The Houston Astros dropped their series opener 12-4 to the New York Yankees on Friday night at Daikin Park. A rough first inning, defensive errors, and missed opportunities kept Houston from recovering.
What this game was not lacking was home runs. The Yankees sent four balls into the stands, and the Astros sent two, one of them coming from a former Yankee.
While Yordan Alvarez leads the league in home runs with 11 and Aaron Judge is right behind him with nine, out of the six homers hit last night, none of them came from the two players leading the league.
Lance McCullers Jr. gave up a total of three home runs in the second inning. First Jazz Chisholm Jr., then Ryan McMahon, and finally Jose Caballero.
But that wasn’t the end of the home runs for the Yankees. The ninth homer of the night came from Ben Rice. He added his ninth home run of the season, tying Aaron Judge for second in the league.
Even with all of these homers from the Yankees, Yordan Alvarez still leads the league with eleven.
As for the Astros and their home runs, catcher Yainer Diaz hit a solo home run, his second of the season.
Then later on, Braden Shewmake, a former Yankees system player, made his Astros debut in a matchup against his former organization. On his second pitch, he delivered a solo home run.
Despite the power display from both sides, the Astros were never able to keep pace with the Yankees’ offense.
The Astros will look to bounce back in the second game of the series Saturday, but they seriously need to step up their game to avoid another blowout.