A patient offense began to claw back in the fifth inning, tied it in the sixth and then took its first lead in the seventh on a sacrifice fly from Alex Verdugo, which stood up as the winning run as the Yankees beat the Astros 5-4 on Thursday afternoon at Minute Maid Park.
Just over an inning and a half into their season, the Yankees trailed by four runs with their injured ace watching from the dugout.
Through four innings, their new-look offense had grounded into three inning-ending double plays, and outside their dugout, the world was seemingly nearing an end as the stench of an 82-80 season still lingered.
