Astros End Yankees’ Season with Shutout Win in AL Wild Card Game

The Houston Astros showed off their maturity on the diamond but acted their age in a boisterous celebration at Yankee Stadium after eliminating their hosts 3-0 in their one-and-done Wild Card playoff game.

So playing Young was nearly a certainty, and with the Yankees offense struggling during a 1-6 finish to the season, Girardi was bound to do something drastic.

The Yankees remain stuck on 27 world championships.

Tanaka (0-1) finished with three strikeouts, three walk and four his in five innings. It was perhaps his worst start against the Yankees this year. Their mix of computer geeks, power hitters and youth looks mighty potent at the moment and should be for years to come. He struck out seven and issued just one walk. The previous record of 18 was performed by the White Sox’s Joel Horlen in 1965, one of the early Horace Clarke years in the Bronx. Dallas Keuchel and relievers combined on the three-hit shutout.

Out of the visitors’ dugout, Houston Astros manager A.J. Hinch popped out. Before the game, Hinch said he wouldn’t have been able to sleep had he saved a better-rested Keuchel for the next round and the Astros lost. Mark Teixeira hobbled onto the field with crutches for the pregame introductions, unable to play since he fouled a pitch off his right shin on August, 17.

Astros fans have a couple of days to celebrate the post-season victory. But maybe they shouldn’t be. Young stars George Springer is thumping. Or words to that effect. Would this drop in and perhaps give the Yankees their opening into the game?

With the Yankees, there is always money to spend and the team evidently needs to on a top-of-the-line starting pitcher.

Yankees manager Joe Girardi said he was sure of it. He was not alone in that belief, as a sellout crowd of 50,113 rose to the kind of fever pitch that used to make the old Yankee Stadium tremble.

That history was among the reasons the Yankees believed Tanaka was worth $175 million, and situations like Tuesday night Tanaka put off Tommy John surgery for this opportunity and did not disguise his desire to save the Yankees’ postseason.

As he was for much of the regular season, Tanaka was good on Tuesday, at times dominant. “Just to get the chance to go out and play is exciting”.

The same held true for the Astros regarding Tanaka, who built his legend in Japan by refusing to yield in the biggest games. “But in any one game, anything can happen”. Should the series go the distance, Game 5 would be at Kauffman Stadium on October. 14.

The Yankees need to get a big bat. But it was a lineup dominated by thirtysomethings, and thirtysomethings in hellacious slumps.

Gregerson earned the save by striking out Carlos Beltran and Alex Rodriguez and then getting catcher Brian McCann on a game-ending groundout. The difference was that they delivered. Rasmus, who hit 25 home runs this season, dropped the head and hit a tee shot into the stands.

Two innings later, Carlos Gomez crushed the first pitch of the fourth, this time a slider, and 406.3 feet later, it was 2-0. But on the first pitch, he chased an 87mph offering and flew out harmlessly to center field. And he punctuated it with a bat flip that’s not part of the Yankees’ game.

On Sunday in Baltimore Ellsbury and Gardner 0-for-10.

That was many years ago, before the Astros refashioned their front office around computer aficionados who know the game. Who knows? Maybe they even beat the Sports Illustrated prediction that they win the World Series in 2017.

Can the Yankees’ offense be totally to blame Tuesday?