Game 1: 7/9/21, 7:10 PM (Yankees win 4-0)
New York shuts out Houston to take game 1 of this highly anticipated series. Yankee “opener” starter Nestor Cortes, was amazing as he threw 4.2 innings of shut out ball, it sucks that he couldn’t get another out to qualify for the win but the bullpen was lights out. Lucas Luetge, Chad Green, and Jonathon Loaisiga all combined to follow up Cortes with 4.1 innings scoreless. This was an extremely contested game, but the Yankees offense came in with some huge clutch hits that prevailed. Brett Gardner drew first blood in the 4th, as he roped a 2-run double down the right field line to score Rougned Odor and Gio Urshela off of Astros starter, Jake Odorizzi. Odorizzi was pretty good throwing 6 innings of 2-run ball, he got replaced by Bryan Abreu. In the 7th, New York would tack on 2 more when DJ LeMehieu smacked a 2-run double of his own scoring Gardner and Tyler Wade. 2 clutch 2-out hits by the Yanks was all they needed. Leutge would get the win and Odorizzi would get the loss.
Game 2: 7/10/21, 6:15 PM (Yankees win 1-0)
Gerrit Cole. That’s really all that needs to be said! Cole made a big statement, and pitched a complete game shut out against his former team. He cruised the whole way, only giving up 3 hits. Manager Boone was actually going to pull him after 8.2 innings due to Cole killer Yordan Alvarez up to bat. Cole made sure that didn’t happen as he said, “Some explicits were used on my part but wanted to make sure this was my game”. Alvarez, who has a .300+ career average against Cole including 2 homers this season, looked over matched. Cole simply threw 3 straight fastballs right by Yordan that all clocked in at 100 MPH to seal the deal. Cole tossed over 125 pitches in this masterful performance. Aaron Judge was responsible for the only run as he smoked a solo shot off of Zach Grienke to the train tracks. Cole got the win and Grienke got the tough luck loss.
Game 3: 7/11/21, 1:10 PM (Houston wins 8-7)
Pathetic loss. New York enters the 9th inning with a 7-2 lead, but Domingo German and Chad Green pitch about as awful as you can being major leaguer. Jose Altuve, of all people who has been heavily criticized about the cheating scandal in 2017, hit the game winning homer off Green for the win. On the bright side, Jameson Tallion heads to the all star break feeling as he completed his 3rd straight quality start, much needed for him. His line: 6 innings, 2 runs, 3 hits, 2 walks, 4 strikeouts. The Yankee offense was good in this one, anytime they score 7 runs, they should win. Pitching was the complete fault for this game. Gary Sanchez scored the games 1st run on an error in the 3rd by Astro shortstop, Robel Garcia. Houston would tie the game in the bottom of the 3rd on a Martin Maldonado homer off Tallion. In the 4th, newly acquired Yankee, Tim LoCastro, would hit his 1st homer as a Yankee to make it a 2-1 New York lead. The Bronx Bombers would tack on another run in the 5th on a Gleyber Torres RBI single to make it a 3-1 lead. Houston would score in the bottom of the inning thanks to a solo shot by Kyle Tucker off of Tallion making it a 3-2 deficit. In the 7th, Yanks had a lot of base runners and scored a lot of runs, Urshela would hit an RBI single scoring Torres, the big blow would come off the bat of Gary Sanchez as he absolutely obliterated a baseball that still hasn’t landed to make it a 7-2 New York lead. German came in relief of Tallion and simply didn’t do his job giving up 2 runs, cutting it to a 7-4 lead. Chad Green came in to close the game and looked like the worst pitcher on the planet, he really didn’t do his job giving up 4 runs including a Jose Altuve 3-run game winning homer. I’m sure this was just a bump in the road for Green, as he has been pretty much untouchable all year, so nothing too worrisome. Green would get the loss for New York and Ralph Garza Jr. would get the win.
My thoughts:
Hard to be upset about a 2/3 series win but this game definitely felt winnable and should’ve won. Overall, I am satisfied winning the series against a very good team. It is great to see excellent starting pitching and even with the game 3 loss, the Yankees should feel pretty good about themselves going into the all-star break. They need this break badly to shake off a underwhelming 1st half of the year. I expect a huge turn around and a big 2nd half of the year for the Yankees.
What’s next?
All-star break for both teams. Houston will open up a 3 game set with the 1st place Chicago White Sox at Chicago starting Friday. The Yankees will come home for probably the biggest series of the season, as they welcome in the rival Boston Red Sox for a huge 4 game set starting on Thursday.
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