The 2019 ALCS ended when Jose Altuve hit a two-run walk-off homer off Aroldis Chapman in the bottom of the ninth inning of Game 6 and then did something that, at the time, seemed a little weird -- and three weeks later seemed like the smoking gun for the entire scandal. He grabbed his jersey. He looked at his teammates sprinting toward him, and he screamed at them. Don't rip it.
His wife, he would later say, didn't want him shirtless on national television.
Sure.
The Setup
The New York Yankees had won 103 games in 2019. They were favored by many to go to the World Series. They'd done it despite spending roughly half the summer without Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton, or Aaron Hicks -- three of their best hitters -- all missing significant time due to injuries that made the season feel like a walking MASH unit. They survived that. They won 103 games anyway. And they drew the Houston Astros in the ALCS, the same Astros who were quietly the most dominant team in the American League and who, it would later be alleged, had a significant advantage knowing what pitches were coming.
(We didn't know that part yet. That's the thing that makes this whole series so hard to revisit. You're watching it thinking it's just baseball. It wasn't just baseball.)
Game 1: Tanaka Shuts Them Down, Torres Buries Them
The series started beautifully. Masahiro Tanaka took the mound at Minute Maid Park and was surgical against one of the most dangerous lineups in baseball. The Yankees offense -- the healthy parts of it -- showed up.
Gleyber Torres was a 22-year-old second baseman who turned into a postseason monster. In Game 1 alone, he drove in five runs -- an RBI double in the fourth, a solo homer in the sixth, a two-run single in the seventh, an RBI groundout in the ninth. He became the youngest player in history to drive in five runs in an LCS game. The Yankees shut out the Astros 7-0 and went home to Houston thinking they had a team.
They had a team. They just weren't in a fair fight.
Game 2: Correa Ends It
James Paxton started Game 2 against Justin Verlander, and the game turned into exactly the kind of back-and-forth October grind that the Yankees needed to win in 11 innings to claim it. The Yankees and Astros went extra innings with the series on the line. And in the bottom of the 11th, Carlos Correa hit a walk-off homer off J.A. Happ -- first pitch -- to dead opposite field, into the right-field seats. Astros 3, Yankees 2. Series tied.
It was a brutal, completely on-brand Yankees loss. Paxton had given them a chance. Verlander had been beatable. The bullpen held deep into extras. And then Happ threw one pitch and it was over. (He was the ninth pitcher of the night. Of course it was Happ.)
Game 3: Gerrit Cole Beat the Team That Was About to Pay Him $324 Million
This is the one. This is the game that belongs in a very specific circle of hell for Yankees fans.
Gerrit Cole took the mound at Yankee Stadium for the Astros. He was 20-5 with a 2.50 ERA that year, had struck out 326 batters in the regular season, and was one of the two or three best pitchers on the planet. He knew the Yankees' hitters cold. He'd faced them during the regular season. He had their timing, their tendencies, everything.
He threw seven shutout innings. Seven strikeouts. Five walks -- he was a little off, honestly -- but the Yankees couldn't touch him even when he was leaving pitches over the plate. Luis Severino lasted 4.1 innings on the other end. Final: Astros 4, Yankees 1. Houston led the series 2-1.
Two months later, on December 11, 2019, the Yankees gave Cole a nine-year, $324 million contract -- the richest deal for a pitcher in baseball history. The man who just shut out their lineup at their own stadium was walking into their offices to take their money. It's genuinely funny if it happened to literally any other team.
Game 4: CC Sabathia's Last Innings
CC Sabathia had already announced he was retiring after 2019. He'd been on the roster, healthy enough to pitch in relief if needed. In Game 4, manager Aaron Boone called on him.
He threw 20 pitches. His fastball was sitting mid-80s -- a shell of the power arm that used to eat lineups alive. He got through an at-bat before his left shoulder subluxated, coming out of the socket. He was done. He walked off the field and never pitched again in the major leagues.
After the game, Sabathia said: "I told Amber last night that this was kind of the best way for it to end for me. I threw until I couldn't anymore."
The Yankees lost Game 4 by five runs. But the image of Sabathia in that dugout -- a 19-year career ending with a shoulder giving out in an ALCS game he had no business pitching in because there wasn't anyone better -- that's the thing that sticks. The Astros led 3-1.
Game 5: Paxton Gave Everything He Had
Down 3-1, the Yankees needed James Paxton to stand up. He did.
