ALCS Game 1: Astros belt three homers to beat Yankees at home
LAST TIME:
This is the first time that the Astros have won a playoff game since June 13, 2013 — and the first time a team that wasn’t in the playoffs won in 17 years.
The Yankees were 4-3 winners after scoring more runs in the first inning than all of the Astros starters combined in the season series.
Houston led, 1-0 after six innings before the Yankees broke the game open.
The Astros wasted no time making Texas the latest team they’ve ripped apart at home this postseason, taking advantage of starter Justin Verlander’s first start since Aug. 31, a span of five scoreless innings, including 6 1-3 shutout innings.
Houston starter Chris Devenski (1-0, 4.10 ERA) had allowed only six hits and one walk in his five starts.
“My plan was to throw a lot of pitches and be aggressive when they were in the game,” said Devenski, who struck out seven in 5 2-3 innings. “We’re not going to give up runs easy, we’re gonna throw hard when we’re on, but we’re not going to give up home runs either.”
A few days earlier, the Astros dropped a 3-0 decision at Yankee Stadium to the Yankees, but the first playoff game has been closer than that.
“I feel like a little bit of the excitement is going to translate to this ballpark,” said Astros manager Bo Porter, a former Yankees pitcher. “This has been close. We got on early in this series and obviously we were able to hold them to one run.”
It was the first of the Astros four-game road trip, which also includes games in Texas, Boston, Atlanta and St. Louis. The Yankees are heading back to Yankee Stadium on Saturday to face the Blue Jays.
“A lot of that goes back to the fact you can’t be nervous,” Devenski said. “You’ve got to go out there and believe in yourself and enjoy it, and that’s what I was trying to do tonight.”
While the Astros won, it wasn�
