HOUSTON — The most common metaphor used to preview the ALCS between the 103-win Yankees ꦇand 107-win Astros was that of heavyweights clashing.
That felt ri൲ght. These teams dominated the AL. They won their divisions handily. This was like a bout set long ago and finally here, a rematch two years in the making to decide who advances to the World Series. And the Yankees knew something from the previous fights.
In Minute Maid Park, the Astros take on the characteristics of a bully. They dictate pace, play with even more of a swagger, move the opponent to their heels, fueled further by the orange-clad throaty throng that fills the stadium. There is a p🦂aran🥀oia here as Houston gains a real edge either with Belichick-like chicanery or simply by having the opponent feel high-tech cheating is ongoing by the home team in this domed enclave.
The Yankees l﷽ost the ALCS in seven games in 2017 because ♓they couldn’t win any of the four games in Houston. They lost their only three 2019 regular-season games here in April.
In his ever-expanding leadershi🐟p role Aaron Judge, according to Zack Britton, implored before the game for energy and “to take it to them.”
The Yankees had to be the aggressors. They had to throw all the first punches. No rope-a-dope. No backing down. The Yanks did this in a hail of first-pitch str✅ikes thrown by Masahiro Tanaka and in early swings against Zack Greinke that set the tone for “one of the better baseball games we played all ꦑyear,” according to Britton.
Gleyber Torres, who is embellishing his star this October, personified the aggressive tactics. He knocked in the open🃏ing two runs 𒈔in this game on a first-pitch double in the fourth and a first-pitch homer in the sixth.
Torres amassed five RBIs in all during a 7-0 Game 1 triumph in which the Yankees did more than stand up to the Astros. They knocked them down, defused the sellout crowd of 43,311. The Yanks stole home-field advantage from the team that at 60-21 had the majors’ best home mark this 🍌year and then won its ALDS over the Rays by taking three games at Minute Maid to counter its two losses in St. Petersburg, Fla.
“We were𒀰 ab🗹le to capitalize on some early counts and that helped us win a ballgame,” Judge said.
The Yankees are now 4-0 in these playoffs — two wins at home, two on the road. They have permitted just seven runs, and after all the rotation concerns, the starters have been fine in the playoffs — and Tanaka has been brilliant, with two wins and one run allowed in 11 innꦡings.
Tanaka squashed concerns about him away from The Bronx by, over six innings, shutting out the team that led the majors in batting average, on-base percentage and slugging. He now has made seven postseason starts, has never thrown fewer than five innings or given up more thanꦆ two runs and has a 1.32 ERA.
The Astros walked the most and struck out the least in the majors, heightening the need for pitching aggression. Tanaka threw strike one to 15 of the 18 batters he faced — the minimum you can face in six🃏 innings. He needed just 68 pitches, allowing one hit and one walk and ind🌠ucing double plays both times, once off a terrific catch and throw by Judge as the Yankees defense continued to shine in October.
“That was the pla🌱n, attack hitters, execute pitches,” Gary Sanchez said.
On offense, the Yankees also were about the early count. Greinke had the third-lowest wal🦩k rate among qualified pitchers. He is the control heir to Greg Maddux and Mike Mussina and there is no reason to wait around for walks that will not come. Greinke faced 24 batters and 20 swungꦛ on the first or second pitch. DJ LeMahieu lined the first pitch of the fourth inning for a single, took second on a wild pitch and scored on that first-pitch double by Torres.
“The Yankees, they can come at you in a lot of different ways,” Houston manager A.J. Hinch said. “So, I don’t really care what venue you’re at, they have their approach. And they did a few things today that they don’t normally do. You have Judge up there, swung at the first pitch. ༺And that’s a rarity.”
The plan enabled them to stand uꦐp to t𝔍he bully in the bully’s home, aggression breeding success and confidence and a win in Houston.
In this AL꧃CS Game 1, the Yankees threw the first punch in every meaningful wa🅷y.