The Yankees’ goal for the first two games of the ALCS in Houston was to win one game. Win one game and get home-field advantage, and then do what the 2017 Yankees did against the Astros in New York. As soon as Game 1 ended, the Yankees had done enough in Houston, but they were very close to doing much more.

The Yankees and every Yankees fan would have signed up for a tie game with Justin Verlander out of the game in Game 2. Verlander was always going to pitch well at home on regular rest, so getting him out of a 2-2 game was the best-case scenario for Game 2. Verlander was good, but not great on Sunday. He caught some breaks with high-exit-velocity rockets right at fielders and the great play by Carlos Correa to throw DJ LeMahieu at home on the Brett Gardner single. Verlander wasn’t as dominant as he has been against the Yankees at times in the four other postseason series the Yankees have played against him, and the Yankees had more than enough chances to take a 2-0 series lead.

Theoretically, the Yankees had the Astros right where they wanted them with the game tied, Verlander done and a battle of the bullpens for the remainder of the game. But James Paxton’s lack of length put the Yankees at a disadvantage, needing to use their elite options beginning in the third, while the Astros didn’t have to turn to their bullpen until the seventh.

It turns out my lack of trust in James Paxton, despite how he finished the regular season, was for a reason. Paxton was bad in the Game 1 of the ALDS and he was even worse on Sunday, unable to throw a first-pitch strike, get outs or give the team any length. His line this October: 7 IP, 9 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 3 BB, 11 K, 2 HR, 5.14 ERA, 1.714 WHIP. Paxton has put his team in early holes in both games, needing the offense to come back each time he has been in the mound. Thankfully, the Yankees have their deep bullpen to save Paxton like they were asked to do did in Game 2.

The decision to remove Paxton with two on and two outs in the third was the best decision Aaron Boone has made as Yankees manager. A year ago, he would have waited until both runners scored before going to his bullpen, but this season he has been quick to go to his bullpen and rightfully so. Paxton clearly didn’t have it and he wasn’t going to find it until the Yankees trailed by multiple runs. Boone sensing the urgency to keep the deficit manageable against Verlander went to Chad Green. Even though Boone is much older than me, I feel like a proud father watching him grow up right before my very eyes.

Green was awesome. He got the team out of Paxton’s jam and pitched two perfect innings, throwing 21 of 26 pitches for strikes. He was cruising when Boone removed him from the game in the fifth, but it wasn’t necessarily the wrong move. If he leaves Green in for Springer and Springer hits a home run, Boone is going to get ripped for not going to Adam Ottavino or Tommy Kahnle with Green having pitched two full innings. The move wasn’t wrong, it just didn’t work out.

The first pitch Ottavino threw in relief of Green was a middle-middle, flat slider which Springer hammered for a game-tying home run. It sucked, but it’s hard to get on Boone for the move or anyone in the Yankees’ bullpen for their performance when they’re being asked to pitch 6 2/3 innings and get 19 of 27 outs against this Astros lineup. The Astros were more than likely going to score, it just happened on the first pitch Ottavino threw. That’s the problem with getting no length from your starter and using so many relievers in the same game: you need all of them to be on on the same night. Ottavino wasn’t and the game was tied.

The only issue was that by time he came out of the game, the Yankees were already on their third of five elite relievers. Tommy Kahnle was in the game after Green and Ottavino were already used, and the Astros had yet to go to their top relievers, while the Yankees had already used the majority of theirs. If the game was going to continue, the Yankees were going to have to use some-less-than-stellar options to get outs.

The game did continue. The Yankees couldn’t do anything against the Astros’ bullpen, putting together three-minute innings, while the Astros made the Yankees’ bullpen work for every out in what felt like 30-minute innings. Boone only went to Zack Britton for one inning (12 pitches) and Aroldis Chapman for one inning (25 pitches), so after nine innings, the Yankees were out of elite options. It took CC Sabathia, Jonathan Loaisiga and J.A. Happ to miraculosly escape a 10th-inning jam, and it certainly felt like if the Yankees didn’t score in the 11th, it would take a second straight miracle inning to see the 12th.

