The Houston Astros smothered the New York Yankees in Game 1 of the American League Championship Series Friday night, cruising to a 2-1 victory. Many expected this to be a high-scoring affair, but the opening game featured exactly one extra-base hit (with two outs in the ninth, no less) as the two teams combined for one home run, 10 singles, four walks, and nothing more. Of course, these are still early days in this seven-game set which will crown the American League champion.
Here are your takeaways from Game 1.
Dallas Keuchel was good
You know all those words you use to describe a truly magnificent pitching performance? Dominant, untouchable, nasty, lights out, etc., etc. Astros starter Dallas Keuchel was all that and then some Friday night.
Featuring a sinker, slider, cutter mix that gave New York hitters fits, Keuchel pitched seven shutout innings, striking out 10 while allowing only four singles and a walk. He lived down in the zone, earning swinging strikes with his slider (he had 14 swinging strikes in all) and called strikes with his two-seamer (15 of his 21 called strikes came with that pitch).
He made good use of the defence behind him as well, getting seven groundball outs. He faced exactly one jam, and looked like he could’ve continued pitching when he finished the seventh inning at 109 pitches.
Masahiro Tanaka was also good
While Keuchel was masterful, Yankees starter Masahiro Tanaka was no slouch himself. He allowed only four hits over his six innings, striking out three and getting nine groundballs.
Interestingly, Tanaka backed away from his bread-and-butter splitter Friday, throwing his slider more than any other pitch and using his four-seam fastball more often than he normally does. Whatever was behind the change in approach, Tanaka clearly had good reason, as he frustrated Astros hitters throughout the night and limited hard contact, earning an average exit velocity of only 79 mph on the 19 balls Houston put in play.
Tanaka did allow the two runs, but even if he allowed none, he wouldn’t have come away with a win. That’s how good Keuchel was.
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Speed (and luck) kills
Jose Altuve helped create Houston’s first run with his legs in the fourth, running out an infield groundball for a single, stealing second despite some very close attention paid by Tanaka, and then scoring easily when Carlos Correa got an elevated slider and deposited it into left field. Tanaka left a couple pitches up to Correa, suggesting the threat of Altuve on the base paths threw him slightly off his game.
Or maybe he just missed with a couple pitches. Who knows? But the fact remains that Altuve’s speed and aggressiveness on the basepaths had a whole lot to do with Houston finally breaking through against Tanaka. Home runs are terrific. But sometimes it’s not all about the long ball.
And sometimes you have to get lucky, too. Later in the inning, with two out and Correa on second, Yulieski Gurriel rolled over a crisp 93-mph sinker right at the bottom of the zone for a groundball. But he hit it where New York’s infielders were not, watching it skip through to the outfield as Correa trotted home. For Tanaka, it was strong process — not so great result.
Defence giveth and defence taketh away
It was only about 10 minutes after Altuve sparked Houston’s offence that he was bobbling a routine groundball at second base in the fifth, allowing the Yankees to get two runners on with none out.
Now, there was a degree of difficulty considering Altuve had a baserunner crossing in front of him and had to hurry to have a chance at two outs. But it’s certainly a play you would expect Altuve, who committed only 10 errors during the regular season, to make. And it gave New York life when they desperately needed it.
For a moment, it looked like Keuchel would get out of the jam all on his own, as he got Todd Frazier to fly out before striking out Brett Gardner with a filthy slider. But Aaron Judge worked a terrific at-bat with two outs (Keuchel threw him nothing but sliders), and lined a full-count slider into left, as Greg Bird rounded third on his way to home.
But Marwin Gonzalez had other ideas as he collected Judge’s single and launched a seed to the dish, where catcher Brian McCann nabbed Bird just as he reached the plate. Video review confirmed the out call, and the Astros ran off the field with their lead intact.
It was Houston’s defence that put them in that precarious position. And their defence that helped them escape it, as well.
Missed opportunities
The Yankees certainly had their chances. There were runners left on in the first, third and fourth, and then of course the play at the plate in the fifth.
And New York put two runners on in the eighth for Didi Gregorious, who’s no stranger to playing the hero in these playoffs. But Astros closer Ken Giles got the shortstop to go down chasing a slider to end the inning and preserved Houston’s two-run lead.
Bird jumped all over a 98-mph Giles fastball up in the zone with two out in the ninth, crushing it off the top of the right field foul pole to pull his team within one. But that was as close as the Yankees would get, as Giles struck out Jacoby Ellsbury with a slider to complete his five-out save.
Not much offence in this one from either side, but all will be forgotten quickly as Game 2 begins approximately 16 hours after this one ended, with New York’s Luis Severino and Houston’s Justin Verlander starting Saturday at 4:00 pm.
