Jason Alexander, the pitcher, not the beloved Yankees’ assistant to the traveling secretary on Seinfeld, helped take New Yorkers’ beloved club and reduce them to a laughing stock on Sunday afternoon. His gem fueled the Houston Astros to a 7-1 rubber-game victory over the Bronx Bombers.
The 32-year-old right-hander, with no experience in importing or exporting, went six scoreless innings and allowed just one hit with three strikeouts and three walks.
The Yankees (62-56) have now lost three consecutive series and seven of their last nine.
Such an outing for Alexander is as rare as the misspelling of Moors as Moops on a Trivial Pursuit card. The journeyman, who entered Sunday with a career 5.57 ERA, was ushered into the starting rotation due to injuries to Houston’s staff, but the confidence of throwing with ace-like stuff is not a lie if you believe it.
No Yankee reached second base while he was on the hill, though they were not short of hard-hit balls. New York batters recorded seven chances in play with an exit velocity of 96 mph or more, but only one resulted in a hit.
Alexander yielded his first hit of the afternoon with one out in the sixth when Ben Rice lasered a 101.4 mph single to center, but got out of it in a blink by inducing an inning-ending double play from Aaron Judge.
Yankees ace Max Fried continued his struggles when he was tagged for four runs across five innings of work. It was the third time in his last four starts that he allowed at least four earned runs.
After a brilliant start to the season in which he posted a 1.29 ERA across his first 11 starts as a Yankee, Fried has a 4.50 ERA in his last 13 outings.
Jose Altuve got the Astros on the board with a solo shot, his 21st of the season, in the top of the first inning. With it, he became just the 25th player in MLB history to hit 250 home runs and steal 250 bases.
He started a two-out rally in the third when he singled and came around to score on Christian Walker’s double to center.
Fried’s day came undone in the fifth when he yielded a single to Carlos Correa, walked Walker, then hit Jesús Sánchez with two outs to load the bases. Cam Smith made him pay with a double to plate a pair.
The Yankees loaded the bases with one out in the seventh upon Alexander’s exit, but only mustered one run on a Ryan McMahon sacrifice fly.
The Astros added three more runs of insurance in the top of the ninth off Tim Hill, headlined by a no-doubt solo shot by Correa deep into the left-field seats.
New York was without manager Aaron Boone for the final six innings after he was ejected by home-plate umpire Derek Thomas for calling balls and strikes.
Boone said the magic words following a low strike that was given to Alexander on McMahon, prompting a tirade worthy of an old man trying to send back soup in a deli.
