The Yankees' season keeps coming down to pitcher Gerrit Cole.
New York’s offense has been reliant on home runs throughout the postseason, scoring 18 of 24 runs on 11 long balls. It’s no change from the season, when the Yankees drove in a major league-high 50.8% of their runs on homers — the big league average was 39.8%.
Contact has been lacking: The Yankees are hitting .138 in the two games against the Astros and have struck out 30 times to Houston’s eight, dropping New York’s batting average to .169 in seven postseason games. The Yankees have had six hits or fewer in nine straight games dating to the last two games of the regular season at Texas.
New York has thrown just 13 pitches all year when leading the Astros — all by Jameson Taillon in the second inning of Game 2. While the Astros went 5-2 against New York during the regular season, the Yankees’ only leads were on walk-off hits by Aaron Judge.Cristian Javier or Lance McCullers Jr. is likely to start Game 3 for the Astros, seeking their fourth AL pennant in six seasons — and their third ALCS win over the Yankees in that span.
Both Guardians homers, by Steven Kwan and Josh Naylor, were solo shots — during the season Cole gave up eight two-run homers and seven three-run drives. He dominated other than the long balls, with a 2.03 ERA, 16 strikeouts and three walks.Houston put up a crooked number against Luis Severino when Alex Bregman hit a three-run homer on a third-inning fastball he didn’t elevate enough.