Dallas Keuchel And Astros Crush Yankees 3-0 In The Bronx

Tuesday night saw the Houston Astros take on the New York Yankees away in a AL wild-card game. The game marked the 52nd postseason appearance for the Yankees, the most in MLB history. Astros pitcher and Cy Young award hopeful Dallas Keuchel led the team with six shutout innings at Yankee Stadium. The game was also the Yankee’s first postseason matchup since 2012. Club owner Joe Girardi noted Keuchel’s pitching style and the team’s long struggle with it: “We just haven’t been able to solve Keuchel this year. We haven’t been able to do it. We struggled against lefthanders down the stretch and it continued tonight.”

Houston scored runs in the second, fourth, and seventh innings thanks to runs from Colby Rasmus, Carlos Gomez, and Jose Altuve (RBI single). Yanks pitcher Masahiro Tanaka allowed two solo home runs to Rasmus and Gomez during his five innings. The Yankees batters were able to reach merely three hits against Keuchel, and Alex Rodriguez also came to the plate with two runners on and two outs in the sixth, after singles by Gregorius and Carlos Beltran. Chief Young also started as replacement for $153 million center fielder Jacoby Ellsbury, and walked with one out in the first but quickly became stranded at second after Rodriguez was caught looking on Keuchel’s 1-2 backdoor slider for the third out.

The Astros will now move on to play the AL Central Champion, the Kansas City Royals, while the Yankees will once again head into the offseason. The latter’s last World Series title was in 2009.