After two quick outs by Aaron Judge and Gleyber Torres, Edwin Encarnacion walked and Gardner singled. Gary Sanchez came up with a chance to be the Game 2 hero and give the Yankees a lead, and it seemed like he might after working a 10-pitch at-bat, but he eventually struck out looking on a pitch which was nowhere near the zone. That was the game.

As expected with the left-handed, fastball-throwing Happ on the mound in the 10th against a right-handed heavy, fastball-crushing lineup, Correa ended the game on the first pitch of the 11th with a solo home run to right field. Game over, series tied.

Even though the Yankees accomplished what they wanted in Houston by winning a game, it could have been much more with one more timely hit. It’s hard to feel good coming off a loss, but the Yankees and Yankees fans should recognize it’s the Astros who should feel down after giving away the home-field advantage they won over the Yankees in the regular season.

If the next three games go the way they did two years ago, the Astros won’t get their home-field advantage back, and won’t play another game in Houston this season. It’s a lofty goal, but it’s the next goal: end the series in New York.

***

My book The Next Yankees Era: My Transition from the Core Four to the Baby Bombers is now available as an ebook!

I spent the entire regular season worrying about the Yankees not getting home-field advantage in the postseason for a possible ALCS against the Astros. After what happened in the 2017 ALCS, I didn’t want the Yankees to be eliminated because they couldn’t score or win in Houston again or because they couldn’t beat Justin Verlander or Gerrit Cole on the road. The Rays made sure the Yankees wouldn’t have to see Verlander and Cole on the road in the first two games of the series, and now, after Game 1, the Yankees have home-field advantage. They have it because of Masahiro Tanaka and Gleyber Torres.

Throughout the season, I wanted Masahiro Tanaka to be the Yankees’ Game 1 starter in the postseason. That was until Luis Severino returned. Then I wanted Severino to be the Game 1 starter. But when Aaron Boone announced (and tried to say it was his idea) Masahiro Tanaka as the Game 1 starter for the ALCS, I was delighted. I know James Paxton has dominated the Astros in his career (aside from April of this season), but I have always trusted Tanaka much more than Paxton, and the ALDS only helped to further grow that trust.

After Game 2 of the ALDS, I wrote:

There was a lot of concern and a lack of trust for Tanaka entering the postseason because of another inconsistent regular season (though his numbers were marred by two awful starts) and because his 1.80 career postseason ERA was being attributed by many as luck. His postseason career FIP was in line with his regular-season career FIP, and therefore, his much lower ERA was being called a result of luck. It couldn’t be because Tanaka is a much different pitcher in the biggest games. It couldn’t be because Tanaka thrives on the postseason stage, never having allowed more than two earned runs in a postseason start. It had to be because of luck.

And:

I’m not sure how many impressive postseason starts it will take Tanaka for Yankees fans to unanimously accept he’s a different pitcher in October, or maybe he will just continue to be the luckiest postseason pitcher of all time.

Can we all unanimously accept Tanaka is different in October? His postseason success can’t be attributed to luck or a small sample size. Not when he’s the first postseason pitcher in history to allow two earned runs or less in each of his first seven postseason starts. Not when he’s shut down the record-setting 2017 Indians, eventual champion 2017 Astros and 2018 Red Sox, the top home run-hitting team in history 2019 Twins and now these 2019 Astros, who have played like the 1998 Yankees at MinuteMaid Park. Tanaka rises to the occasion in the postseason, and you only have to compare his regular-season stats to his postseason stats to measure what many believe can’t be measured: Tanaka is clutch.

Tanaka one-hit the Astros. One-hit! A team which bats Carlos Correa seventh, is the best home team in baseball and has otherworldly offensive numbers in Houston was completely shut down. The Astros barely threatened in two of Tanaka’s six innings, were behind in counts all night and produced off-balance swings in nearly every at-bat. It was a masterful performance by a pitcher who continues to turn in masterful performances in the postseason. Tanaka provided the Yankees with length and kept the Astros off the board and let Gleyber Torres carry the offense.

