Justin Verlander and the Houston Astros handed the new york yankees a spanking last night, in front of a loud and raucous crowd. Minute Maid Park was sporting Haloween colors and the Yankees were seeing ghosts at the plate as they flung and flailed at Verlander's mix of pitches. Verlander etched the plate pitch after pitch as the Astro's line-up devastated Yankee pitching from the 5th inning on.
ALCS Game 7 Breakdown
For four quick and debilitating innings for both the Astros and Yankees hitters, pitches swept by from both #Severino and #Verlander.
They were both in great control of all of their pitches and seemed to be commanding the strike zone. When the fourth inning approached for Luis Severino things fell apart as the Astros began to solve his prowess. Hits began to ring out, runs scored, and the crowd went wild.
Justin Verlander threw 7 unanswered innings of 5 hit shutout ball. He silenced the powerful young line-up of rising stars. Only one fleeting moment gave the Yankees a thread of hope as Aaron Judge pounded another home run into the center field stands in the 8th inning, making it just a 2 run lead. Then in the bottom half of that inning, the Astro wonder kids answered back with 4 more runs against a staggering David Robinson.
Robinson will probably not see any time out of the bullpen tomorrow night.
As I mentioned in a previous blog article of my own, the Yankees needed to get to Verlander early. They had to hit the strikes as they came because he wasn't going to give up much more than that. They needed to avoid the low outside swings at bad pitches, and they needed to capitalize quickly.
#Verlander is not the kind of pitcher you can stand still for, and wait for your pitch. Once he has command of your at-bat, he will surely close it out with a strike-out or a usually a groundout. That is exactly what the Yankees did last night. They did not follow my suggestions and found themselves watching perfect hittable pitches go by, and chased when they had to protect the plate.
Jose Altuve again proved his MVP status versus Aaron Judge with his own homer and 3 RBI's in the game.
My Prediction
Although the New York Yankees looked lost at the plate last night, as they have other times in the season, it rare that the whole team goes cold for long. This might be the reason they are in the #ALCS. Besides, Verlander was expected by everyone, even myself, to shut down the New York club tonight. So, hats off to Jason and the Astros. However, I still sit hold steadfast to my preseason blog prediction that these Yankees will win the 28th World Series Championship this year in a what will be a grand show against the Los Angeles Dodgers. A Yankee revenge 36 years in the making.