Paxton took the ball in a must-win Game 5 and went six innings against Justin Verlander, allowing just one run and striking out nine. DJ LeMahieu and Aaron Hicks both homered off Verlander in the first inning -- back to back, off one of the best pitchers alive, in a must-win game. Yankees 4, Astros 1. Series at 3-2. They were going back to Houston.
LeMahieu by this point had a .412 batting average in the series. Seven hits in 17 at-bats, every one of them clutch. He was the kind of hitter the Yankees weren't supposed to have -- they'd signed him on a whim, really, after Colorado couldn't get a deal done, and he'd become the best leadoff hitter in the American League. The best player in the series was a guy nobody expected to be the best player in the series.
Game 6: The Ninth Inning That Happened to Us
The Yankees trailed 4-2 heading into the top of the ninth at Minute Maid Park. 43,357 Astros fans were waving orange towels. Series over. The momentum was gone.
DJ LeMahieu stepped in against Roberto Osuna, the Astros' closer. Ten-pitch at-bat. He fouled off five of them. And then he hit a two-run homer over the right-field wall -- just past a leaping George Springer's outstretched glove -- and the Yankees had tied it. 4-4. Two outs, ninth inning, on the road, facing elimination. DJ LeMahieu had turned the lights back on.
Aroldis Chapman came out to close it in the bottom of the ninth. He got two outs. Then Springer worked a walk -- two balls, two strikes, Chapman couldn't put him away -- and up came Altuve.
Chapman threw two balls. Got a strike. Then left a slider up in the zone, 2-1 count, right in Altuve's wheelhouse. He hit it into the left-field seats.
Walk-off. Two-run homer. Series over.
Altuve rounded the bases. His teammates sprinted out of the dugout. He grabbed his jersey and screamed at them not to tear it off.
The Shirt, The Scandal, and Everything After
Twenty-four days later, on November 12, 2019, Ken Rosenthal and Evan Drellich at The Athletic published the story that broke baseball. The Astros had been stealing signs in 2017 -- cameras in center field, trash can bangs to alert hitters to off-speed pitches, a systematic scheme that the Commissioner's investigation would confirm ran through at minimum 2017 and 2018. Mike Fiers, a pitcher who'd played for the Astros, blew the whistle.
The Yankees had complained to MLB during the 2019 ALCS -- whistling sounds in Game 1, blinking lights beyond the center-field fence in Game 6. MLB had said they found nothing. The Astros' manager A.J. Hinch had mocked them for complaining.
GM Brian Cashman, after the investigation broke, said: "I definitely think it had an effect on things... without question. Certainly the Houston Astros were dealing with a distinct advantage more so than their opponents."
The formal sanctions covered 2017 and 2018. MLB never officially ruled the 2019 season part of the scheme. Some books have alleged it continued through the 2019 playoffs. Nobody proved it officially.
What's proven is this: the man who hit the most devastating home run in a generation of Yankees baseball grabbed his jersey and begged his teammates not to rip it off. And the reason he gave was that his wife didn't want him shirtless on TV.
Two years later, in 2021, after another walk-off against the Yankees, Altuve's teammates ripped his shirt off. (Maybe to prove there was nothing under it. Maybe to put the whole thing to rest. It didn't really put it to rest.)
The 2019 Yankees won 103 games. They had DJ LeMahieu. They had James Paxton in October. They had CC Sabathia going out on his shield. They ran into a team that, depending on what you believe, had a very significant edge.
And they lost on a 2-1 slider to a guy who didn't want his jersey torn off.
| Series Result | Astros 4, Yankees 2 |
| Game 1 (Oct 12) | Yankees 7, Astros 0 |
| Game 2 (Oct 13) | Astros 3, Yankees 2 (11 inn.) |
| Game 3 (Oct 15) | Astros 4, Yankees 1 |
| Game 4 (Oct 17) | Astros 8, Yankees 3 |
| Game 5 (Oct 18) | Yankees 4, Astros 1 |
| Game 6 (Oct 19) | Astros 6, Yankees 4 |
| DJ LeMahieu (series) | .412 through G5, Game 6 tying HR (9th inn.) |
| Jose Altuve (ALCS MVP) | .348, 2 HR, 3 RBI |
| Yankees 2019 Record | 103-59 |
Game 1: Yankees Dominate
Masahiro Tanaka shuts out the Astros as Gleyber Torres drives in five runs -- including a solo homer -- to become the youngest player in LCS history to reach that RBI total in a single game. Yankees 7, Astros 0.