Nearly every TV graphic this season to show how good Torres has been has included Mickey Mantle. Torres is a superstar, and at age 22, he’s either the Yankees’ best player or he’s very close to becoming heir best player. After winning Games 1 and 3 of the ALDS and earning my ALDS MVP honors, Torres was somehow even better in Game 1 of the ALCS. Torres was promoted to the 3-hole for the ALCS and responded by giving the Yankees a 1-0 lead with an RBI double in the fourth, adding on to that lead with a solo home run in the sixth, driving in two runs with a single in the seventh and providing an insurance run with an RBI groundout in the ninth. It was a 3-for-5 night with a double, home run and five RBIs, as he’s now driven in nine runs in four games this postseason. There were more graphics comparing him to Mickey Mantle on Saturday, and those comparisons aren’t going to go away if he keeps hitting like this.

I wasn’t as nervous for Game 1 of the ALCS as I was during the ALCS two years ago or as nervous as I thought I would be or maybe should have been. Tanaka and Torres helped calm those nerves and now I’m not nervous at all. In order to win the pennant, the Yankees had to prove they could win in Houston, and they did. Now they have home-field advantage, are going back to New York no worse than tied in the series, and if they can solve and beat Verlander on Sunday night, they can put these Astros in a position they’ve never been with the series moving to New York.

Four down, seven to go.

***

My book The Next Yankees Era: My Transition from the Core Four to the Baby Bombers is now available as an ebook!

I wanted Luis Severino to start Game 1 of the ALDS. He’s the Yankees’ best pitcher, and right now, it’s essentially early April for his arm, which is when he’s his most dominant without a season’s worth of starts, innings and fatigue. The Yankees decided to pitch him in Game 3, and after winning the first two games of the series, the Yankees were sending their best starting pitcher to the mound with a chance to advance to the ALCS.

I didn’t care if Severino pitched three innings or seven innings in Game 3, I only cared about zeros. The amount of outs and innings he gave the Yankees was secondary to the amount of zeros he could give them with the bullpen well rested after essentially having Game 2 off and an off day on Sunday. Give the team zeros like he did in the 2018 American League Wild-Card Game and everything would be fine.

In the first two games of the series, I was worried for a total of three-and-a-half innings. The first two-and-a-half innings of Game 1 when the Yankees trailed 2-0, the top of the fifth in Game 1 when the Twins tied the game at 3 against Paxton and the top of the first in Game 1 when Tanaka had two baserunners on. Aside from those innings, the Yankees had the lead in the first two games. In Game 3, I was worried in the first inning, was able to calm down in the second after Gleyber Torres hit a solo home run in the top half and then was in full panic mode in the bottom half.

Severino gave up a double to Eddie Rosario, walked Mitch Garver and allowed a single to Luis Arraez. In 10 pitches, Severino had loaded the bases with no outs and I started to have flashbacks to Game 3 of the 2018 ALDS when he was inexplicably late to warm up for the game, had no command of his pitches and left with a bases-loaded, no-out jam (and the bases would clear when Aaron Boone mismanaged his bullpen). As anti-Yankees fan John Smoltz, whose Hall of Fame career is full of blemishes against the Yankees, tried to will the Twins to at least tie the game with the advantageous situation, Severino buckled down, found his command and took back control of the inning. An eight-pitch battle with Miguel Sano resulted in an infield pop-up for the first out and hardest out of the situation to record. A quick four-pitch slider barrage struck out Marwin Gonzalez swinging and then it was former Yankee Jake Cave’s turn to try to save the inning for the Twins and put the Yankees on the defensive for the first time since early in Game 1. Severino won that matchup as well, striking out Cave, and ending a 30-pitch inning for his second straight zero of Game 3.

Brett Gardner (also known as the “3-hitter”) provided a two-out RBI single in the third to give the Yankees and my blood pressure a cushion to work with. I figured Severino getting through the bottom of the second unscathed would allow him to settle down, but it didn’t as he had to escape another two-on, two-out jam in the third. It wasn’t until the fourth inning when Severino looked like himself, getting ahead in counts and attacking before his back was against the wall. The fourth inning was Severino’s only 1-2-3 inning of the game, and it ended up being the Yankees’ only 1-2-3 inning of the game, but after laboring through the first three, Severino wasn’t going to be allowed to face the Twins’ order for a third time.

Severino followed the Yankees’ Postseason Formula for Success: he gave them 12 outs. He had done his job and with everyone available in the bullpen (I hate even writing that since everyone should be available every game in the postseason, but this is the Yankees we’re talking about), four scoreless innings was more than enough to help send the Yankees to the ALCS.

