Page 20 - ATD 8OCT,2015

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SPORTSThursday 8 October 2015

Astros beat Yankees 3-0 in al wild-card game

HOWIE RUMBERG Houston Astros’ Carlos Gomez, left, and Evan Gattis joke around during player introductions before the start of the American League
AP BASEBALL WRITER wild card baseball game against the New York Yankees, Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2015, in New York.
NEW YORK (AP) -- A year
ago, no one could’ve pic- Associated Press
tured this. Yet here they
were, Dallas Keuchel and Luke Gregerson were to be fun.” for warmups. Then he toyed the dugout railing for every
the Houston Astros, soaking each perfect for an inning In a matchup of teams that with the Yankees from the pitch.
in champagne, merrily pos- to finish the three-hitter. surprised many by build- first batter, striking out Brett When he gave up two
ing for a victory shot on the The boos from the 50,113 ing big division leads and Gardner looking. singles in the sixth - bring-
mound at Yankee Stadium. stunned fans in the crowd then wasting them, the up- “It’s hard not to get up for ing the crowd to its feet
After all that losing, this was grew with each out as Gre- start Astros, just two years a game like this,” Keuchel with Alex Rodriguez step-
one October win to re- gerson closed for a save. removed from a 111-loss said of pitching on short ping into the batter’s box
member. The Astros raced to an season, looked the more rest. “I’ve worked so hard - manager A.J. Hinch took
Pitching on three days’ rest area between first and sec- comfortable team in the the last four years in the a walk to the mound to
for the first time in his ca- ond after Brian McCann October limelight. big leagues, especially with give Keuchel a breather.
reer, Keuchel baffled New grounded out to end it and They clowned around dur- rebuilding with our team. I Keuchel responded by get-
York for six innings of three- jumped up and down in a ing pregame introductions, knew if we had a shot, I was ting A-Rod to fly out lazily to
hit ball. Colby Rasmus and big scrum. As he was com- and stayed loose the whole going to give everything I center field for his final out.
Carlos Gomez homered, ing off the field, Keuchel game. possibly could.” “’’He was as good as it
and the Astros beat the pumped his fists toward a The Yankees lost six of sev- Gardner, McCann, Chris gets,” A-Rod said. “He was
Yankees 3-0 Tuesday night group of cheering Astros en to close the regular sea- Young and Girardi had Greg Maddux from the left
in the American League supporters in orange shirts - son. Then before working words with plate umpire side.”
wild-card game. a few in big black beards - out Monday, they learned Eric Cooper as Keuchel Keuchel is the first pitcher
“Nobody really gave us behind the visiting dugout. CC Sabathia was check- cruised through New York’s with a scoreless postsea-
anything at the start of It was a celebration a few ing into an alcohol rehab lineup for the third time this son start on three days’ rest
the year. And I don’t think years in the making, a rau- facility and would miss the season. since Josh Beckett pitched
anybody gave us a shot at cous 30-minute party in postseason. The AL Cy Young Award a shutout for the Marlins
the end of the year,” said the visiting clubhouse that Despite all the talk of a contender held the Yan- at Yankee Stadium in the
Keuchel, the AL’s only 20- carried onto the field. The playoff reset for the strug- kees scoreless for 16 in- clinching Game 6 of the
game winner. Astros had averaged 104 gling lineup, New York went nings in two regular-season 2003 World Series, STATS
The orange-clad Astros, losses in their previous four bust against a new nemesis starts. On this much bigger said.
who secured their spot in seasons. in its first postseason game stage, the lefty was just as Tanaka struggled with the
this winner-take-all game “Now we get to go to Kan- of the post-Derek Jeter era. confounding, dropping his long ball, giving up 25 hom-
on the last day of the regu- sas City. It’s going to be “Just didn’t get it done,” slider and two-seam fast- ers in 24 starts this year. He
lar season, advanced to some grind-it-out baseball,” manager Joe Girardi said. ball seemingly wherever he only allowed two more hits
the Division Series against Rasmus said. “We have to Fans taunted the 27-year- wanted in striking out seven in five innings but matched
the defending AL champi- come in there the way we old Keuchel the moment as nearly all his teammates a season high with three
on Royals starting Thursday came in tonight. It’s going he walked to the outfield and coaches stood along walks.q
night in Kansas City.
Aggressive from the start in
their initial playoff appear-
ance as an AL club - and
first since being swept by
the White Sox in the 2005
World Series - the Astros
came out swinging against
Masahiro Tanaka in front of
a revved-up Bronx crowd.
Rasmus sent Tanaka’s first
pitch of the second inning
soaring into deep right
field. Gomez, who only had
five plate appearances
after missing nearly two
weeks with a strained chest
muscle in mid-September,
connected on the first of-
fering of the fourth.
“That really settled me
down, and that’s who we
are,” Keuchel said. “We hit
a lot of home runs, pitch
well and play defense.”
AL hits leader Jose Altuve
had an RBI single off All-Star
reliever Dellin Betances in
the seventh.
Reliever Tony Sipp walked
one, and Will Harris and