It was a Cole- day in the Bronx. No not shoveling Cole, the other Cole where Gerit Cole shut the Yankees bats down as the Astros took a 2-1 series lead in the ALCS by defeating the Yankees 4-1 on Tuesday afternoon (10/15) at Yankee Stadium.
Houston got to Yankees ace Luis Severino early as José Altuve jumped him early by going deep on the 3rd pitch of the game to give Houston an early 1-0 lead.
That lead would grow in the 2nd inning when Josh Reddick went deep to right that gave Houston a 2-0 lead. Sevy would settle down after that, going 4 innings of 2 run ball.
One of the big questions coming into this game was whether Cole could handle the Yankees relentless offense at Yankee Stadium, and though he wasn’t his electric self, he was still phenomenal and made pitches when he had to. An example of that came in the 1st inning, when with the bases loaded and 2 outs, he got Didi Gregorious to ground out to end the threat. Then in the 2nd , with men on 1st and 2nd with 2 outs, he struck out Aaron Judge to end that threat. In the 4th, it happened again, as the Yankees had two men on and 2 out, but this time it was DJ LeMahieu who was the victim as he flew out to end the inning.
It happened one last time in 5th, when Didi was the one to fly out.
When Cole was finished, he went 7 scoreless innings with 8Ks keeping the Astros in front.
As for the Yankees bullpen, Chad Green and Tommy Kahlene were able to hold down the Stros but once again, Adam Ottavino wasn’t, as he left runners on base in the 7th, and was charged two runs on a wild pitch by Zack Britton and a sac fly by Yuli Gurriel that made it 4-0 Astros.
Gleyber Torres would break the Astros shutout bid in the 8th, when he went deep for a solo shot, but that would be all as the Astros would take a 2-1 series lead with a 4-1 win.
MVP: Gerit Cole
LVP: Yankees offense
UP NEXT:
It will be a bullpen game for both teams in game 4.
Comments