2022 ALCS: Astros Sweep the Yankees

The final out was a groundout. Aaron Judge -- the man who hit 62 home runs, who turned down $213.5 million in April and earned $360 million for it -- tapped one back to the mound in the ninth inning and jogged down the first-base line as the Houston Astros finished their sweep of the New York Yankees. Season over. The greatest regular season in Yankees history since 1998 ended with four straight losses to the same team that has been dismantling this franchise's October for half a decade.

The 2022 ALCS wasn't a rivalry. It was a haunting.

The Setup

When the Yankees and Astros met in Houston on October 19th, there was more weight on this series than just the pennant. The 2022 Yankees had won 99 games. They'd clinched the AL East. They'd beaten the Cleveland Guardians in five ALDS games. And everyone -- fans, media, the players themselves -- understood that this was the year. Judge was a free agent in November. Gerrit Cole was at his peak. The lineup was loaded. If not now, when?

And then there was the other thing, the thing nobody could fully let go. In 2017, these same Astros cheated their way to a World Series while the Yankees watched, losing the ALCS 4-3 when Houston won Games 6 and 7 at home. In 2019, Jose Altuve ended another Yankees season with a walkoff homer in the bottom of the ninth in Game 6. The Altuve homer had its own conspiracy theories (his teammates tore his shirt before they could rip it off him, fueling sign-stealing speculation that was never officially proven for 2019). MLB had already confirmed what happened in 2017: trash cans, cameras, a whole infrastructure of cheating. The Yankees GM called it "illegal and horrific."

By 2022, Houston had a different roster and the scandal was two years in the rearview. But you don't forget getting beaten that way. You can't.

Game 1: Verlander Reminds Everyone He Still Exists

Justin Verlander was 39 years old in October 2022. He'd missed all of 2020 and almost all of 2021 recovering from Tommy John surgery. He came back in 2022 and won the AL Cy Young Award for the third time.

For six innings at Minute Maid Park, he reminded the Yankees of exactly who he was. He struck out 11. He passed Clayton Kershaw to become the all-time career postseason strikeout leader (219 career postseason Ks). At one point he struck out six consecutive hitters. The Yankees managed three hits and two runs and lost 4-2. Just one of those runs came off Verlander -- the bullpen gave up the other.

Jameson Taillon started for New York. He lasted into the third inning. (Jameson Taillon was the Yankees' Game 1 starter in an ALCS. Against Justin Verlander. With Aaron Judge's free agency hanging over everything. That's not a criticism -- that's just the reality of what this team was working with.)

Game 2: Framber Valdez and the Bregman Bomb

The Yankees had Luis Severino on the mound for Game 2. The Astros countered with Framber Valdez, a lefty who spins curveballs like he's trying to make them disappear. Valdez went seven innings. He allowed four hits. Both runs he gave up were unearned. The Yankees never scored earned runs off him.

Alex Bregman hit the shot that really hurt it. Two outs, two men on, third inning, Severino threw a fastball and Bregman turned on it for a three-run homer to left. 3-0 Astros. Valdez did the rest. Final: 3-2.

The Yankees were down 2-0 heading back to the Bronx, having scored a total of four runs in two games against two of the best left-handed pitchers in the American League. Not ideal.

Game 3: Gerrit Cole Said "I Got You"

This was the game. This was the moment where 2022 officially became a Yankees fans' recurring nightmare.

Second inning at the Stadium. Cristian Javier was making his first career postseason start -- the same Javier who'd thrown seven no-hit innings against the Yankees at Yankee Stadium in June. (The Astros kept sending the same torture artists back to the same venue. It felt personal.) Cole was on the mound for New York, coming off an ALDS in which he'd been dominant.

Vázquez hit a fly ball to right-center. Both Harrison Bader and Judge converged on it. Judge called for it, then gave way -- and Bader dropped it. Error. Judge took responsibility immediately after the game: "I was going to call him off and then I didn't, so that's on me."

Cole, standing on the mound, looked out at Bader, pointed at him, and signaled: I got you.

The very next batter, Chas McCormick hit a two-run home run into the seats. 2-0 Astros.

Cole had been absolutely, visibly sure he was going to escape it. He wasn't. (The "I got you" moment lived rent-free in Yankees fans' heads for weeks. We keep it there still.) The Yankees never scored a run. Javier went 5.1 innings, allowed one hit. Houston won 5-0. The Astros had a 3-0 series lead, and nobody in the Bronx had any reference point for coming back from that down 3-0 to this particular team.

Except Aaron Boone, who, the night before Game 4, had Chad Bohling send 2004 Red Sox comeback highlights to the team. He also FaceTimed David Ortiz into his pregame meeting. I understand the impulse. I truly do. It didn't work.

Game 4: The Lead, the Error, and the End

For a few innings, Game 4 felt different.

