In the first inning in Minute Maid Park, it was Houston that immediately reached base again.
Houston-starter Justin Verlander retired the side (two strikeouts), then Luis Severino got two baserunners in the bottom of the first, but held the Astros scoreless.
With two outs, José Altuve singled and Carlos Correa walked, but they were left behind.
In the top of the second inning, the Yankees also got their first baserunner when Starlin Castro singled with two outs.
Verlander then closed with his fourth strikeout.
For Houston, Yulieski Gurriel led off with a walk, but (with one out) was eliminated in an inning-ending double play.
In the third inning, Houston-rightfielder Josh Reddick played an important role.
With one out, he caught a line drive from Chase Headley just in front of the wall.
When he would not have caught it, the ball probably would have hit the wall just below the yellow line for a double.
Hereafter, Brett Gardner doubled into the corner of rightfield and had a chance for a triple.
A throw from Reddick to short stop Carlos Correa to third baseman Alex Bregman followed resulting in a close play at third base.
Bregman tagged Gardner's arm just before he touched the base, but he was ruled safe initially by 3B Umpire Jerry Meals.
A challenge followed, the call was overturned, Gardner was out and the inning ended.
In the bottom of the third, Severino retired the side.
Houston opened the score in the fourth after Justin Verlander had retired the side in the top half.
With one out, Carlos Correa drove the ball into rightfield where it ended in the stands just out of reach for long rightfielder Aaron Judge.
An umpire review followed, as the ball was touched by a young fan to determine whether or not this was a homerun or fan-interference.
But the homerun was confirmed and so, the Astros led 1-0.
New York came alongside in the top of the fifth.
Verlander first struckout the first two hitters, but then gave up back-to-back doubles to Aaron Hicks and Todd Frazier, which made it an 1-1 score.
Frazier's hit was a ground-rule double after the ball got stuck in the fence in leftfield.
Frazier then stranded when next hitter Chase Headley lined out to centerfield.
In the bottom of the fifth, Tommy Kahnle took over the pitching from Severino.
He walked Alex Bregman with one out, but then was supported with a double play.
Justin Verlander continued his strong pitching in the top of the sixth inning.
This time, he struckout Brett Gardner and Aaron Judge, then got a flyout from Didi Gregorius to retire the side again.
...Carlos Correa homered and delivered a walk-off...
...RBI-double for Houston in Game 2...
...On the photo, he hits for Puerto Rico against the Netherlands...
...in the Semi-Final of the World Baseball Classic in March...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
In the bottom of the sixth, Kahnle also retired the side and closed with a strikeout for José Altuve.
The Venezuelan is currently the shortest active Major League-player at 5 feet, 6 inches, but with a .346 batting average, he was the best hitter in the entire Major League.
He led the American League in basehits (204), homeruns (24) and runs batted in (84) and became the league's best hitter for the second year in a row and third time in four years.
Altuve became the fifth player since 1947 to record four consecutive seasons with 200 or more basehits.
And he became the first player in history to lead a league in basehits alone four years in a row!
Ichiro Suzuki led the American League five years in a row (2006-2010), but in one season (2008), he was tied with Dustin Pedroia.
In the top of the seventh, Verlander struckout two more hitters, Gary Sánchez and Starlin Castro.
In between, he walked Greg Bird, but he stranded when a flyout ended the at bat.
In the bottom of the seventh, David Robertson became the new pitcher for the Yankees.
With two outs, he gave up a double into the leftfield-corner to Yulieski Gurriel, but he was left behind.
In the top of the eighth, Justin Verlander struckout the side!
With that, he raised his total to 13.
In Game 1, Dallas Keuchel had struckout ten hitters in seven innings to become the first Astros-pitcher since 1986 with a double-digit strikeout game in the postseason.
Keuchel became the third pitcher in club-history to do so, as Mike Scott and Nolan Ryan both did it during the 1986 National League Championship Series.
Scott struckout 14, throwing a complete game in the opener against the New York Mets.
In Game 5, Ryan struckout 12 in nine innings, but that game was won by the Mets 2-1 in twelve innings.
The Mets went on to the World Series, which it won against Boston Red Sox in what was the Series of the 'famous' ball through the legs of Boston's first baseman Bill Buckner.
Manager of the Mets that year was Davey Johnson, who several years later was the (Assistant) Manager of the Netherlands Baseball Team.
Verlander returned to the mound in the ninth and gave up an one-out single to Didi Gregorius, but he stranded on first base.
After Robertson had retired the Houston-side in the eighth, Aroldis Chapman took over the Yankee-pitching in the bottom of the ninth.
The hardthrowing lefthanded Cuban (99/100 mph) struckout lead-off hitter Josh Reddick, but then gave up a single to José Altuve.
Hereafter, Carlos Correa drove the ball into right-centerfield for a double, which sent Altuve around the bases.
On the throw back to short stop Didi Gregorius, Correa made a pop-up slide into second base.
That might have interfered Gregorius somewhat, while he threw the ball to catcher Gary Sánchez, who then lost control over the ball while Altuve slid across the plate to score the winning run on the walk-off RBI-double by Correa, who also had accounted for the first run with his homerun in the fourth inning.
With that, the Astros took a 2-0 lead in the Series and gave its Pitching Coach Brent Strom a happy 69th birthday.
On the other side of the field, Manager Joe Girardi was empty-handed on his 53rd birthday.
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Houston wins second game against Yankees on walk-off double
HOUSTON, Texas (USA) -
Houston Astros won Game 2 of the best-of-seven American League Championship Series against New York Yankees on Saturday-afternoon (October 14) with a 2-1 score on a walk-off double with one out in the ninth inning.
With this, Houston took a 2-0 lead in the Series.
Houston opened on Friday by also winning with a 2-1 score.
The Series now moves to The Bronx in New York, where Game 3 will be played on Monday.
Houston opened the score in the fourth inning on a homerun by Carlos Correa, but the Yankees came alongside in the fifth on a double by Todd Frazier.
With the score still tied at 1-1, Houston decided the game with one out in the bottom of the ninth when Correa delivered a walk-off, RBI-double.
Houston got a very strong outing from pitcher Justin Verlander, who went the distance and struckout thirteen hitters.