Struggling Astros Avert a Season Sweep at the Hands of the Yankees

Marcus Stroman put the Yankees in an immediate 3-0 deficit and though they stayed in it all the way, they fell just short and lost 4-3 in the series finale against Houston. Down below, a preview of the weekend series against the Rays, and in Box Score Briefs, some thoughts on the upcoming MLB debut of Paul Skenes of the Pirates, the red-hot Twins, the struggles of Corbin Carroll, and the Phillies who have the best record in baseball. Lets get to it.

May 9: Astros 4, Yankees 3

Obviously, it would have been glorious if the Yankees could have pulled off a seven-game season series sweep of the Astros, but it felt from the top of the first inning Thursday that this was going to be a get-some-anger-out, get-right-game for the Astros.

But to their credit, after the Yankees fell into a 3-0 deficit in the top of the first because Marcus Stroman allowed two epic bombs to right field by Yordan Alvarez and Jon Singleton, they showed some grit in hanging in there the rest of the way and bringing the game right down to the final out with the tying run standing at second base in the bottom of the ninth.

So, they settle for a series victory and a sweet 5-1 homestand which began with a three-game sweep of the Tigers. And quite frankly, not even your favorite pessimist can complain too much about that.

“I loved the compete all the way to the end,’’ Aaron Boone said. “It was definitely a good homestand for us swinging the bats.”

After their offensive shutdown in Baltimore when they scored only six runs in losing three of four games, they found some mojo back at Yankee Stadium as they produced 34 runs in the six games thanks in large part to Aaron Judge emerging from his season-long coma.

Judge hit safely in all six games while going 10-for-22 with three homers and six RBI as he hiked his average up to a season-high .236. And Thursday, he uncorked one of the most amazing home runs of his career, a 473-foot moon shot to left-center, every bit as impressive as the home run Giancarlo Stanton hit Wednesday.

“It didn’t happen for us today, but it came down to the wire,’’ Judge said. “It was an impressive homestand.”

Here are my observations:

➤ Stroman was reminded by reporters that when he was with the Blue Jays in 2017, he gave up Judge’s 52nd and final home run of his rookie of the year season, which was also the longest of his career, a 496-foot blast. “Oof. When I let ‘em up, I let ‘em up,” Stroman said with a smile. “I remember that homer he hit against me, man. That was the furthest ball, for sure, that was ever hit against me. I think that was the longest of his career, right? Yeah. Still didn't come down, you know?”

➤ You might say the same thing about the homer he gave up to Singleton. Alvarez hit a 395-foot line drive solo homer that got out in about one second and hopefully didn’t kill anyone in the right-field bleachers. But Singleton hit a 442-foot two-run bomb that glanced off the upper deck facade in right, a place that almost no one else has ever hit a ball. “I can’t let up three in the first,’’ Stroman said. “Those pitches were essentially middle-middle, and they didn’t have the action on them that I wanted.”

➤ Stroman was in trouble again in the second, but he worked out of a bases-loaded jam and eventually lasted 5.2 innings. It was a grind for him, similar to his outing against the Brewers on April 28. He allowed nine hits and two walks, plus the fourth run in the fifth inning courtesy of an Alvarez double and Jeremy Pena’s RBI single. That last run proved to be the difference because Judge’s homer in the eighth only got it back to 4-3.

➤ Anthony Volpe had a nice game. He led off the first with a single off Astros starter Ronel Blanco, and hit a two-run homer to the short porch to get the Yankees within 3-2 in the third. And then in the ninth, after Gleyber Torres had singled off closer Josh Hader and moved to second, Volpe battled for eight pitches before striking out to end the game.

➤ Ron Marinaccio has quietly come back from the minors and done some good work. He pitched the ninth and gave up a leadoff single and stolen base. But then he made a nice fielding play on a swinging bunt, struck out Jose Altuve, walked Kyle Tucker, but then struck out Alvarez with men at second and third to escape. Getting Marinaccio back to his 2022 rookie form would be a nice thing.

The Yankees head to the mausoleum, otherwise known as Tropicana Field, for three games against the ever annoying Rays who had a day off Thursday to lick their wounds after losing to the awful White Sox on Wednesday. Of course, they had won five in a row before that so they will enter the series 19-19.

The Rays have been decimated by injuries to their pitching staff and the latest starter to go down was Ryan Pepiot earlier this week. It really is crazy how injured they’ve been, not that any Yankee fan should be shedding a tear.

