Yankees-Astros was fun . . . let's do it again in October
The Yankees' DJ LeMahieu hits a two-run home run against the Astros during the eighth inning of an MLB game at Yankee Stadium on Sunday. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
After Giancarlo Stanton homered with one out in the seventh inning on Sunday for the Yankees’ first hit since the eighth inning on Friday, the classic beat of “Whoomp There It Is” was heard over the Yankee Stadium loudspeaker.
There it is, Yankees fans. Your first hit of the weekend. Whoomp.
At least that’s one more than the Yankees got on Saturday, when they were no-hit by three Astros pitchers.
Maybe Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” or Lizzo’s “About Damn Time” should have been played over the loudspeaker, followed up by “We’re Not Gonna Take It” by Twisted Sister.
The Yankees didn’t take it. After going hitless for 16 1/3 innings and 53 at-bats over three days, the Yankees overcame a three-run deficit and beat the Astros, 6-3, on Aaron Judge’s walk-off three-run homer with two outs in the 10th.
DJ LeMahieu tied the score with a two-out, two-run homer in the eighth and the Yankees went on to split the exhausting four-game series with Houston.
Judge said it was good to see how the Yankees measured up against the Astros. Manager Aaron Boone took the opposite view.
“Not as important as probably a lot of people think,” Boone said. “We’re a really good team, and if we would have lost three of four, swept four, got swept, nothing changes. We expect to be a great team. Our goal is to be a championship team. Nothing here in a series in June is going to alter that.”
If the Red Sox are the Yankees’ archrivals, then what does that make the Astros, who took the middle two games after the Yankees came back from three down in the ninth to steal the opener?
The Astros are the thorn in the Yankees’ paw. They have knocked the Yankees into winter in three postseasons since 2015, including the sign-stealing scandal-scarred season of 2017.
The Yankees will take a championship however they can get it. But getting it by going through Houston would be sweet revenge.
“These two teams — we're going to be seeing each other a lot down the road," Judge said. "We've seen each other a lot of years past in the postseason. Any time we play, it's always going to be a good ballgame."
One four-game series with two walk-offs and a no-hitter. An October feel in June, no matter what Boone says.
With only three road games against Houston left in the regular season, Yankees fans in the Bronx won’t get another chance to passionately boo 2017 anti-hero Jose Altuve unless the teams meet in the playoffs. Not that the boos are working.
Altuve led off Sunday’s game with a first-pitch home run to left off Nestor Cortes. (It’s almost as if Altuve knew what was coming . . . ).
The Astros made it 3-0 with three two-out hits in the fourth, the runs scoring when Mauricio Dubon dumped a two-run single in front of Judge in center.
The game wasn’t out of reach by any means. The Yankees were down by three in the ninth on Thursday and came back to win on Aaron Hicks’ three-run homer and Judge’s walk-off single.
But the drama in the middle innings Sunday wasn’t about whether the Yankees were going to come back and win. It was if they were going to get a hit, any hit, to avoid the ignominy of becoming the first team in baseball history to get no-hit in back-to-back games.
“It’s a little adversity,” Judge said. “I’d rather have it now, in June, than on Oct. 1 or 2.”
In the 1988 baseball movie “Bull Durham,” Kevin Costner’s character explained the difference between a .250 hitter and a .300 hitter:
“There's six months in a season, that's about 25 weeks. That means if you get just one extra flare a week — just one — a gork . . . you get a ground ball, you get a ground ball with eyes . . . you get a dying quail, just one more dying quail a week, and you're in Yankee Stadium.”
If the Yankees ever needed a gork or a dying quail, they needed one on Sunday in the worst way – especially given that they weren’t exactly getting mowed down by Astros starter Jose Urquidy.
The Yankees hit multiple balls hard. Drives to the warning track. Line drives to the outfield. A grounder into the shortstop hole that LeMahieu didn’t beat out even though Jeremy Pena made a two-hop throw to first.
In the at-bat before Stanton’s in the seventh, Anthony Rizzo hit a 107.4-mph lineout to center.
Then Stanton hit the next pitch to the netting over Monument Park for the Yankees’ first hit and run. With an exit velo of 111 mph, that was neither a gork nor a dying quail. Just a well-timed — and much-needed — wake-up blast.
In the eighth, Isiah Kiner-Falefa lined a one-out single to left. One batter later, LeMahieu rocketed the equalizer to left. He didn’t have to run at all on that one, just a nice, slow jog around the bases.
Finally, in the 10th, Judge ended things and sent the home crowd happy with the Yankees’ MLB-best 10th walk-off win.
It was the Yankees' fourth hit of the day. Of two days.
Whoomp, there it was, as the ball landed in the visitor’s bullpen in left-center. Definitely not a gork nor a dying quail, either.
Michael Kay said “see ya” on YES.
The Yankees said “see ya later" to the Astros. Can't wait.
Anthony Rieber covers baseball, as well as the NFL, NBA and NHL. He has worked at Newsday since Aug. 31, 1998, and has been in his current position since July 5, 2004.
