Yankees Prevent Elimination With 4-1 Win Over Astros

The New York Yankees are still alive in the 2019 Major League Baseball playoffs. On Friday night at Yankee Stadium, the Yankees generated all of their runs in the first inning in a 4-1 win over the Houston Astros. With the victory, the Yankees prevented elimination and now travel to Houston for game six of the American League Championship Series trailing three games to two.

Heading into the bottom of the first, the Astros had a slim 1-0 lead as George Springer scored on a James Paxton wild pitch. On most nights one run is all that Astros ace Justin Verlander needs, but on this night the Yankees had an excellent opening inning themselves.

DJ LeMahieu led off the first with a 355 foot home run to tie the score at one run apiece. Aaron Judge followed with a single and then Gleyber Torres doubled. After a Giancarlo Stanton strikeout, Aaron Hicks hit a home run for the ages as he hit the right field foul pole that scored LeMahieu and Torres and put the Yankees up 4-1.

That was simply it when it came to the offense for both teams. The Yankees and Astros went through the next seven and a half innings without getting a run across.

There is a short turn around for both teams. The Yankees and Astros are now playing game six Saturday night in Houston. The most likely starters according to Bryan Hoch and Brian McTaggart of mlb.com are Chad Green for the Yankees and Jose Urquidy for the Astros.