When Justin Verlander was laboring and needed 45 pitches to get through two innings on Wednesday, Astros manager Dusty Baker was worried he would have to go to his bullpen early, but the veteran ace buckled down and found a groove, striking out 11 in six strong innings to lead Houston over the New York Yankees 4-2 in their American League Championship Series opener.
“This guy, he has mental toughness,” Baker said. “When he’s down and out, and it looks like you got him in trouble, this guy, he can dial it up.”
Yuli Gurriel launched a tiebreaking homer for Houston in the sixth inning.
Photo: AFP
Chas McCormick and Jeremy Pena also went deep as the AL West champions improved to 4-0 in the playoffs after going 106-56 during the regular season.
The Astros are in their sixth consecutive ALCS, looking to reach the World Series for the fourth time in that span, against a New York team in the ALCS for the first time since being eliminated by Houston in 2019.
The game was tied 1-1 when Gurriel connected off reliever Clarke Schmidt for a solo shot into the left-field seats to put Houston on top. Two batters later, McCormick sent a sinker from Schmidt into right field to make it 3-1.
Photo: EPA-EFE
“I didn’t do my job today,” Schmidt said.
Verlander set a major-league record with his eighth double-digit strikeout game in post-season play. He passed Clayton Kershaw (213) to become the career leader in post-season strikeouts with 219.
“As the game’s going along, you just gain more confidence as you start making better pitches,” Verlander said. “Once I started being able to execute my pitches the way I wanted, I feel like my confidence just kind of built upon that.”
Photo: Thomas Shea-USA TODAY
Pena belted a homer off Frankie Montas to start the seventh and extend the lead to 4-1.
Anthony Rizzo homered off Rafael Montero with two outs in the eighth to get the Yankees within two.
Giancarlo Stanton singled before Josh Donaldson walked, spurring Baker to bring in closer Ryan Pressly, who struck out Matt Carpenter to end the inning and pitched a 1-2-3 ninth to get the four-out save.
After struggling in Game 1 of the ALDS against the Seattle Mariners, Verlander looked shaky early in this one, giving up a second-inning homer to Harrison Bader that put the Yankees up 1-0, but the Astros tied it in the bottom half on an RBI double by Martin Maldonado.
The Yankees had runners at second and third with one out in the third after a double by Stanton, but Verlander struck out Donaldson and Carpenter to escape the jam.
“I gave it everything I had to try to get a couple strikeouts and was able to do that,” Verlander said. “Then from there, that kind of mentality, just keep making your pitches and a couple adjustments that I was able to make fairly quickly on the off-speed stuff really paid off.”
Those were the first of six consecutive strikeouts for Verlander, which matched a post-season record.
PADRES-PHILLIES
AP, SAN DIEGO
The San Diego Padres on Wednesday produced another huge rally in front of their rowdy fans to put some punch into the all-wild-card matchup in the National League Championship Series, with Brandon Drury hitting a go-ahead, two-run single during a five-run outburst in the fifth inning to stun Aaron Nola and the Philadelphia Phillies 8-5 and tie the series 1-1.
“You go into their place, which is probably going to be as spirited as ours is, down 2-0 and that’s an uphill battle,” Padres manager Bob Melvin said.
“We go into Philly for three and it’s a big game,” Drury said. “We’ve got to fight and we did. It’s huge.”
The fifth-inning surge started with Padres catcher Austin Nola hitting an RBI single off his younger brother that brought the sellout, towel-twirling crowd of 44,607 to life.
Three innings earlier, the Phillies took a 4-0 lead with a rally that included bloop hits, a sun-aided double and some shoddy Padres defense.
“We need to continue to build that confidence,” said Austin Nola, the No. 9 batter. “That’s what we talked about all year. That identity is never giving up, never giving in. Every inning we’re putting pressure on the other team to score and it’s paying off.”
Drury and Josh Bell hit back-to-back homers for the Padres, while Manny Machado went deep late.
Blake Snell got the win and Josh Hader the save after striking out the side in the ninth to send the crowd into a frenzy.
Aaron Nola took the loss.
The Padres appeared to be in deep trouble after Snell threw 37 pitches in the Phillies’ four-run second, but San Diego began their comeback with homers on consecutive pitches by Drury and Bell to open the bottom of the inning.
Drury lined a shot to left field and Bell lifted a fly ball deep to right that stayed just fair.
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