Nestor Cortes started for New York, groin injury and all -- his cutter had dropped from 86.9 mph in the regular season to 82.1 mph. But the Yankees didn't need him to be sharp early. They just needed him to survive long enough. In the second inning, they built a lead: Giancarlo Stanton stroked an RBI single, Gleyber Torres dropped a run-scoring blooper into center, Anthony Rizzo roped a two-out RBI double. Yankees up 3-0. The Stadium was loud in a way it hadn't been in days.

Then the third inning started looking less like Nestor Cortes and more like a man throwing a very sad baseball. Jeremy Peña hit a three-run homer off him. 3-3. Cortes exited. The Astros pushed ahead 4-3.

Rizzo tied it at 4 with a two-out single in the fourth. (He had a hell of a game in what turned out to be a losing cause.) And then, in the sixth, Harrison Bader -- who had dropped the ball in Game 3 -- hit his fifth home run of the postseason off Hector Neris to make it 5-4 Yankees. The crowd lost its mind. For one inning, it felt like the comeback was real.

It wasn't.

Seventh inning. Jonathan Loáisiga on the mound, trying to hold the lead. Peña hit a ball that screamed "double play" right at Gleyber Torres. Torres rushed the flip to shortstop Isiah Kiner-Falefa. Wide. Nobody out. Runners on base. Yordan Alvarez singled home the tying run. Bregman singled in the lead. 6-5 Astros.

Torres said afterward: "I think I rushed a little bit. I feel like it's my mistake."

The Yankees went quietly in the seventh, eighth, and ninth. The Astros won. The sweep was complete.

What It All Meant

Four games. Two earned runs off Verlander. Cole on the mound for Game 3 with a 3-0 lead against Javier and a dropped fly ball. Cortes pitching through a groin injury because there wasn't a better option. The lineup that had spent all summer terrorizing the American League -- Judge, Stanton, Torres, Rizzo, Benintendi -- went ice cold when Houston turned the real pitching on.

Jeremy Peña was named the ALCS MVP. He hit .353 with two home runs and four RBI in his rookie season. He'd replaced Carlos Correa at shortstop when Correa left for Minnesota in free agency, and he handled the moment so effortlessly it was almost insulting. (Peña also won a Gold Glove and became the first rookie position player to win World Series MVP when the Astros beat the Phillies. The guy was good. Infuriatingly good.)

Judge went 1-for-16 in the series. He struck out 27 times in the entire postseason -- an MLB record at the time. The man who hit 62 home runs couldn't get the ball out of the infield when it mattered most.

That's baseball, and it still doesn't make any sense.

The Coda: He Stayed Anyway

Six weeks after the Yankees took the field for the last time in 2022, Aaron Judge signed a 9-year, $360 million contract to remain in the Bronx. He became the 16th Yankees captain in franchise history -- the first since Derek Jeter. The Giants, Padres, and other teams put money on the table. Judge took the Yankees' offer.

So the man who had just experienced the worst postseason of his career, who watched the Astros celebrate on his field for the third time in six years, who went 1-for-16 in the biggest series of his life -- he looked at all of that and said: I want to be a Yankee.

The unfinished business was real. It's still real. But he chose to stay and finish it.

That counts for something.

Frequently Asked Questions

What were Aaron Judge's stats in the 2022 ALCS?

Judge went 1-for-16 with a .063 batting average, no home runs, and no RBI in four games. He struck out 27 times in the entire 2022 postseason, an MLB record at the time. It was the worst possible ending to the best regular season of his career (62 HR, .311 AVG, AL MVP).

Who won the 2022 ALCS MVP?

Jeremy Peña, the Houston Astros' rookie shortstop, won the ALCS MVP award. He hit .353 (6-for-17) with two home runs and four RBI in the four-game sweep. Peña later won the World Series MVP as well, becoming only the second rookie in MLB history to win both LCS and World Series MVP in the same postseason.

How many times have the Yankees and Astros played in the ALCS?

The New York Yankees and Houston Astros have met in the ALCS three times: 2017 (Astros won 4-3, later revealed to have stolen signs electronically), 2019 (Astros won 4-2, ending on Altuve's walkoff homer), and 2022 (Astros swept 4-0). The Astros won all three.

Why did the Yankees lose the 2022 ALCS?

The Yankees were swept in four games primarily due to poor pitching matchups and costly defensive miscues. Justin Verlander dominated in Game 1, Framber Valdez was immovable in Game 2, and a Harrison Bader error in Game 3 led directly to a Chas McCormick two-run homer off Gerrit Cole. A Gleyber Torres error in the seventh inning of Game 4 handed the Astros the lead for good. Aaron Judge went 1-for-16 in the series.

Did the Yankees ever win any games in the 2022 ALCS?

No. The New York Yankees were swept in four games by the Houston Astros, losing 4-2, 3-2, 5-0, and 6-5. The Yankees led 5-4 in Game 4 as late as the sixth inning before the Astros rallied to close it out.