When Severino exited the game, the Yankees held a two-run lead, and that meant Aaron Boone would actually have to manage the bullpen in a close game and would have an impact on the series for the first time. The routs in Games 1 and 2 had saved the Yankees and Yankees fans from finding out if their manager had learned from his mistakes which helped eliminate the Yankees a year ago, but in Game 3, beginning in the fifth inning, Boone would have a say on how the game would end.

Knowing he would need to get 15 outs from the bullpen, Boone got two outs from Tommy Kahnle (who I continue to lack trust in and who luckily got a line drive off the wall and another line drive hit directly at Gardner), let Adam Ottavino face one batter (Yankees ownership can’t be too happy that they’re paying Ottavino $9 million per season and their manager doesn’t allow him to face more than one batter) and then got the final out of the fifth from Chad Green. It took Boone three of his elite relievers to get three outs, and there were still 12 outs to get. Boone was creating a recipe for disaster with his bullpen management, and if Green wasn’t able to pitch the entire sixth or Zack Britton proved ineffective in the seventh or eighth, either J.A. Happ, Jonathan Loaisiga, Luis Cessa or Tyler Lyons would have to pitch in a game that could send the Yankees to the ALCS.

Green was able to get through the sixth, but Boone’s fifth-inning managing blunder reared its ugly head in the seventh. Knowing he only had Britton and Aroldis Chapman remaining of his elite relievers, Boone tried to sneak at least another out of Green in the seventh. There’s no sneaking outs in the playoffs though, and C.J. Cron singled to lead off the inning. (Thankfully, Didi Gregorius had extended the Yankees’ lead to 3-0 in the top of the inning.) With nine outs and two elite relievers left, Boone went to Britton and he closed out the seventh.

There were signs between the seventh and eighth that Britton might have gotten hurt as he went down the dugout tunnel. A few minutes later he reappeared in the dugout to comfort Yankees fans as Lyons began warming up in the event Britton couldn’t go. Britton gave up a solo home run on an 0-2 pitch to begin the eighth, but rebounded to get Garver to ground out before Steve Donahue had to make his way to the mound to check on Britton. Whatever was going on after the seventh hadn’t gone away, and Britton had to leave the game. (Did anyone think the Yankees could get through three postseason games without losing another player to injury?) Boone turned to Chapman, his last elite arm in the bullpen, to get the final five outs of the game and hopefully the series.

Chapman entered Game 3 having appeared in two games and having thrown 27 pitches in the last 12 days. Given his history of poor performance with infrequent use, I was more than worried. If Chapman couldn’t close out the game, the Yankees would either lose with him on the mound or go extra innings with only Happ, Loaisiga, Cessa and Lyons available. If Chapman wasn’t on, there would be a Game 4.

Chapman got the last two outs of the eighth, and then like they did in Game 5 of the 2017 ALDS, the offense went and provided insurance in the ninth. Cameron Maybin homered in his only at-bat after coming into the game as a defensive replacement for Giancarlo Stanton. Maybin entered the game with the best career history of anyone on the Yankees against Jake Odorizzi, but it would be Sergio Romo who he would get to face and homer off of. A Torres double, steal of third and Gregorius single gave the Yankees another insurance run, and with a four-run lead for the bottom of the ninth, I could smell the ALCS.

Chapman farted on the sense-pleasing smell of the ALCS when he allowed a single on an 0-2 pitch to Gonzalez to begin the ninth and then walked Cron. The Twins were turning over their lineup and had the tying run in the on-deck circle. If Nelson Cruz came to the plate as either the tying or winning run I felt like I would have a heart attack and not get to experience the Yankees’ trip to the ALCS, if they were still able to get there. Chapman struck out Max Kepler for the first out of the inning and then Jorge Polanco ripped a line drive to short, which off the bat looked like it would be a run-scoring hit and my fear of Cruz coming up as the tying run would come to fruition. Gregorius dove to his left and laid out to catch the line drive for the second out. Even if Cruz were to hit a home run, the Yankees would still have the lead. Cruz didn’t homer. Instead, he took the fifth pitch of his at-bat for a called third strike to end the game and the series.