Game 2: Correa Ends It in 11
Carlos Correa hits a walk-off homer off J.A. Happ on the first pitch of the 11th inning, erasing a hard-fought Yankees performance. Astros 3, Yankees 2. Series tied 1-1.
Game 3: Cole Shuts Down the Bronx
Gerrit Cole delivers seven shutout innings at Yankee Stadium -- the lineup he'll soon join for $324 million can't touch him. Luis Severino lasts 4.1 innings. Astros 4, Yankees 1. Houston leads 2-1.
Game 4: CC Sabathia's Final Pitch
CC Sabathia enters in relief, throws 20 pitches, and suffers a left shoulder subluxation mid-at-bat. He's done. He walks off on a golf cart in what becomes the final appearance of his 19-year career. Astros 8, Yankees 3. Houston leads 3-1.
Game 5: Paxton Refuses to Quit
James Paxton throws six innings of one-run ball, striking out nine. DJ LeMahieu and Aaron Hicks homer off Verlander in the first inning. Yankees 4, Astros 1. Series alive at 3-2.
Game 6: Altuve Breaks Everyone's Heart
DJ LeMahieu ties the game with a two-run homer off Roberto Osuna in the ninth inning. Then Aroldis Chapman walks George Springer with two outs, and Jose Altuve hits a 2-1 slider into the left-field seats. Walk-off. Altuve grabs his jersey and tells teammates not to rip it. Astros 6, Yankees 4. Houston advances.
The Athletic Breaks the Sign-Stealing Story
Ken Rosenthal and Evan Drellich publish their exposé based on whistleblower Mike Fiers. The Astros stole signs in 2017 using cameras and trash can bangs. The investigation that follows focuses on 2017-18. Everything that happened in October is suddenly cast in a different light.
The Yankees Sign Gerrit Cole
The Yankees give Gerrit Cole -- the man who shut them out in Game 3 two months earlier -- a nine-year, $324 million deal, the richest pitcher contract in baseball history at the time. He was always going to be a Yankee. They just had to get there.
Frequently Asked Questions
Did the Astros cheat in the 2019 ALCS against the Yankees?
The MLB investigation formally found evidence of the Astros' sign-stealing scheme covering the 2017 and 2018 seasons -- not the 2019 ALCS specifically. The Yankees had complained to MLB during the series (whistling in Game 1, blinking lights beyond the center-field fence in Game 6), but MLB found no wrongdoing at the time. GM Brian Cashman later said the advantage was real and had "an effect on things." Some books have alleged the scheme continued through the 2019 playoffs, but it was never officially confirmed by MLB's investigation. The question is still very much open.
What happened with Jose Altuve's shirt after the walk-off home run?
After hitting the walk-off homer off Aroldis Chapman, Altuve grabbed his jersey and begged his celebrating teammates not to rip it off -- a common post-walk-off tradition. He gave two explanations at different times: that he was too shy, and that his wife didn't want him shirtless on national television. After the Astros' sign-stealing scandal broke in November 2019, social media speculation centered on the idea that Altuve was hiding a buzzer under his jersey to receive stolen signs. MLB never found evidence of a buzzer. In 2021, after another walk-off against the Yankees, Altuve's teammates did tear off his shirt.
What were DJ LeMahieu's stats in the 2019 ALCS?
LeMahieu was the best hitter in the series through five games, batting .412 with seven hits in 17 at-bats. In Game 6, he hit a two-run homer off Roberto Osuna in the top of the ninth to tie the game at 4-4 -- one of the gutsiest at-bats (10 pitches, five foul balls) of the series. The tying run wasn't enough; Altuve ended it two half-innings later.
Was the 2019 ALCS CC Sabathia's last game?
Yes. CC Sabathia entered in relief during Game 4 and left mid-at-bat with a left shoulder subluxation. He threw 20 pitches -- his fastball was down to the mid-80s -- before the shoulder gave out. He never pitched in the major leagues again. Sabathia had already announced his 2019 retirement before the season began, and he said afterward: "I threw until I couldn't anymore." It was a hard way to go, but nobody would say it was wrong.
How did the New York Yankees get eliminated in the 2019 ALCS?
The New York Yankees lost the 2019 ALCS to the Houston Astros four games to two. The decisive Game 6 ended on Jose Altuve's two-run walk-off homer off Aroldis Chapman in the bottom of the ninth inning, moments after DJ LeMahieu had tied the game with a two-run homer off Roberto Osuna. The Yankees had won 103 games that regular season, their best mark since 2009.