Quick Hits: Astros advance with 3-0 win over Yankees in Wild Card game
The Astros are going to the ALDS after shutting the Yankees out 3-0 in the AL wild-card game Tuesday night.
NEW YORK -- For the first time in franchise history, the Astros have advanced to the American League Division Series. They were in the National League for most of the team's history, remember. Houston walked into Yankee Stadium and shut out the Yankees in the AL wild-card game on Tuesday night (HOU 3, NYY 0).
Let's recap the win quick hits style.
Hero: Dallas Keuchel, who started on three days' rest. It was his first career start on short rest. The Yankees did force him to throw 19 pitches in the first inning, but Keuchel settled down and finished with six scoreless. He allowed three singles and one walk. That's all.
How did Keuchel do it? By masterfully working the edges of the zone. Home plate umpire Eric Cooper had a big zone, sure, but Keuchel and the Astros deserve credit for taking advantage. Billy Crystal sure wasn't happy:
Billy Crystal does not approve of tonight's strike zone. pic.twitter.com/ti4XilbQgE
— CBS Sports MLB (@CBSSportsMLB) October 7, 2015
Keuchel is an ace, a bona fide Cy Young contender, and aces take care of business even when they're on short rest. All things considered, Keuchel was masterful.
Goat: The Yankees offense. The team struggled to score runs at the end of the regular season -- they scored 44 runs in their final 14 regular season games (3.14 per game) -- and they mustered a whole bunch of nothing against Keuchel and various relievers. They had two runners reach second base and none reach third. Credit to Keuchel & Co., of course, but boy, total no-show job by the so-called Bronx Bombers.
Turning point: When Colby Rasmus hit Masahiro Tanaka's first pitch of the second inning out of the ballpark for a 1-0 lead. Tanaka looked sharp in the top of the first, Keuchel had to work a bit in the bottom half, and Yankee Stadium was electric. The Rasmus homer took the wind right out of the Yankees' sails.
The Astros have been pretty bad the last few seasons, so it's no surprise it has been a while since they had someone go deep in October:
Prior to Colby Rasmus, the last #Astros player to hit a postseason HR was future pitcher Jason Lane (Game 3 of 2005 WS off Jon Garland)
— Christopher Kamka (@ckamka) October 7, 2015
Jason Lane is a pitcher now! He allowed one run in 10 1/3 innings for the Padres last year, you know.
The Rasmus homer took the Yankee Stadium crowd out of it and gave Houston the momentum.
It was over when: Alex Rodriguez flew out to center with runners on first and second in the sixth inning. Keuchel's pitch count was starting to climb, and he was starting on three days' rest, so fatigue was a concern. So much so that manager A.J. Hinch went out to the mound to talk to his starter.
Rodriguez represented the go-ahead run and smoked a line drive in his previous at-bat -- George Springer made a nice running catch in the right field corner -- but Keuchel got him to fly out harmlessly. A-Rod got a good pitch to hit, he just missed out. That was New York's best chance to at least chip away at the 2-0 deficit, if not take the lead.
Next: For the Yankees, nothing. Their season is over. The Astros, meanwhile, are moving on to the ALDS. They open the best-of-5 ALDS against the Royals in Kansas City on Thursday.
















