Astros advance against punchless Yankees in AL Wild Card Game

Troy Tulowitzki first suited up for the Blue Jays on July 29, while the Yankees had a 7.5 game lead on Toronto. New York would finish the season six games back of the Jays, and while part of that was because Tulowitzki (as well as David Price, acquired before the July 31st deadline), much of this slip was on the Yankees themselves — and for the same reasons they dropped the AL Wild Card Game to the Astros.

The Yankees just stopped hitting after July. Or, at least, stopped hitting enough. August saw them produce a .500 record despite a positive run differential, but things just fell apart in September. Mark Teixeira’s season ended with a fracture in his leg, and his last game played came in late-August. Alex Rodriguez, who was such a tremendous story in the first half, was very good, but not great in September.

That wouldn’t have been a problem — even players as talented as A-Rod are allowed a month off from domination, you know — but both Jacoby Ellsbury and Brett Gardner looked overmatched all month long on top of that. Ellsbury batted .217/.265/.264 in 29 September games, while Gardner bested that even though his slugging for the month was all of .321.

That leads us into Tuesday’s Wild Card Game, where Ellsbury, who earned more than $21 million in the second year of his seven-year deal, sat on the bench until he was used a a pinch-hitter late. So desperate was manager Joe Girardi for offense that journeyman Chris Young got the nod over Ellsbury, with Gardner and his glove moving to center in Jacoby’s absence. Young has his moments and his talents, but he’s not on a superstar contract — you don’t expect to see him in a win-or-go-home scenario when Ellsbury still has the use of all his limbs. While Young got on base with a walk, nothing came of it. Gardner went 0-4 with three strikeouts from the leadoff spot, and only three Yankees collected hits on the night — all singles.

Things worked on the pitching side, with a shaky Masahiro Tanaka limiting the damage over five innings before handing a two-run deficit over to the vaunted Yankees’ pen. The only run the Astros needed had already been scored, however, as Dallas Keuchel was precisely who this struggling New York lineup did not need to face.

Keuchel is a great bet to win the AL Cy Young award, as he led the league in innings, ERA+, wins, and shutouts. He had one start all season of fewer than six innings, and if not for that fluke appearance, his ERA would have been 2.17. The combination of swing-and-miss stuff and the ability to induce grounders seemingly at will is a challenge for even a great lineup to overcome, and while there was once greatness in this New York starting nine, it hasn’t consistently shown itself for far too long in 2015.

Now, the Yankees are headed home to do their usual thing of either quietly plugging holes or making loud and expensive splashes. The Astros, meanwhile, move on to face the Royals, in a battle of two teams with a combined 82 years without a World Series championship. The Astros have never won, the Royals haven’t since 1985, which to many of their fans, is basically the same thing.

Houston might have limped into the playoffs in a similar fashion to the Yankees, but the difference is that they are still here, as they survived the dangers of the one-and-done Wild Card Game, and now get the more “fair” five-game series to work with.

And now we get to do this again Wednesday night with the Cubs and Pirates.