Justin Verlander dominated and the bottom of the Astros' lineup backed him to take the...
Hello, Yuli Gurriel. And hello, again, Chas McCormick. It's 3-1 home team after Gurriel lined a solo shot that ignited an instant celebration inside Minute Maid Park. Then McCormick also homered, giving the Astros more Game 1 distance.
8:58 p.m.: Chas McCormick joins the homer parade, taking Clarke Schmidt the opposite way into the right-field seats for a one-out solo shot in the sixth. It's 3-1 Houston. Minute Maid Park, to be Captain Obvious, is quite loud.Justin Verlander came two strikeouts shy of his postseason career high. He has collected 11 strikeouts in four other previous playoff games, but the most recent before tonight was during his Tigers tenure in 2013 against Oakland in the division series. —Yuli Gurriel just rocketed a leadoff homer into the left-field Crawford Boxes to give the Astros their first lead of the game. It's 2-1 and that would put Justin Verlander in line to get a win.A rough, plodding beginning became 11 strikeouts, 103 total pitches and a fiery exit off the mound in the sixth.Brian T. SmithJustin Verlander strikes out Josh Donaldson and Matt Carpenter to end the sixth inning, the third punchout for each veteran Yankee. Verlander is at 103 pitches , so that figures to be it for him. He has 11 strikeouts. It's still 1-1.Jeremy Peña is becoming Houston's premier postseason table-setter. His first-ever ALCS game is also his first career game with two doubles. The second one chased Yankees starter Jameson Taillon off the mound one out into the fifth inning. Reliever Clarke Schmidt intentionally walked Yordan Alvarez to get to Alex Bregman, then unintentionally walked him, too, to load the bases for Kyle Tucker. The Astros' right fielder grounded into a double play, and now 1-for-8 this postseason with runners on and 0-for-6 with RISP.Since Game 3 of the ALDS started, the Astros have two runs in 23 innings and a ton of missed opportunities at the plate. Throw in Jose Altuve's continued struggles in Game 1 of the ALCS and the Astros are pushing the limit of how little they can do at the plate and still win in the playoffs. —Clarke Schmidt gets Kyle Tucker to ground into a 4-6-3 double play with the bases loaded, ending a prime Astros threat in the fifth inning. It's 1-1 heading to the sixth with Justin Verlander still on the mound. —The Astros have the bases loaded in the fifth after a Jeremy Peña double with one out followed by an intentional walk to Yordan Alvarez and an unintentional free pass to Alex Bregman by Yankees reliever Clarke Schmidt. Kyle Tucker is up. —We're at the two-hour mark of Game 1 and in the bottom of the fifth. A typically long Astros-Yankees game? Well, in the regular season they averaged 3 hours and 19 minutes in the games against each other. The longest was 3:45 and shortest 3:05. —Justin Verlander has nine strikeouts through five innings against the Yankees. The last time he did that in a postseason game? Game 5 of the 2019 ALCS against, yep, the Yankees. His career-high for strikeouts in a playoff game is 13, accomplished in the 2017 ALCS Game 2 — also against the team from the Bronx. —Those were back-to-back innings that Justin Verlander needed. He was at 45 pitches through two innings but now has nine strikeouts and has powered through the last two frames. At 92 pitches through five innings and with Game 1 still tied at 1, Verlander has kept the Astros close and no one is warming up in Dusty Baker's bullpen. —Justin Verlander has retired eight straight Yankees hitters, seven via strikeout, as the top of the fifth inning ended. He's thrown 92 pitches, 62 for strikes. It's still 1-1. —Through four innings, the Astros have reached base six times and stranded five runners. The two men at the bottom of the order, Chas McCormick and Martin Maldonado, accounted for half of the team's total base runners and its lone run.Jameson Taillon got through the Astros’ order twice, which seems about his limit. Yankees manager Aaron Boone had Clarke Schmidt warming at the end of the fourth inning — perhaps to face Jose Altuve if he came up to bat — but Martín Maldonado bounced out to prevent it. Taillon has thrown 63 pitches through four innings of one-run ball, but Boone may be tempting fate to allow him a third look at Houston’s lineup. —Justin Verlander needed a smooth inning and he just completed one in the fourth. Three strikeouts on 13 pitches. He's at 79 total in Game 1 but has struck out seven and held New York to three hits. Now the Astros, still tied 1-1 need more than a run. They have two combined in their last 21 innings, dating back to Game 3 of the ALDS in Seattle. —Justin Verlander’s best inning of the night gave him a strikeout record and a much-needed re-set. He required just 13 pitches to punch out the side in the fourth inning. The top of the Yankees’ order is looming for a third look at him to start the fifth. Verlander’s thrown 79 pitches.Since Giancarlo Stanton's double, which registered as the hardest-hit ball of the night so far at 112.8 mph off the bat, Justin Verlander struck out five consecutive batters to surpass Clayton Kershaw's career postseason record.Justin Verlander now has the most strikeouts in postseason history with 215. That's two more than Clayton Kershaw. Verlander had passed John Smoltz for the lead in 2019 but had since been surpassed by Kershaw as Verlander did not pitch during the Astros' previous two postseasons because of injury. —Yordan Alvarez, Alex Bregman and Kyle Tucker are 0-for-5 against Jameson Taillon through three innings. The bottom of Houston’s order manufactured its only run, but at some point, the Astros will need their big boys to produce. —The Astros just went down in order in the third inning, the first time either team has gone three up, three down in this game. It's 1-1 heading to the fourth inning. —As we near the end of the shift age as we know it, with new rules next year limiting the maneuverability of defenses, Anthony Rizzo has us wondering: Could a team dare try a straight steal of home in a tight postseason game? With two outs and two on in the top of the third, Rizzo was dancing 30 feet