{"id":201809,"date":"2025-09-05T08:15:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-05T08:15:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/201809\/"},"modified":"2025-09-05T08:15:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-05T08:15:07","slug":"yankees-survive-a-circus-at-houston-winning-their-series-against-the-astros","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/201809\/","title":{"rendered":"Yankees survive a circus at Houston, winning their series against the Astros"},"content":{"rendered":"

HOUSTON \u2013 Leaving here with a series win \u2013 by any means possible \u2013 was the Yankees\u2019 aim, and they accomplished that task against the AL West-leading Astros<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cDefinitely eventful,\u2019\u2019 said Yanks starter Carlos Rodon. \u201cA lot of stuff going on.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

But once closer David Bednar escaped his own ninth-inning drama and secured Thursday night\u2019s 8-4 victory, all the three-game, three-ring circus-y stuff was past tense.<\/p>\n

Now, the Yankees (78-62) have their full focus on the Toronto Blue Jays<\/a>, with a chance to make a dent in their three-game AL East lead beginning with Friday night\u2019s series opener in the Bronx.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, they\u2019re a really good club and we\u2019re excited to get after it with them,\u2019\u2019 manager Aaron Boone said of Toronto, winners of six of their last seven games against the Yanks.<\/p>\n

What counted most Thursday at Daikin Park was Fernando Cruz\u2019s huge strikeout of Jose Altuve to preserve a one-run lead in the seventh, and Trent Grisham\u2019s latest clutch homer \u2013 a three-run shot in the eighth \u2013 which was also his 100th career blast.<\/p>\n

What will linger, though, are familiar Yankee concerns about spotty defense (they made three more errors Thursday, with a fourth reversed by replay), guys playing out of position and relievers moving beyond the Circle of Trust.<\/p>\n

Yankees-Astros crazy finish Thursday night<\/p>\n

At least Bednar, on to protect a five-run lead, recovered after yielding a run and loading the bases in the ninth.<\/p>\n

Batting as the tying runs, both Carlos Correa and Christian Walker were struck out by Bednar to end it.<\/p>\n

Of course, Bednar \u2013 who hadn\u2019t pitched in five days \u2013 had to wait around another seven minutes while a bat controversy played out.<\/p>\n

Ex-Yankee Taylor Trammell\u2019s bat was the subject of scrutiny after his ninth inning double, when Boone alerted umpires to a large sanded-looking spot on his bat.<\/p>\n

After a while, the bat was confiscated but Trammell remained on second base, leaving a mystery as to the legality of that piece of lumber.<\/p>\n

That was just the last of a series of conferences for an umpiring crew besieged by strange occurrences and controversial calls.<\/p>\n

As the Yanks\u2019 relief corps unraveled late Wednesday, an 8-7 Astros\u2019 comeback win, Boone and reliever Devin Williams were ejected, with Boone in a hot-tempered fury at plate ump Brian Walsh.<\/p>\n

Yankees’ survive-and-advance mode at Houston<\/p>\n

Thursday night\u2019s third base umpire, Walsh ruled against the Yankees on a sixth inning play where surehanded third baseman Ryan McMahon appeared to snare a low liner by Altuve.<\/p>\n

In transferring the ball to his throwing hand, McMahon lost his grip and Walsh called it a no-catch \u2013 which led to an unearned run.<\/p>\n

McMahon blamed himself, saying \u201cI\u2019ve just got to make sure to squeeze it\u2019\u2019 before looking to double off the runner at second base, \u201cbut I do think I caught it.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

The play is not reviewable under MLB\u2019s replay rules, but Boone managed to hold it together while pleading his case in vain.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know. We overcame it,\u2019\u2019 said Boone, with help from starter Carlos Rodon.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was my turn to bail (my defense) out, and glad to do it,\u2019\u2019 said Rodon, charged with one run over six innings as the Yanks won a game he started for the sixth straight time.<\/p>\n

For a second consecutive night, the Yanks\u2019 bullpen flirted with detonating a three-run lead.<\/p>\n

In a key moment, Cruz got Altuve swinging through a filthy 3-and-2 splitter with runners at first and second, ending the seventh and preserving a 4-3 lead.<\/p>\n

“I\u2019m all about passion,” said Cruz, fired up by the huge strikeout. “We needed to win a series at this place.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Really gritty” Yankees win at a critical time<\/p>\n

Out of the No. 9 spot, McMahon drove in three runs on three hits, including a solo homer, and the Yanks overcame Yordan Alvarez’s second straight four-hit night and losing Jazz Chisholm Jr. (day-to-day) with knee bruises.<\/p>\n

Aaron Judge walked three times Thursday, as the Yanks won two of three games here without an RBI by their slugging MVP captain.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis took some months and some years off me, for sure,\u2019\u2019 Boone said with a weary smile after splitting the season series 3-3 with Houston.<\/p>\n

\u201cReally gritty, good performance by the guys, especially as (the Astros) started to come back, and how emotional (Wednesday) night was (in a) really tough loss.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HOUSTON \u2013 Leaving here with a series win \u2013 by any means possible \u2013 was the Yankees\u2019 aim,…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":201810,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5130],"tags":[80446,7951,591,62477,1540,10617,67721,10632,15915,31807,3189,12102,80447,7652,1890,7227,5914,1074,32141,1075,24255,80441,316,4345,2382,56484,5203,28438,32200,635,2228,50,5228,450,1457,1451,12100,10618,3704,32076,3190,62,1458,18912,65952,358,8790,1290,80452,1526,52282,3187,8414,2612,2386,636],"class_list":["post-201809","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-altuve","tag-astros","tag-baseball","tag-bednar","tag-blue","tag-carlos","tag-carlos-correa","tag-carlos-rodon","tag-christian","tag-christian-walker","tag-content","tag-content-sharing-ny-pro-sports","tag-correa","tag-david","tag-david-bednar","tag-devin","tag-devin-williams","tag-exclude","tag-exclude-from-home-front","tag-from","tag-front","tag-grisham","tag-home","tag-houston","tag-houston-astros","tag-jays","tag-jose","tag-jose-altuve","tag-mcmahon","tag-new","tag-new-york-yankees","tag-news","tag-ny","tag-overall","tag-overall-positive","tag-positive","tag-pro","tag-rodon","tag-ryan","tag-ryan-mcmahon","tag-sharing","tag-sports","tag-sports-news","tag-taylor","tag-taylor-trammell","tag-texas","tag-toronto","tag-toronto-blue-jays","tag-trammell","tag-trent","tag-trent-grisham","tag-tx","tag-walker","tag-williams","tag-yankees","tag-york"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201809","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=201809"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201809\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/201810"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=201809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=201809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=201809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}