HOUSTON – The Yankees have played 14 teams and have a winning record against all but one.
It shouldn’t be hard to come up with an exception, as the Yankees lost to the Astros 2-1 on Thursday – and have lost three of the team’s five meetings so far this year.
With last week’s no-hitter in the Bronx, they have also been blocked by one or fewer runs in three of those games.
“They’re good,” Aaron Boone said, explaining why Houston’s pitchers are so effective against his team. “They’re one of the best teams to keep you from scoring.”
This broke the Yankees ’four-game winning streak, as visitors embarked on a 10-game, four-city tour in the first week of the game’s makeup in front of a 40,674 sellout crowd at Minute Med Park. Regular season, but postponed due to MLB lockout.
But Boone is sure the outcome will be something positive.
“They’ve done a great job, for the most part, of keeping us down,” the manager said of the Astros in first place. “Sometimes that happens against good teams. We need to learn from all this and hopefully get important information from their children. ”
The defeat pushed the Yankees’ MLB-best record to 56-21, as Luis Severino – facing a lineup without Jordan Alvarez and Jeremy Pena – was injured when they collided while trying to make a play at City Field on Wednesday – Luis Garcia.
Severino allowed just one pair of runs in six innings – thanks to a two-run double by Alex Bragman in the third inning – but the Yankees backed Anthony Rizzo Homer in the sixth inning.
The Yankees only managed to walk until the third against Garcia, when Joey Gallo walked and DJ Lemahiu made an out.
But Aaron Judge fled in the middle and Rizzo tried to end his first threat of the night.
The Astros – who have won five of six – loaded the bottom of the left-hander, as Severino allowed Jake Meyers a double-off lead and a two-out walk to Aledmis Diaz and Kyle Tucker.
After running Tucker into a nine-pitch at-bat, Severino gave Braigman a two-run double on the left wall.
The inning ended in a wild manner, as Severino had problems with the pitchcom and pulled the device out of his hat, causing Tucker to put the brakes on for the house, but Severino recovered in time and brought the ball to Jose Trevino for the final and kept it. Two-run game.
Severino then retired the final nine batsmen.
The Yankees finally got to Garcia, who was sixth.
After blowing Jajla with his right hand to start the left, Rizzo trailed 0-2, before homing Homer to the right to reduce the deficit to 2-1.
It took a 1 for 34 for Rizzo and Garcia’s night was over.
Giancarlo Stanton drew a two-out walk with Ryan Stanek and Gleber Torres, but Trevino was grounded out and slipped to 0-3-3 with the Yankees runners.
Hector Neris and Rafael Montero played a scoreless innings outside the Houston Bullpen before Ryan Presley, who had a defensive blow against the Yankees last week, reached ninth to hold on to victory.
It was a one-day stop in Houston for the Yankees, in the middle of 20 games in 20 days, a sandwich between Wednesday’s win in the A’s against the Guardians in Cleveland and the opening bronze in Friday’s series.
And as challenging as the schedule can be, it’s clear that it will be hard to beat the Astros regardless of the situation. The Yankees will return to Houston in July – and probably in October.
“It’s still a long way off, but I wouldn’t be surprised if that happens,” Josh Donaldson said while playing the Astros in the post season. “But at the moment we can’t think about it.”
