In Between the Pinstripes #44

In Between the Pinsripes_44: A missed opportunity

Bottom 7 runners on first and second and no outs. Aaron Hicks has a 10-pitch at-bat against Houston starter Justin Verlander. Hicks would strike out and Yankee folk-hero Todd Frazier steps to the plate. Frazier comes to the plate and in his previous at-bat he looked like a two-year-old toddler picking up a baseball bat for the first time against a Verlander curveball now walks into the batter’s box. Frazier works a good at-bat against Verlander, then crack, Frazier hits a long fly ball to dead center, heading for the center field wall. As the camera switches from the center field camera to the behind home plate camera, you see Houston’s centerfielder George Springer racing toward the wall, leaping and robbing a “would be double,” that probably scores one run at least.

This comes off the heels of a comeback inning by Chad Green who shut down the Astros after the 6^th where they tagged Luis Severino for three runs. The 7^th was the chance that the Yankees had to have against Houston’s hottest pitcher as he was starting to show signs of fatigue. You could see it, with the expression that Verlander had on his face after he sees the ball go into Springers glove.

The Yankees would get a second chance to truly get back into the game after Aaron Judge hit a ball to the moon in the top of the 8^th that still hasn’t landed yet. After the homer, you heard a glimmer of silence, as Houston fans got a hint of a flashback to Tuesday night in the Bronx. That was Game 4 when Aaron Judge hit a ball off the batter’s eye (or as I like to call it “the landing strip”) as the Yankees came back and tied the series off the Astro bullpen. Didi strikes out on a terrible pitch, following with Sanchez missing a couple pitches he could have launched out of the yard to end the inning.

However, that isn’t as detrimental to the Yankees loss as David Robertson’s hiccup. Robertson missed his stop and gave up a deflating laser to Houston’s MVP candidate Jose Altuve, following that up with a ringing double to Carlos Correa. At that point, I’m screaming at the TV for Joe Girardi to take out Robertson and put anyone else in. Robertson clearly didn’t have his A-list stuff tonight and was left in the game for too long—allowing Houston to balloon the lead and give the bullpen a comfortable cushion. That was the real needle that took the air out of the balloon that the Yankees had tonight.

But, the Yankees didn’t need to win this game, they would have stepped on the throat of the Astros and move to the World Series. All this loss means is, the Yankees just need to show up and play great for one more time. And honestly, if the Yankees won this game tonight, it would have been the most shocking thing in this entire postseason run. I was saying this before the four-run bottom of the 8^th for Houston. I said this for pretty much the entire game. The Yankees needed to overcome a leaping grab that would have given them a great opportunity to knock Verlander out of the game and get back into the game against the Houston pen.

The ball just bounced the right way for Houston. The Springer catch, the Altuve two run single in the 6^th (which was JUST out of the reach of Todd Frazier), and a foul ball that was scrapped off the wall by Marwin Gonzalez. The game of baseball just goes against you some days and there is nothing you can do, nothing. You could argue about calls and a wide strike zone, the ball just goes a little higher, faster, and further.

This wasn’t the Yankees night, call it what you will, but “The Stopper” C.C. Sabathia is on the mound tomorrow night. Tomorrow night is also Game 7, which, is the best two words in all of sports. The pressure is on both teams, for the Yankees it’s all on C.C. to stop yet another team and bring the Yankees to the World Series, and for the Astros—it’s holding off the Yankees again at home with their backs against the wall with a starter on the mound that they don’t have the upmost confidence in. I am excited, confident, but a little disappointed that we gave Houston the opportunity to crawl back and have a chance at a comeback. I don’t want to go to bed because I want Game 7 to start immediately, but until tomorrow… The message remains the same, the chase for 28 is still alive for another day, and let’s go Yankees!