The Yankees didn’t have a lot of hits on Sunday afternoon, but the few they did get they made them count.
Aaron Judge drove in the winning runs in the bottom of the 10th to lead New York to a 6-3 win over the Houston Astros. It was the 22nd comeback win this season and the second time in the series that they did so.
Judge had played the hero on Thursday night as well.
The Yankees superstar sent a blistering homer to left field after New York got two runners on base with two outs. Judge was able to get a hold of an 0-1 sinker for the winning hit.
“This is what it’s all about right here,” Judge said during his postgame interview with YES Network. “These fans stuck with us the whole game. Even after last night’s loss, but the guys in front of me working great at-bats. … Just a great team win right here.”
Sunday afternoon’s game followed a familiar trend for the Yankees, who have tended to play close games this season. Going into the final game of the series, New York had 50 of their 72 games decided by three or fewer runs this season.
The win prevented the Yankees from dropping three straight games for just the second time this year.
The comeback started in the seventh when the Yankees finally broke their hitless streak when Giancarlo Stanton hit a solo home run to cut their deficit to 3-1. The home run was Stanton’s 17th of the season and ended a stretch of 17.1 innings in which the Bronx Bombers failed to get a single hit.
The solo shot sailed into the left-field stands after Astro’s starter Jose Urquidy left a fastball hanging right over the plate for Stanton to drill on the first pitch of the at-bat.
The Yankees tied the game at three one inning later when DJ LeMahieu sent a two runs blast to left field. Isiah Kiner-Falefa singled two batters earlier and LeMahieu sent a 1-2 curveball into the stands to drive the tying runs home.
It was LeMahieu’s seventh home run of the season.
Urquidy carried a no-hitter into the eighth inning and looked as though he might help his team become the first in Major League Baseball history to post keep a team hitless in consecutive games. The Astro’s starter struck out three and gave up one run.
Yankees starter Nestor Cortes threw five innings on Sunday before Miguel Castro came into the game in relief. It was the second consecutive start that Cortes had allowed at least three runs, but the lefty struck out seven in the 85-pitch outing.
Jose Altuve was quick to put the Astros on the board in the first inning, He sent a Cortes fastball sailing into the left-field stands on the first pitch of the game
It was his seventh leadoff homer of the season, tying Altuve for the league lead.
The Astros extended their lead to three in the top of the fourth inning. Cortes got the first two batters of the inning out, but Yuli Gurriel singled to reach base and Jeremy Pena hit a line-drive double to put runners in scoring position.
Mauricio Dubon hit a line-drive single to center field that drove in Pena and Gurriel.
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The game was delayed roughly 10 minutes in the third inning after home plate umpire Mik Muchlinski left the game. Muchlinski had been hit in the face by a ball on the second pitch of the game and had to be looked at by a trainer.
Muchlinski remained in the game calling balls and strikes until the middle of the third, when he left and crew chief Todd Tichenor took over. The rest of the game was played with three umpires.
Yankees’ second baseman Gleyber Torres left the game in the ninth after he suffered an ankle injury.