off third base with no one on the bag and Alex Bregman positioned in the shortstop hole against a lefthanded hitter. Something to consider — for either team — if such a situation arises again. —This is a grind for Justin Verlander, who probably isn’t long for this game, but he’s keeping Houston in it without anything resembling his best stuff. He’s thrown 66 pitches through three plodding innings, but surrendered just one run. He reached back for 98.5 mph to freeze Matt Carpenter and strand two more Yankees in the third. At this rate, the Astros would be thrilled to get five innings out of Verlander. —The Yankees have another threat going against Justin Verlander in the third. A one-out walk to Anthony Rizzo was followed by Giancarlo Stanton's double off the right-field wall to put runners on second and third. But Verlander struck out Josh Donaldson swinging and then froze Matt Carpenter with a full-count called third strike to get out of the jam. —Jameson Taillon isn’t fooling many hitters, but Houston has failed to really make him rue it. The lineup has stranded three baserunners and is 0-for-4 with runners in scoring position through two innings. —McCormick's two-out comebacker up the middle set up Maldonado's two-out RBI double, which ended up out of Aaron Judge's reach in deep right-center field. Minute Maid Park was deflated by the Yankees' early 1-0 lead. After Maldonado followed McCormick with another big two-out hit, it's tied at 1 and the ballpark is again fully invested in Game 1. —The bottom of the lineup has provided some two-out magic for the Astros in the second inning. No. 8 hitter Chas McCormick singled and Martín Maldonado followed with a booming double to right field to score him for the tying run. —Justin Verlander is at 45 pitches through two innings of one-run ball. Of the 10 batters he faced, four reached -- on a hit by pitch, Jose Altuve's throwing error, a solo home run and a single. Verlander required 49 pitches to finish two innings in his ALDS start against the Mariners, when he allowed four runs on six hits in that span. Tonight's start has not been nearly as bad, but the high pitch count could be of some concern. —Justin Verlander avoided further trouble in the second inning, getting the final two outs with a runner on after Harrison Bader's homer. The Yankees lead 1-0 as the Astros come to bat in the second. —Justin Verlander has one out in the second but the Yankees lead 1-0 and have struck first in Game 1. New York was playing Cleveland for its playoff life Tuesday. A day later, the Yankees have been busy in both innings and New York has turned its lack of rest into an early advantage. Verlander also continues to be off compared to his regular season-self. The expected AL Cy Young winner must be better than this if the Astros are going to win their second World Series. —The slider has given Justin Verlander problems all season. He didn’t have it at all in the first inning today, seemed to find it a tad in the second, and then hung one to Harrison Bader, who banged it off the left field facade.— Houston's inability to capitalize early with runners in scoring position was an issue in the division series, necessitating late comebacks. It happened again in the first inning of the ALCS. After Jeremy Peña’s double, Yordan Alvarez walked to give the Astros two on with one out. Aaron Judge laid out in right-center field to catch Alex Bregman’s fly ball and denied the runners a chance to advance. Then Kyle Tucker grounded a ball right to the first baseman for the final out. —Aaron Judge: not just a hitter. The American League’s home run king made a remarkable diving catch in right field to save at least one run — possibly two — and precipitate a wasted chance from Houston. Alex Bregman’s liner had just a .340 expected batting average, according to Statcast, but seemed destined to split the right-center field gap. Judge — all 6-7 of him — laid out to rob Bregman and silence a buzzing ballpark. —Yankees center fielder Harrison Mantle, er, Bader, has hit four home runs in six games this postseason. He had five in a total of 86 regular-season games with the Yankees and Cardinals, who dealt him for Jordan Montgomery at the trade deadline. —Giancarlo Stanton, meet left field at Minute Maid Park. Aaron Judge is doing just fine in right field. Stanton could have played Jeremy Peña's liner better — or been a little more lucky. Judge then made a terrific diving catch in right to save at least one run. The first inning of Game 1 was filled with action. But it's still scoreless heading into the second. —Aaron Judge then robbed Alex Bregman of extra bases and likely two RBIs with a diving catch in right field with one out and two runners on. An early silencer for the Yankees as Jameson Taillon get out of the inning unscathed. —The Astros' first hit resulted from Giancarlo Stanton misjudging a line drive Jeremy Peña sent to left field. Stanton is making his fifth start of the year in left field for the Yankees, and the ball went over his outstretched glove for a double.Stretching back to Seattle, Jose Altuve now has four consecutive first-pitch outs. In the regular season, he slashed .324/.359/.590 when swinging at the first pitch. When he’s slumping, though, the trend is magnified. Altuve is now 0-for-17 in the postseason. —Justin Verlander had to face five batters in the first inning, thanks to a hit batter and an error, but he was in control. Verlander put four of the five Yankees hitters in an 0-2 hole with two strikes to begin their at-bats.Jerome SolomonThe initial two first-inning Yankees, understandably, were booed. Justin Verlander then hit Anthony Rizzo, after getting ahead 0-2, and Giancarlo Stanton reached after Jose Altuve's throw pulled Yuli Gurriel off first base. It took Verlander 22 pitches to end New York in the first but he eventually recorded a zero. The good news for the Astros' ace: He had the early count advantage against four of the five Yankees he faced. —After he got Yankees leadoff man Gleybar Torres to ground out on a 3-1 pitch, Justin Verlander got ahead 0-2 vs. the next four batters he faced. —
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