Yankees 9, Astros 3, and it took a four-run seventh inning to make a tight game look like a laugher by the time it was over.
For six innings this one had the New York Yankees trading haymakers with Houston, tied at three, nobody pulling away. Then Cody Bellinger doubled with the game on the line, the bullpen let the whole thing get away from Bennett Sousa, and the Bombers turned a coin flip into a laugher in about fifteen minutes.
The Seventh Inning Got Away From Houston Fast
The Astros had every reason to like their chances entering the top of the seventh. George Lombard Jr.'s error let Jose Altuve score the tying run, Daulton Varsho ripped a double to put runners on second and third with nobody out, and for a few minutes it looked like Houston was about to take the lead outright.
Paul Blackburn didn't let it happen. He got Taylor Trammell on a fielder's choice that erased the runner at the plate, worked around a walk, then struck out Christian Vázquez and Jeremy Peña back to back to escape with the game still tied (still one of the uglier ways to blow a save opportunity and still walk away with the inning intact).
The Yankees made him look like a genius for it. Bellinger doubled home two to snap the tie, Spencer Jones singled in another, Jazz Chisholm Jr. added a double of his own, and by the time the inning ended it was 7-3. Four runs, three extra-base hits, one relief pitcher (Sousa) who never got out of the frame.
Bellinger Was the Difference, Rice Set the Tone
Bellinger's line doesn't jump off the page -- 1-for-5 with a double -- but it was the biggest positive swing of the night off any Yankees bat, and it came at the exact moment the club needed someone to answer Houston's threat with one of their own.
Ben Rice did his part earlier, too. Houston struck first when Altuve doubled in a run in the top of the first, and Rice answered immediately with a solo shot to right, his 35th homer of the season. He finished the night 1-for-2 with three walks and three runs scored, the kind of quietly disruptive game a leadoff bat is supposed to have.
Give Jazz Chisholm Jr. his due too. He went 3-for-3 with a double, a walk, and a stolen base, and he was on base or advancing a runner pretty much all night.
García Put an Exclamation Point on It
Luis García Jr. already had two hits by the time he stepped in against Enyel De Los Santos in the eighth. He made it three -- and turned a comfortable lead into a laugher with a two-run homer that pushed the score to 9-3. Three hits, three runs, one home run for a night's work. Nobody was going to catch the Yankees after that.
Elmer Rodríguez did the unglamorous work that made the whole night possible. Six innings, three runs, six strikeouts, and he kept Houston's lineup from ever pulling ahead by more than a run. No decision for him on the night, which feels like the pitching version of setting the table and then watching someone else eat the meal.
Blackburn Blows the Save, Gets the Win Anyway
Here's the part of the box score that's going to look strange to anyone who didn't watch it live: Paul Blackburn gets tagged with a blown save (his third of the season) and still walks away with the win. That's what happens when the run that ties the game scores on your watch, but your offense retakes the lead before you leave the mound. Baseball's scoring rules are weird sometimes. Blackburn will take it.
Bennett Sousa won't want to see the video. Seven batters faced, one out recorded, four runs allowed. That's the kind of relief appearance that gets replayed in bullpen meetings for the wrong reasons.
The win evens this series at a game apiece after Houston took the opener Tuesday, and it snaps the little one-game skid that came with that loss. The Yankees will need one more from this set tomorrow to walk out of the Bronx having taken two of three from a team still fighting for its own postseason life.
Jimmy writes the Bronx Pinstripes game recap after every Yankees game. Beat-reporter pacing, fan's heartbeat. He calls opposing players by last name and has no patience for dead-air innings.
