Chugging along on his surgically repaired foot, Bird was a half-second late as Marwin Gonzalez delivered a strike to a waiting Brian McCann.
“If (Bird) is 10 percent faster, five percent faster, he scores,” Joe Girardi said. “It’s just the speed he has. We had a shot. If Bird’s safe maybe we get to (Keuchel) in that inning. But he wasn’t.”
“In our ballpark you never concede a run on a base hit to left,” Astros manager A. J. Hinch added. “The depth that (Gonzalez) plays at is just shallow enough to where if you’re not in an elite runner it’s hard to score on a base hit right at the guy.”
The play was close enough for Girardi to challenge the call by home plate umpire Chad Fairchild. But to no avail; Bird’s foot was still in the air when McCann the tag. And honest guy that Bird is, he said Girardi had wasted his breath.
“My first thought is that I was out,” said Bird, who had the Yankees’ lone quality at-bat over the last four innings, that pretty blast in the ninth. Otherwise, the Bombers were forced to concede they never found the antidote to Keuchel’s soft touch, late movement in the strike zone and ability to command both sides of the plate.
Judge explained it by recounting a batting practice conversation with McCann, who told him, “(Keuchel) never makes me move my glove. Wherever I set up, that’s where he throws the ball.”
And as the Yankees slugger pointed out, “When you’re always behind in the count, 0-1,0-2 it’s hard to get a good hack. Keuchel never gives you a chance to load up like when you’re up 3-1. You have to respect what a good pitcher he is.”
This means the Yankees turn a hopeful gaze toward Severino and his 98-mph fastball. The Yankees will be in trouble in the ALCS if they go home 0-2 although for now they’re not particularly stressed. They mostly shut down the American League’s No. 1 offense, nearly beat their ace and forced Giles, the closer, into a five-out save.
And don’t forget the aftereffect of the Division Series. The Yankees no longer fear anyone, not the Indians, and to hear the talk in the postgame clubhouse, not the Astros, either. The Bombers are fully expecting to take Game 2. We’ll soon see.