The win was the Yankees 13th straight over the Twins in the postseason, having now eliminated them six times in the last 17 years. The Yankees outscored the Twins 23-7 in the three games, only allowing three solo home runs to the team with the most single-season home runs in history. The Yankees received production from each third of the lineup, and even their bench with Maybin’s Game 3 home run. The starting pitching pitched to this line: 13.2 IP, 12 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 4 BB, 19 K, 2 HR, 2.63 ERA, 1.170 WHIP. The bullpen pitched to this line: 13.1 IP, 10 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 7 BB, 16 K, 2 HR, 2.03 ERA, 1.275 WHIP. Boone’s bullpen decisions, while not necessarily the most sound, all worked out. It was as close to a perfect ALDS as you could ask for, and because of that, it resulted in a sweep.

There should be an ALDS MVP. If teams are going to celebrate the way they do after winning the ALCS or World Series, then there should be an MVP for the ALDS as well. Torres was the ALDS MVP. He gave the Yankees the lead for good in Game 1 with his two-run double, and in Game 3, he set the tone and gave the Yankees the lead with his second-inning solo home run, prevented a rally with his sliding play in shallow right field and also added two doubles in the series-clinching win. After looking overmatched and overwhelmed in last year’s postseason, Torres batted .417/.462/.917 in this ALDS with three doubles, a home run and four RBIs. Again, he’s 22 years old.

As much as the bullpen can use these next four days off to rest for the ALCS, I can use these four days off to rest for the ALCS as well. Each postseason win means at least one more Yankees game for the season, and the ALDS win means at least four more Yankees games this season. There will be plenty of time to think about the ALCS, envision how it will play out, complain about the potential lineup and rotation and wonder how the Yankees are going to get back to the World Series for the first time in a decade. For now, it’s time to rest and celebrate an ALDS sweep.

Three down, eight to go.

***

My book The Next Yankees Era: My Transition from the Core Four to the Baby Bombers is now available as an ebook!

I wasn’t worried about Game 2 as I walked into Yankee Stadium on Saturday. Because of the quick turnaround with the 5:07 p.m. start, I was a little tired and still a little hungover, but I was as confident about the Yankees as I was when I left the Stadium less than 18 hours earlier. After watching the Twins have trouble beating the Replacement Yankees during the regular season and after watching the Twins unsuccessfully use their best starter in Game 1, I couldn’t have been more calm and more relaxed before a postseason game. But what had me feeling great about Game 2 was the Twins’ decision to start a rookie with 28 1/3 career innings to his name and less-than-desirable strikeout numbers against this Yankees lineup in New York.

Everyone knows Randy Dobnak’s story at this point: an undrafted independent league pitcher who was driving for Uber and Lyft before getting a chance with the Twins. And for anyone at the Stadium who didn’t know it, they found out as the crowd serenaded Dobnak with “U-BER … U-BER … U-BER” chants throughout his two-plus innings of work. My expectations for the Yankees to solve Dobnak — who they had never seen — were quickly met in the first inning when D(erek) J(eter) LeMahieu doubled to lead off the game and Aaron Judge followed with a walk. Two batters later, Edwin Encarnacion drove in LeMahieu with a single, the Yankees had the lead and Dobnak had thrown 19 pitches, recorded one out and was already trailing with two men still on base. Dobnak escaped the first inning without further damage and pitched around two, two-out singles in the second, but in the third inning, facing the lineup for a second time after it had already had success against him the first, things unraveled for the right-hander.

Nine pitches into the third, Dobnak had loaded the bases with no outs after Judge singled, Brett Gardner walked and Encarnacion singled. Dobnak was removed from the game with his team trailing by one and still responsible for all three runners on base. Tyler Duffey, arguably the Twins’ best reliever, and one of their “elite” arms, which were said to be elite enough to go toe-to-toe with the Yankees’ relievers prior to the series entered for the second straight night, and for the second straight night, made sure his teammate got tagged with his inherited runners.

Giancarlo Stanton had a productive at-bat with a sacrifice fly to make it 2-0 and then Gleyber Torres came through with an 0-2 single to make it 3-0. Gary Sanchez got hit by an 0-2 pitch to reload the bases, bringing up Didi Gregorius, who struggled all season after returning from Tommy John surgery to the point it was a legitimate question if the Yankees were better off with Torres at short and Gregorius on the bench rather than playing with an automatic out in the lineup.

