The Houston Astros beat the New York Yankees 4-0 in decisive game 7 of the American League Championship Series, their second time ever having reached the World Series. In addition to strong pitching, an ex-yankee played the instrumental part.
The Astros sent Charlie Morton and the starter on game 3 to the Mound. And after a weak performance in the Bronx, he rehabilitated himself with strong five shut-out innings. The rest was then taken care of by Lance McCullers Jr. with four shut-out innings on his part.
The Astros were already attacking Yankees starter CC Sabathia early on, who didn’t have the best stuff this time around, in contrast to Match 3. He fought, but in the fourth inning he was conquered by Evan Gattis for the first time by homerun. He did not survive the fourth inning, but Reliever Tommy Kahnle helped him out of trouble. The latter, however, was then beaten hard in the fifth inning. Jose Altuve beat a homerun and ex-Yankee Brian McCann made it to the final standings with an RBI double.
The Yankees were once again completely overwhelmed in Houston and only had three hits and two walks.
For the Houston Astros, however, it continues in Game 1 of the World Series on Tuesday night (2 p. m. at the LIVESTREAM FOR FREE at SPOX). at the Los Angeles Dodgers.
ALCS, game 7: Astros – Yankees 4:0 – Houston wins 4-3 series BOXSCORE
Actually, the big advantage of the Yankees on paper was their own bullpen, but as in Game 6, it failed at the decisive moment. In the fifth inning, the otherwise reliable right-hander Tommy Kahnle (1 1/3 IP, 3 ER) gave a homerun and three runs in total, thus allowing for more than just a preliminary decision.
Actually, there were several key points in the game, like Evan Gattis’ home run in the fourth inning, which put the Astros in the lead. But the psychological break in the neck for the Yankees was certainly the out on Greg Bird’s record in the fifth inning. He ran into contact after Todd Frazier hit Third Baseman Alex Bregman. He threw it into the glove of Brian McCann, who was the well-known slow bird on the plate. It was already his second out on the record in this series!
EXCELLENT Brian McCann was the one who drowned the Yankees, his ex-team that had sent him to Texas in the winter. He beat a 2-run double in the fifth inning, doubling the lead to 4-0. He also made two walks. And defensively he turned off Bird at the disk. What more could you ask for?
Of course, the manager doesn’t play along, but in a game 7 he is in great demand. And especially Girardi earned a lot of praise for his aggressive bullpen management in the Wild Card Game against the Twins. But in this game his instinctive instinct left him completely. He left Sabathia on it too long, he left Kahnle on it too long. Both of them made important runs and dug a hole in New York that was too deep.
This article was published without prior view by the Major League Baseball.