The New York yankees and Houston Astros have completed their four-game series from Minute Maid Park in Houston. The Yankees have been able to shut down the Astros' offense but the Astros began to hit the ball toward the later part of the game and make it an offensive battle in the late innings. Masahiro Tanaka and Lance McCullers Jr. have experience against the other lineup as Tanaka pitched seven shutout innings against the Astros in Game 5 of the ALCS and McCullers threw the final four innings of Game 7 to eliminate the Yankees from the playoffs.

Game recap

The Yankees started in the top of the second with the bases loaded due to a walk by Gary Sanchez, a hit by pitch to Neil Walker and a single by Miguel Andujar. Third baseman Ronald Torreyes came up and hit a soft ground ball to third and saw everyone advance safely to make the score 1-0 Yankees. Rookie second baseman Gleyber Torres hit a sacrifice fly to right field to score Neil Walker to make the game 2-0. The inning was prematurely ended as Andujar attempted to score on a passed ball, but was ruled out as catcher Brian McCann recovered and got the out.

In the top of the third, Didi Gregorius hit his tenth double of the year to center field and scored on Neil Walker's single to center to make it 3-0 Yankees.

The Astros had a rally of their own in the bottom of the seventh inning, with back-to-back singles by Yuri Gurriel and Josh Reddick. Alex Bregman was hit by a pitch to load the bases and ended Tanaka's day to bring in Chad Green from the bullpen. Marwin Gonzalez singled on the first pitch on a weak ground ball to shortstop which everybody reached safely to make it 3-1.

Brian McCann ripped a single to right field to make it 3-2. A passed ball scored Gonzalez from third to tie the game and George Springer ripped an RBI groundout off of Green's leg to give the Astros a 4-3 lead.

Carlos Correa led off the bottom of the eighth inning with a huge solo home run to left field off of Green to make the game 5-3 Astros.

The top of the ninth inning saw Neil Walker work a walk off of reliever Will Harris, Andujar hit a single to right field and Aaron Hicks came in to pinch-hit for Torreyes and worked a beautiful at-bat to single and load the bases. Rookie Gleyber Torres batted against Brad Peacock and singled to left field to tie the game up and Aaron Judge hit a groundball to Alex Bregman to get a forceout but the Yankees scored to make it 6-5.

The bottom of the ninth saw closer Aroldis Chapman come in and get the save to close out the ballgame and give the Yankees a series victory over the Astros.

Astros begin to hit again

The Astros have had difficulty scoring runs in the series. After scoring in the fourth inning of the first game of the series, the Astros failed to score another run for the next 28 innings.

It could have been the Yankees' pitching getting to them or simply slumping at a bad time, but whatever it was made the Astros look like they were not ready to hit. The seventh inning on saw the Astros get new life but the bullpen could not hold up as it gave up three runs in the top of the ninth.

What's next for the Yankees?

The Yankees leave Houston with a 3-1 record and a 6-1 West Coast road trip and travel back to Yankee Stadium to play the Cleveland Indians for a three-game set. Since their last day off on April 18, the Yankees are boasting a 13-2 record. The team is clicking on all cylinders with superb starting pitching against elite batters, excellent hitting throughout their lineup, and smart moves by rookie manager Aaron Boone. They look like a real contender for this season and beyond. The Yankees will send veteran CC Sabathia to the mound against a struggling Josh Tomlin and Cleveland Indians squad.
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