SteemSports Presenter:
SteemSports Editor:
Tuesday’s game between the Yankees and Astros turned into a mighty impressive pitcher’s duel, though both clubs went about piecing the game together very differently.
For the Astros, Justin Verlander was flat out dominant yet again. He had perhaps his finest start of what has already been a brilliant season, striking out a season-high 14 batters while scattering three hits over eight shutout innings. The veteran right-hander didn’t walk a batter and peppered 75 of his 105 pitches into the strike zone.
He has still yet to lose a regular season start as a member of the Astros and owns a jaw-dropping 1.13 ERA, 0.67 WHIP and 62/8 K/BB ratio across his 47 ⅔ innings of work.
For the Yankees, Jordan Montgomery was forced to leave his start after just one inning due to tightness in his left elbow. That left manager Aaron Boone to scramble and piece together the rest of the ballgame with one of the league’s best and deepest bullpens.
Challenge accepted.
Domingo German came on and bridged the gap to the usual contingent of late-inning relievers, keeping the vaunted Astros’ offense at bay for four innings. He allowed four hits and a walk while punching out four batters.
He then turned to Chad Green who worked a perfect sixth inning with one strikeout. Dellin Betances came on for the seventh, and though he did allow a hit, he fanned the other three hitters that he faced.
David Robertson was tasked with working the eighth inning in a scoreless game, and he responded with another shutout frame with a pair of strikeouts.
The Yankees finally broke through in the ninth inning once Verlander had been lifted from the game. Aaron Judge led off with a single off of Astros’ closer Ken Giles and advanced to third on a double by Didi Gregorius. Giles battled back to strike out Giancarlo Stanton, but Gary Sanchez clobbered the very next pitch over the wall in center field for a game-changing three-run blast.
Aaron Hicks then followed with a single, which prompted Astros’ skipper A.J. Hinch to pull the plug on Giles. With Will Harris on the mound, Hicks then swiped second base, advanced to third on a ground ball and scampered home on a wild pitch with the club’s fourth run.
Boone turned to closer Aroldis Chapman for the bottom of the ninth-inning, and the flame-throwing left-hander blew away all three hitters he faced in a non-save situation.
With the victory, the Yankees improve to 19-10 and move to within two games of the Red Sox in the battle for the top spot in the American League East.
