NEW YORK - Dallas Keuchel tossed six shutout innings and the Houston Astros, behind the offense from Colby Rasmus, Carlos Gomez, and Jose Altuve, defeated the New York Yankees, 3-0, to advance to face the Kansas City Royals in the American League Division Series.
Coming off from just three days rest, there was speculation on how far, and how well, Keuchel could pitch. After a shaky first inning, where his control seemed out of sorts, Keuchel settled and set down ten Yankees hitters before allowing two singles in the 6th inning.
The Yankees starter, Masahiro Tanaka, had a dominant first inning, striking out two of the first three batters he faced. But things change in the 2nd inning as Colby Rasmus led it off with a first pitch home run. From there Tanaka seemed rattled and he went away from what worked so well for him against the first three batters to begin the game.
Houston held a 1-0 lead into the 4th inning when, again, on the first pitch, Carlos Gomez took Tanaka into the left field stands for a solo home run and the Astros had a 2-0 lead. This 2-0 lead felt almost insurmountable with the way Keuchel was dealing and the way the Yankees' offense had been slumping the past month.
The Yankees looked to battle back in the 6th inning when Didi Gregorius led off with a single. After a Brett Gardner strikeout and a Chris Young fielders' choice, Carlos Beltran singled to center field and New York had the tying runs on base with two outs. Alex Rodriguez came to the plate and hit a lazy fly ball to center field on the first pitch to end the Yankees threat.
Still leading 2-0 heading into the 7th inning, Dellin Betances entered the game with one out and after walking Chris Carter, Astros manager A.J. Hinch pinch ran Jonathan Villar for Carter. Villar stole second base as Jason Castro took a called third strike and Jose Altuve came up next and reached out to hit a bloop single to left field that scored Villar that increased the Astros lead, 3-0.
Tony Sipp took over on the mound for Keuchel and it was in the hands of a Houston bullpen that posted an above 5.00 ERA in the month of September. After getting McCann to fly out, Sipp walked Chase Headley but was able to strikeout Greg Bird looking and Refsnyder to fly out to right field to end the 7th inning.
That was the last chance the Yankees had in the 7th inning. Will Harris pitched a 1-2-3 inning for Houston in the 8th, and Luke Gregerson got the Yankees 1-2-3 in the 9th to lock down the victory.
The Houston bullpen didn't allow a single hit to Yankee batters and after the Beltran single in the 6th, New York only managed one baserunner.
Dallas Keuchel finished with a line of 6.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, and 7 SO. Between both the regular season and tonight's Wild Card game, Keuchel pitched 22-straight shutout innings against the New York Yankees.
Houston will quickly turn things around and face the Royals on Thursday in Kansas City to begin the five-game division series. Yordano Ventura will start for Kansas City and it has yet to be announced who the Astros starter will be.