New York Yankees 5, Houston Astros 4
HOUSTON — Aaron Judge smacked a home run for the second game in a row, while the New York Yankees received a strong performance from their bullpen on Saturday night to secure a 5-4 triumph over the Houston Astros at Minute Maid Park.
Michael Brantley launched his first home run since June 2022, but it wasn’t enough for the Astros. In the second inning, Brantley delivered a two-run homer against the Yankees, and he later crossed the plate on Yainer Diaz’s two-run blast in the fourth inning.
Following a four-inning stint by starter Luis Severino, three Yankees relievers teamed up to deliver scoreless innings for the remainder of the game. Severino struggled, requiring 104 pitches to secure just 12 outs, with the Astros fouling off 41 of his pitches. Nevertheless, he departed the game with a 5-4 lead.
Jhony Brito, Wandy Peralta, and Clay Holmes then stepped up to maintain a clean slate for the rest of the night and ensured the Yankees’ win.
Brito (6-6), a rookie who has maintained an impressive 1.27 ERA coming out of the bullpen this season, began the fifth inning and efficiently retired the Astros, facing the minimum over the next 3 2/3 innings, even inducing a couple of double plays. Yankees’ flamethrower Peralta entered the game with two outs in the eighth inning, and on his third pitch, he accidentally hit Yordan Alvarez. Despite this, he swiftly regrouped and prevented the Astros from scoring by forcing Kyle Tucker to fly out on the very next pitch.
Holmes surrendered a two-out infield single in the ninth inning but then sealed the game for the Yankees by striking out pinch-hitter Jon Singleton with a well-placed 1-2 sinker, securing his 17th save.
Yankees’ young guns fire
New York took the lead in the second inning, with Oswaldo Cabrera following Oswald Peraza‘s RBI single with a bases-loaded walk. In response, Houston answered in the bottom half of the inning when Brantley, making his first appearance in a home game since June 22, 2022, launched a two-run homer to right field.
Despite forcing Yankees’ starter Severino to throw 39 pitches in the second inning, the Astros couldn’t add any more runs. The Yankees reclaimed the lead when Aaron Judge crushed a first-pitch slider from Hunter Brown to right-center, marking his 31st homer of the season.
This remarkable feat occurred one night after Judge achieved the distinction of becoming the fastest player in major league history to reach 250 career home runs.
Houston surged ahead for the first time when Diaz launched his 20th homer of his rookie season in the fourth inning. However, the Yankees capitalized on a crucial error by second baseman Mauricio Dubón, resulting in two unearned runs as Austin Wells hit a sacrifice fly and Everson Pereira delivered a two-out RBI single.
Peraza wrapped up the game with three hits, marking his inaugural multi-hit performance of the season.
Brown (10-10) endured a challenging outing, surrendering five runs, of which three were earned, across four-plus innings. He also issued four walks and recorded five strikeouts.
UP NEXT
In the series finale on Sunday night, Yankees’ right-handed pitcher Michael King (3-5, 2.96 ERA) will face off against Houston’s right-handed pitcher Cristian Javier (9-2, 4.66 ERA).
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