But what has hurt the Rays almost as much has been the lack of hitting from Yandy Diaz, Randy Arozarena, and Jose Siri who have been terrible. Diaz won the AL batting title last year but he’s at .218 with just one homer. Arozarena is batting an astonishing .147, and Siri is at .170. Incredibly, catcher Ben Rortvedt - the Yankee castoff who couldn’t hit a lick until he got to Tampa Bay - leads the team with a .333 average.

The one guy to certainly be wary of is Isaac Paredes who’s at .300 with a team-high eight homers and 20 RBI, while Richie Palacios (.280) and Harold Ramirez (.291) have also started well but they aren’t hitting for power. The Rays rank 24th in homers with just 31.

The pitching matchups are as follows: Friday at 6:50 on YES it’s Clarke Schmidt (3.50 ERA) against Taj Bradley (making his season debut); Saturday at 4:10 on YES it’s Nestor Cortes (3.72) against Zack Littell (3.00); and Sunday at 1:40 on YES it’s Luis Gil (2.92) against a TBD.

⚾ It should be quite a scene Saturday in Pittsburgh when Paul Skenes, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2023 draft, will make his MLB debut against the Cubs. There hasn’t been this much hype surrounding a pitchers’ debut since Stephen Strasburg back in 2010 for the Nationals.

Skenes was originally a catcher for the Air Force Academy in 2021 but he began to transition to pitching in 2022 and he went 10-3 with a 3.15 ERA. He then transferred to LSU in 2023 and became super human as he went 13-2 with a 1.69 ERA, 209 strikeouts and just 20 walks in 122.2 innings.

After the draft he zipped through three levels of the Pirates’ farm system in the second half of 2023, then began 2024 with Triple-A Indianapolis and this much is true - the International League is glad to see him go. He made seven starts and had an ERA of 0.99, a WHIP of 0.915, 45 strikeouts and eight walks while allowing just one home run in 27.1 innings.

He’ll have to be great to top what Strasburg did in his first start, which happened to be against the Pirates, as he struck out 14 men in seven innings.

⚾ After the Yankees finish their weekend in Tampa Bay, they will head north to Minnesota to face the hottest team in baseball. The Twins blew out the Mariners 11-1 on Thursday, their 14th win in the last 16 games. One of the most surprising players of the season has been their DH, Ryan Jeffers.

He leads the team with seven homers and 27 RBI, his .631 slugging percentage is third in MLB and his 1.020 OPS is fifth. Coming into this season, Jeffers had an underwhelming career slash line of .233/.315/.424 with 38 homers and 112 RBI in 274 games, all with Minnesota, but he has found something and it’s working.

⚾ Corbin Carroll burst on the scene last year and on his way to winning the NL rookie of the year award he carried the Diamondbacks all the way to the World Series when he slashed .285/.362/.506, led MLB with 10 triples, hit 25 homers, drove in 76 runs and stole 54 bases. It was a season for the ages for a first-year player. But wow, is he ever in a sophomore slump.

Thursday, Carroll delivered an RBI single in the eighth that lifted Arizona to a 5-4 victory over the Reds which completed a three-game sweep in Cincinnati. But he’s still hitting just .206 with two homers, 13 RBI and eight stolen bases. Carroll’s struggles are partially responsible for the Diamondbacks sluggish 18-20 start which already has them 7.5 games behind the powerhouse Dodgers.

⚾ The team the Diamondbacks beat in seven games in the NLCS, the Phillies, are going in the opposite direction. At 26-12, they have the best record in baseball and they’ll have a good chance to expand their lead in the NL East because they play three games in Miami this weekend. Pitching has been the key as their rotation has the second-best combined ERA at 2.62, trailing only the Red Sox.

Zach Wheeler, Ranger Suarez and Spencer Turnbull all have ERA’s under 2.00, and Aaron Nola has been solid at 3.67. They already have 21 games where they allowed three runs or fewer and they’re 19-2 in those games. Suarez in particular has been incredible, 6-0 with a 1.72 ERA, a 0.720 WHIP and a .173 batting average against.

On offense, Bryce Harper got off to a rough start but in a three-game span earlier this week he hit three homers and drove in 10, raising his totals to nine homers and 28 RBI. Alec Bohm is having the season of his life with 32 RBI and a .346 average, and Kyle Schwarber is their version of the Yankees Stanton - he has nine homers and virtually nothing else.