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 Solo home runs by Colby Rasmus and Carlos Gomez backed the
superlative pitching of Houston starting pitcher Dallas Keuchel, who
blanked the Yanks on three hits over six innings with seven
strikeouts.
Keuchel, 20-8 this season and pitching on three days' rest for the
first time, silenced the New York crowd of 50,000 by running his
scoreless streak against the pinstripes to 22 innings in 2015.
"I didn't think we would play that well," Keuchel said in a
televised post-game interview.
"I thought we'd play a bit better than average but I didn't think
we'd come to Yankee Stadium and play that well."
Relievers Tony Sipp, Will Harris and Luke Gregerson pitched one
scoreless inning each to combine with Keuchel on the three-hit
shutout.
Yankees starter Masahiro Tanaka took the loss, giving up first-pitch
home runs by Rasmus in the second inning and by Gomez in the fourth,
in his five innings of work.
Houston tacked on the last run in the seventh on an RBI-single by
Jose Altuve off reliever Dellin Betances in the seventh that drove
in Jonathan Villar after he had stolen second base.
The victory lifted the Astros, appearing in the playoffs for the
first time since 2005, into a best-of-five American League Division
Series against the Kansas City Royals, starting Thursday.
"You saw a lot of what's right about Astros baseball," said Houston
manager A.J. Hinch. "We homered, we stole a few bases that came up
key.
"We got gutsy pitching out of Keuchel and our bullpen, and we had
some big plays on defense. I think that's what we do when we're at
our best."
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Yankees manager Joe Girardi was disappointed but proud of his team,
which was not regarded as a contender before the season.
"It's really disappointing. It's hard," Girardi said. "Seasons end
abruptly and it's very difficult. This is a club that fought all
year long, and there's a lot of character in that room, and this
hurts. We just didn't get it done.
"We just haven't been able to solve Keuchel this year."
On Wednesday, the National League Wild Card game will be contested
in Pittsburgh, with the Pirates taking on the Chicago Cubs in a
showdown between NL Central clubs.
The other AL Division Series will see the Toronto Blue Jays, back in
the postseason for the first time in 22 years, at home to the Texas
Rangers.
(Reporting by Larry Fine; Editing by Julian Linden)
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