The Astros avoided the sweep at Yankee Stadium thanks to the bat of the birthday boy José Altuve. The Venezuelan came to the rescue of the ninth Texan and with a three-run RBI homer, he turned it around in the eighth roll in the Houston 7-4 win at New York
Thus ends the first series between Houston and Yankees since signal theft scandal of the Astros, in which New York was especially aggrieved about being eliminated in 2017 and 2019 against the Astros. The fans, back this year at Yankee Stadium, made it noticeable, attacking the Venezuelan in particular.
Giancarlo stanton opened the slate with a solo home run in the bottom of the third roll, his third consecutive game that blows the wall, but the Cuban Yordan Álvarez paid with the same coin at the top of the room.
Todd Frazier returned the lead with a two-run home run in the bottom of the fourth and there were no more touchdowns until the seventh, when Alvarez hit his second solo home run of the afternoon.
This left the table set for Altuve, who was 0-3 in the game with two on base, blew the ball down left field in the eighth.
Aaron Hicks made it 5-4 in the bottom of the eighth, but Maldonado homered off Tucker on board to make it a final 7-4.
Houston’s win leaves both ninths 16-15. Andre Scrubb took the victory for his relief and the defeat went to Chad Green, who could not maintain the lead left by Gerrit Cole, who worked 7 innings, allowing 2 runs, 5 hits and striking out five.