Troy Taormina/USA TODAY Sports
Last night’s game should have been thrilling. The two best teams in the American League playing in one of the highest-stakes games of the season. A win for the Astros meant the Yankees would be in a difficult 0–2 hole; a win for the Yankees would’ve tied the series, 1–1, and shifted the momentum heading into tomorrow night’s Game 3, the first of three straight games at Yankee Stadium, the headquarters for the Northeast chapter of the Houston Haters Club of America. In reality, Game 2 of the ALCS was a story of just-misses for New York in its 3–2 loss.
The game was scoreless in the third inning when New York righthander Luis Severino made his only two mistakes of the game. He plunked catcher Martín Maldonado, whose .209 career batting average is the lowest mark for any nonpitcher over the last 50 years (minimum 1,000 games). A few batters later, with two on and two outs, Severino tried to go up-and-in with a 97.4-mph heater to Alex Bregman. It wasn’t a bad pitch, but it also wasn’t up or in enough. An inch or two higher and Bregman would’ve gotten under it; just a bit more inside and Severino would’ve jammed Bregman. Either of these likely would’ve resulted in an inning-ending popout. Instead, Bregman quickly fired his hands, careful to keep them inside the ball as he made contact, and sent the pitch into the Crawford Boxes. 3–0 Astros.
