Yankees Offense Disappoints In AL Wild Card Loss To Astros

The New York Yankees were a surprise Wild Card game host, as many people thought they would miss the postseason this season. Well, against the Houston Astros on Tuesday night, the Yankees didn’t look like they belonged in the postseason, as they were handled easily by the upstart Astros.

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The Yankees had everything lined up in their favor. Despite being in the Cy Young running for the 2015 season, Dallas Keuchel is nowhere near as dominant on the road as he is at home at Minute Maid Park. His 3.77 ERA on the road compared to 1.46 at home gave the Yankees some confidence coming into the game. Not only that, but the Yankees had their ace, Masahiro Tanaka, on the mound in the exact situation they brought him over from Japan for.

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But, for anyone who watched, you would have thought the game was being played in Houston. The young Astros went on the road and took down the Yankees with ease. Keuchel led the way on the mound, throwing six shutout innings with seven strikeouts and only three hits and one walk allowed. What made the performance even more impressive was that it came on three days rest; the first time Keuchel has pitched under those circumstances in his career.

It didn’t matter though, as the Yankees were befuddled by Keuchel all evening. He worked masterfully, taking advantage of what was a slightly bigger than average strike zone. The hits allowed were all singles and no Yankees baserunner got past second base. Carlos Beltran, Gregory Bird and Didi Gregorius were the only players to get hits for the Yankees against the dominating Keuchel.

Things didn’t get any easier against the bullpen, as Tony Sipp, Will Harris and Luke Gregerson combined for three shutout innings, allowing only one walk and striking out three. The Yankees have struggled mightily without Mark Teixeira against left-handed pitching, and it was no different tonight. Joe Girardi tried his best to get a lineup out there that could succeed, benching Jacoby Ellsbury in favor of Chris Young, but no one was able to get anything going against the possible Cy Young winner in Keuchel.

Keuchel continued his dominance over the Yankees this season, as he went 3-0 against them, throwing 22 innings with 28 strikeouts and no runs, surrendering only 12 hits and two walks.

Tanaka wasn’t horrible on the mound, but he wasn’t as sharp as Keuchel was. He labored through five innings, allowing four hits, three walks and two earned runs with only three strikeouts. Tanaka gave up two solo home runs, each on a first pitch of an inning, as Colby Rasmus and Carlos Gomez hit homers to lead off the second and fourth innings.

This was an extremely disappointing end to the Yankees 2015 season, but they have nothing to be ashamed of. This was a team that wasn’t expected to do much in the regular season, but they battled throughout and hosted a Wild Card game, something 20 other teams in the majors would have loved to do.

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