With the New York Yankees trailing 7-2 entering the eighth, Luke Voit led a late game charge by hitting a two run home run, followed by an RBI double by DJ LeMahieu for his third hit of the game. Quickly after, Clint Frazier hit a sacrifice fly to deep right field that was just feet from leaving the yard. This brought the Yankees to within one.
But, the Yankee bullpen didn’t help any. Zack Britton gave up a run in the bottom of the inning, killing the rally. The Yankees came up with nothing in the ninth, losing to Houston 8-6.
Paxton roughed up
It didn’t take long for the Yankees to get on the board. Brett Gardner hit a leadoff home run off Collin McHugh, the Houston starter. But the bottom of the inning was all Houston, with a home run by Jose Altuve and an RBI triple by Yuli Gurriel. Then, Carlos Correa doubled in a run in the third, before the Astros pulled away.
The Yankees scored a run in the top of the fourth thanks to a sacrifice fly by DJ LeMahieu, but come the fifth, Jose Altuve homered (again), as well as a home run by Carlos Correa. An infield single by Jake Marisnick would make it 7-2, and Paxton was pulled in the midst of it.
In 4+ innings, Paxton gave up eight hits, five runs, and struck out five while walking three. He threw 95 pitches and gave up two home runs. Paxton got first pitch strikes to 13 of his 21 batters faced. He got just one ground ball all night, meaning he was quite off.
LeMahieu is proving the haters wrong
A lot of people said that DJ LeMahieu can only hit in Colorado. So far, he’s told those people otherwise. He is hitting .410 so far with 16 hits in 39 at-bats.
He is currently second in AL average, only to Tim Anderson of the White Sox who comes in town on Friday.
Game one against the White Sox is at 7:05PM on YES Network and FOX Sports Go. JA Happ gets the ball for the Yankees against Lucas Giolito of the White Sox.