The Houston Astros are barely holding on to the division lead. There was a brief stretch where things were looking up, they'd climbed back to .500 and were leading the AL West. But that didn't last, they are still leading, but below .500.
The Yankees may not have Aaron Judge right now, but they are still the Yankees, and the Astros were a bit shaken up in more ways than one heading into this series. Between the ugly losses, firing their GM, Dana Brown, and Joe Espada being informed his contract would not be renewed, the organization has been rocked a bit.
As for their time in New York…
The Houston Astros held their own and took the series opener against the Yankees, winning 9-7. Somehow they were absolutely destroyed by the worst team in baseball just days earlier, but they kept the Yankees on their toes all night.
But Wednesday's game was a different story.
Here is a look at the game that dropped the Astros below .500.
For the Yankees, Elmer Rodríguez was on. He struck out Yordan Alvarez on a 98 mph fastball, the best hitter in the American League, and set the tone from there.
Ben Rice got the Yankees on the board with a leadoff homer in the first, and George Lombard Jr. added an RBI groundout to make it 2-0 before Houston had even settled in. Peter Lambert, coming off the worst start of his career, kept it a close game for a while and navigated through traffic the whole game.
But Rodríguez just kept rolling. It was the longest major league start of his career, and it was a good one. He allowed only three runs and three hits over six-plus innings. He walked off to a standing ovation from thousands of fans, his best start since coming up.
The Astros tied it at 3-3 in the seventh but couldn't push across the go-ahead run.
Sousa came in, and everything went downhill from there for the Astros. He loaded the bases, and Bellinger ripped a two-run double off the wall to put New York ahead 5-3.
Jones followed with an RBI single to make it 6-3, and Jazz Chisholm Jr. added an RBI double off the wall to make it 7-3.
De Los Santos came in and did his job. He finally put an end to a brutal inning, but his bad moment came in the eighth.
Luis García Jr. tacked on a two-run homer off De Los Santos in the eighth to make it 9-3, and that was that. Yankees win, 9-3.
On paper the Yankees are simply a better team, but the Astros can beat them and have. It is crucial they take the series finale, or the division lead will slip away.
