By Canadian Press

LeMahieu, Hicks lift Yanks over Astros, close to 3-2 in ALCS

Oct 18, 2019 | 8:34 PM

NEW YORK — DJ LeMahieu drove Justin Verlander’s second pitch over the wall, then Aaron Hicks sent the fans at Yankee Stadium into a frenzy with a three-run homer off the foul pole later in the first inning.

And just like that, the Bronx Bombers were back — in the game, and in this matchup of powerhouses.

A day after a brutal loss, and with little margin for more errors, the New York Yankees played like a 103-win team. James Paxton chilled Houston’s bats and the bullpen followed with shutdown relief to beat the Astros 4-1 Friday night, cutting their AL Championship Series deficit to 3-2.

Now the teams will rush to Texas, where the series resumes Saturday night without a day off. With pitching plans disrupted by a rainout earlier this week, both teams are expected to go all-bullpen in Game 6. But Gerrit Cole, 19-0 since May, looms as the Astros’ starter on Sunday if New York manages to extend the matchup to the seven-game limit.

Paxton, a fishing aficionado born outside Vancouver in Ladner, British Columbia, wore three-quarter-length sleeves on a night with a gametime temperature of 52 degrees. That was the coldest for a Verlander start since last year’s ALCS opener at Boston — he had on long sleeves and half of Houston’s fielders had hoodies or balaclavas.

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After lasting just 2 1/3 innings in Game 2, Paxton struck out nine in six innings, allowing four hits and four walks. Punching his pitching hand into his glove after big strikeouts, he saved his biggest emotion for his 112th and final pitch: a flyout by Yordan Álvarez that Brett Gardner caught in front of the left-field scoreboard with a runner on.

Zack Britton retired Michael Brantley and Alex Bregman to escape trouble after Houston put on two runners in the seventh against Tommy Kahnle, then struck out two in a perfect eighth.

Aroldis Chapman finished with a 1-2-3 ninth.

Paxton outpitched Verlander, an eight-time All-Star and former AL MVP and Cy Young Award winner. Verlander allowed a pair of first-inning homers for the first time in 28 post-season starts and gave up four runs in an inning for the first time since Houston acquired him from Detroit in August 2017.

Verlander retired 10 in a row after Hicks’ homer and wound up allowing five hits in seven innings with nine strikeouts and no walks.

A night after the Yankees made four errors in one of their messier games of the season during an 8-3 loss, Paxton fell behind after 14 pitches. George Springer reached on an infield hit, took second on Gary Sánchez’s passed ball, advanced on a groundout and scored when Paxton bounced a breaking ball off Sánchez’s glove for a wild pitch.

New York came out swinging against Verlander, who had been 4-0 with a 1.85 ERA against the Yankees in seven post-season starts.

LeMahieu fouled off a pitch, then drove a fastball 355 feet to left for New York’s first leadoff homer since Derek Jeter in 2009 ALCS against the Angels.

Aaron Judge singled and Gleyber Torres doubled. Verlander struck out Giancarlo Stanton, who went 0 for 3 without two strikeouts after missing three games with a strained right quadriceps.

Hicks, sidelined for more than two months by a right elbow injury before returning for the ALCS, fell behind 0-2, took three straight balls and sent a chest-high slider down the right-field line. He turned and watched the ball, took a half-dozen slow steps toward first and started jogging after it clanked off the pole for his first home run since July 24.

New York had never hit a pair of first-inning homers in 404 previous post-season games. Verlander could only crouch on the infield grass as Hicks circled the bases.

Hicks ended a stretch of 15 straight hitless at-bats for the Yankees with runners in scoring position. New York has relied on the long ball, scoring 12 of its 17 runs against the Astros on seven homers.

FIRSTS

This was the 1,609th post-season game in major league history, and the first in which both teams scored in the first inning and neither scored in the rest of the game

SABATHIA

CC Sabathia dislocated his left shoulder while pitching in Game 4 and was replaced on the Yankees active roster by RHP Ben Heller. That ended the 19-season career of the 39-year-old left-hander, who is retiring. He was given a large ovation when shown on the video board in the sixth and waved to fans from the dugout.

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Ronald Blum, The Associated Press