Late-game heroics gave the Yankees a 5-3 win over the Houston Astros on Saturday night and their first 3-0 start to a season since 2003.
“Really gritty, the intensity and the compete factors have been excellent,” skipper
Aaron Boone said.
Oswaldo Cabrera continued his scorching start, connecting on a 1-2 Bryan Abreu fastball in the seventh inning for a two-run home run to tie the game at three. This coming after a four-hit performance the previous night.
Two outs later, Juan Soto launched a slider from the end of his barrel for an opposite-field home run to give the Yankees the go-ahead run — his first home run as a Yankee.
“He’s going to be one of those guys I’m talking about when I’m a granddad, that I got to
play with him,” Yankees starting pitcher Marcus Stroman said. “The way that he never gives away an at-bat is incredible.”
That much is true, as Soto has gotten on base seven times in his first 15 plate appearances with his new club.
Stroman, also a new Yankee in 2024, had a solid night in his team debut, going six innings on 101 pitches, giving up three runs (none earned) on four hits, while walking
two and striking out four.
“I felt pretty good,” Stroman said. “I think it’s a good way to start the season.”
“I thought [Stroman] was so sharp,” Boone added. “We [were] probably a couple plays away from him throwing six shutout [innings] and maybe him going even deeper in the game, so I thought he was pin-point. His misses were how he wanted them to be, he was spot on.”
His first inning was just that, a 1-2-3 inning where he induced a lineout, a flyout, and a strikeout in 10 pitches. The second spelled trouble when Yainer Diaz reached on a
throwing error from Cabrera and Jose Abreu was hit by a pitch to jam the bases with
only one out.
While Jeremy Peña grounded into a forceout, meaning it moved Diaz to third and left Peña at first, Mauricio Dubón’s bases-clearing double gave the Astros the 2-0 lead.
Before Stroman’s night was over, the Astros had one more to rally against him. Dubón
grounded out, but the bats picked up again with Victor Caratini and Jose Altuve’s
back-to-back singles. Yordan Alvarez hit a ground ball to Anthony Rizzo, who sent it to
Anthony Volpe for the force out of Altuve. Since Rizzo caught the grounder away from the bag, Stroman ran to first to cover for the double play, but a throwing error by Volpe meant
that Stroman couldn’t cut off the run, letting another man come in to score.
After that, Stroman induced Kyle Tucker to ground out to wrap up his evening in
Houston.
