For the first time in their history, the Astros have a 3-0 lead in a best-of-seven series. Houston's dominance of the Yankees in the first three games of the American League Championship Series isn't surprising when you consider that the Astros went 5-2 against the Bronx Bombers in the regular season and never trailed at any point in the five wins. Still, the Astros have suffocated the Yankees with terrific pitching – their pitching staff has a 0.67 ERA through three games – and have been getting more contributions offensively from players such as Chas McCormick and Christian Vázquez than they have from stars Jose Altuve and Yordan Alvarez, which is a testament to their overall depth. There's work to be done, but the Astros are bullying their way to their fourth American League pennant in their last six seasons. "Obviously, it feels good but we're not satisfied," McCormick said. "We've got to win more. As soon as we can do this, it would be great. We're not going to come out any slower than we did today, so we're going to be ready to play tomorrow and go for the sweep." |
The ALCS will be carried on TBS. Game 4 is on Sunday in New York at 7:07 p.m. ET/6:07 p.m. CT. All games are available in the U.S. on MLB.TV (authentication to a participating Pay TV provider is required). Live games are also available in select countries outside the U.S. For full details, click here. Probable starters Astros: RHP Lance McCullers Jr. Yankees: LHP Nestor Cortes Projected lineups |
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Astros: The first seven batters figure to go unchanged from Game 3, with Trey Mancini getting a second consecutive start at designated hitter. One of his two career hits off Cortes is a homer. Martín Maldonado will likely be behind the plate to catch McCullers. Yankees: Aaron Boone has shuffled the lineup in each of the first three games of this ALCS, and he also tried mixing and matching a fair amount in the ALDS against the Guardians, trying to find a combination that can reliably produce some runs. So far, he's still looking. As a team, the Yanks have hit .161 (40-for-248) in the postseason. |
Astros: McCullers (0-0, 0.00 ERA in the postseason), who closed out the Astros' pennant-winning game in 2017, will take the hill in what could be another clinching situation. The righty was pushed back a day after he was hit on the elbow during the Astros' celebration after winning the Division Series but was cleared to start Game 4 after throwing a bullpen Friday. McCullers' start Sunday will be his 11th in the postseason and his second this season. He threw six scoreless innings against the Mariners in the Astros' 18-inning, 1-0 win in Game 3 of the AL Division Series. McCullers' only other postseason start against the Yankees came in Game 4 of the 2017 ALCS at Yankee Stadium, where he held them to one run on two hits in six innings. |
Yankees: Cortes (1-0, 2.70 ERA in the postseason), the Yankees' most reliable starter throughout the regular season, will start Sunday's game tasked with ensuring his team plays again on Monday. Cortes has been terrific this postseason, allowing three runs over two AL Division Series starts (spanning 10 innings) vs. Cleveland. It was a continuation of how he ended the regular season; over his final five outings, Cortes posted a 1.32 ERA, allowing four runs over 27 1/3 innings. Cortes made one regular season start vs. Houston. In a home outing on June 26, he allowed three earned runs over five innings with two walks and seven strikeouts in the Yankees' 6-3 win. |
Astros: The Astros' bullpen has posted a 0.62 ERA in six playoff games, with 13 hits allowed and 39 strikeouts in 29 innings. In using five relievers to follow starter Cristian Javier on Saturday in a three-hit shutout, the Astros didn't have a reliever throw more than 20 pitches, so they should all be available for Game 4. That's in addition to closer Ryan Pressly, who didn't enter in Game 3, and length options in Seth Martinez and regular-season starters José Urquidy and Luis Garcia. |
Yankees: It's all hands on deck with the season on the line. In Game 3, Lou Trivino tossed 19 pitches, Miguel Castro threw 14 and Domingo Germán made his postseason debut with a 24-pitch ninth inning. |
Astros: McCormick has homered twice through the first three games of the ALCS, after going his first 11 career postseason games without an extra-base hit. … Vázquez logged a two-run single in the Astros' three-run sixth in Game 3. … Alvarez was 0-for-4 with a hit by pitch Saturday and is 1-for-8 in his past two games. Yankees: Bader logged one of the Yankees' three hits in Game 3 and is 7-for-25 in eight postseason games so far. … Judge was 0-for-4 with two strikeouts in Game 3 and has only one hit in the ALCS. |
Astros: The Astros are 12-5 all-time in postseason games vs. the Yankees, their most such wins vs. any opponent. … Houston's .706 win percentage in the postseason vs. the Yankees is the second-best all-time behind Detroit (.769, 10-3). … Dusty Baker has 46 wins in the postseason as a manager, surpassing Dave Roberts (45) for fourth most, and now trails only Hall of Famer skippers Joe Torre (84), Tony La Russa (71) and Bobby Cox (67). Half of Baker's postseason wins have come in the last three seasons with the Astros. Yankees: The Yankees were shut out on Saturday in a home postseason game for just the 16th time in franchise history and for just the fourth time since the new Yankee Stadium opened in 2009. … The Bombers have been held to six hits or fewer in each of their past 10 postseason games since Game 5 of the 2020 ALDS, three games more than the Twins' run of seven straight from 1965-69. |
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