GAME: New York Yankees (98-75) at Houston Astros (106-65)
DATE/TIME: Friday, October 20 - 8:00 PM EST
WHERE: Minute Maid Park, Houston, Texas
LINE: N/A TOTAL: N/A
Playoff Series: League Championship; NY Yankees leads 3-2
Preview: Yankees at Astros
Gracenote
Oct 19, 2017
The Houston Astros left home a few days ago feeling very good about their chances to win the American League pennant and advance to the second World Series in franchise history, but returned home with a very different feeling. The Astros will try to stay alive one more day and force a decisive Game 7 of the AL Championship Series when they host the New York Yankees in Game 6 on Friday.
Houston won the first two games at home but totaled only nine runs in the series after leading the majors in scoring with 896 runs during the regular season, and it is looking for more from George Springer (2-for-18 in the series) and Josh Reddick (0-for-17) at home in Game 6. "It will be great," Astros manager A.J. Hinch told reporters of getting back to Houston. "There weren't a lot rooting for us here. I think getting home will be good for us. We'll have an off day (Thursday), and then get to play in front of our home crowd. Every home team has won this series, if that trend continues, we'll be in pretty good shape." The Yankees finally found their offense at home while winning all three games, and are starting to get production from Aaron Judge (4-for-9, two homers, six RBIs in the last three games) and Gary Sanchez, who drove in five runs in the last two contests. "I give our guys a lot of credit for how resilient they are, and how they continue to fight and never give up and understand, take it one game at a time and don't panic," New York manager Joe Girardi told reporters. "And just continue to fight."
TV: 8:08 p.m. ET, Fox Sports 1
PITCHING MATCHUP: Yankees RH Luis Severino (1-0, 5.56 ERA) vs. Astros RH Justin Verlander (3-0, 2.04)
Severino is hoping to go deeper into Game 6 after being lifted from Game 2 following the fourth inning, when he struggled to get loose and was hit in the wrist by a comebacker. The 23-year-old Dominican was checked out by doctors and quickly cleared. Severino surrendered a solo home run to Carlos Correa in that outing and was strong in his lone AL Division Series appearance, yielding three runs and four hits in seven innings against Cleveland.
Verlander went up against Severino in Game 2 and earned the win while hurling a 124-pitch complete game. The former AL MVP yielded one run and five hits while striking out 13 and walking one to earn his third win in as many 2017 postseason appearances. Verlander is 8-0 with a 1.39 ERA in eight appearances since arriving in a trade from the Detroit Tigers on Aug. 31.
WALK-OFFS
1. Astros C Brian McCann is 2-for-26 in the postseason, including 0-for-10 in the ALCS.
2. Yankees DH Chase Headley went 5-for-8 in the last three games after going 0-for-15 in his first six postseason contests.
3. Houston is 4-for-27 with runners in scoring position in the series.
PREDICTION: Astros 3, Yankees 1