Two years after Gregorius saved the Yankees’ season in the first inning of the 2017 wild-card game against the Twins, he was about to put the Twins’ historic 101-win season on the brink of elimination. Gregorius fell behind Duffey 0-2, but battled to extend the at-bat by three more pitches. The third pitch ended up in the second deck in right field for a grand slam to give the Yankees a 7-0 lead. With one out in the bottom of the third, Game 2 was over.

It was over because for the second straight game, the offense had exploded. Finishing Game 2 with eight runs, the Yankees had produced 18 runs in two postseason games, a ridiculous number, and a number that isn’t supposed to be possible at this time of year. But the game was also over because Masahiro Tanaka, the most trusted Yankees postseason pitcher once again stepped up in October.

There was a lot of concern and a lack of trust for Tanaka entering the postseason because of another inconsistent regular season (though his numbers were marred by two awful starts) and because his 1.80 career postseason ERA was being attributed by many as luck. His postseason career FIP was in line with his regular-season career FIP, and therefore, his much lower ERA was being called a result of luck. It couldn’t be because Tanaka is a much different pitcher in the biggest games. It couldn’t be because Tanaka thrives on the postseason stage, never having allowed more than two earned runs in a postseason start. It had to be because of luck.

In Game 2, Tanaka pitched to this line: 5 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 7 K. A night after James Paxton was oddly being heralded as having pitched well (4.2 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 8 K, 2 HR) against a vaunted Twins lineup, Tanaka actually did pitch well, dominating the all-time, single-season home run team. I’m not sure how many impressive postseason starts it will take Tanaka for Yankees fans to unanimously accept he’s a different pitcher in October, or maybe he will just continue to be the luckiest postseason pitcher of all time.

Tanaka didn’t need to be his dominant October self in Game 2, considering the performance the offense put together, but he was anyway. The lone run against him came when Mitch Garver weakly tapped a ground ball to a vacated second base with Torres shifting on the left side of the infield. And with two on and one out in the fourth, the Twins trailing 8-1 and trying to get back into the game, Tanaka struck out Luis Arraez and Miguel Sano on a combined eight pitches to end the inning. In his last inning of work in the fifth, he pitched a perfect, 10-pitch frame, before handing the ball off to the bullpen for the sixth, in order to not face the heart of the order for a third time.

The win improved the Yankees to 15-2 against the Twins in the postseason with the two losses coming in 2003 and 2004 and against Johan Santana. But throughout all the postseason meetings against the Twins, the Yankees never easily or handily beat them the way they have in the first two game of this ALDS. Whether it was overcoming 0-1 series deficits to Santana, or needing Alex Rodriguez to single-handedly win a game or Ruben Sierra to hit a massive late-game home run or Joe Nathan to implode in the ninth inning or Lance Berkman to create a comeback or Gregorius to save the season, the Yankees have always beat the Twins, but they have always had to truly work for it and put a scare into the entire fan base on their way to winning. Games 1 and 2 this have both resulted in eventual laughers.

I have been worried for three-and-a-half innings in this series. The first two-and-a-half innings of Game 1 when the Yankees trailed 2-0, the top of the fifth in Game 1 when the Twins tied the game at 3 against Paxton and the top of the first in Game 1 when Tanaka had two baserunners on. Aside from those innings, the Yankees have held the lead for the entire series.

The Yankees have won the first two games of the postseason the way any team wins in the postseason: timely hitting and great pitching. Though they didn’t necessarily get “great” pitching in Game 1, they got “good enough” pitching and more than enough timely hitting to make up for it. The pitching staff has held the second-best offense in baseball this season and the top home run-hitting team in baseball history to six runs in two games. They are getting production from each third of the lineup, and have scored 18 runs in 16 innings without either Stanton or Sanchez getting a hit yet. The best part of it all is the offense has taken Aaron Boone and any wild in-game managerial stunts he might pull completely out of the series. The first two games couldn’t have gone any better for the Yankees.

The series isn’t over yet, but it’s close to being over. The Twins used their best starting pitcher in Game 1 and lost. The Yankees have their best starting pitcher going in Game 3 with a chance to advance to the ALCS.

Two down, nine to go.

***

My book The Next Yankees Era: My Transition from the Core Four to the Baby Bombers is now available as an ebook!