Keuchel, Astros shut down Yanks

Associated Press

NEW YORK

Dallas Keuchel and the Houston Astros defied expectations all season long. Facing his biggest test yet, the bearded ace beat the odds and the Yankees once again.

Pitching on three days’ rest for the first time in his career, Keuchel baffled the Yankees for six innings of three-hit ball, Colby Rasmus and Carlos Gomez homered, and the Astros blanked New York 3-0 Tuesday night in the American League wild-card game.

The orange-clad Astros, who secured their spot in this winner-take-all game on the last day of the regular season. now advance to the AL Division Series. They will face the defending AL champion Royals, starting Thursday night in Kansas City.

“To come to Yankee Stadium and play that well was truly remarkable,” said Keuchel, the AL’s only 20-game winner.

Aggressive from the start in their first playoff appearance as an American League club and for the first time since being swept by the White Sox in the 2005 World Series, the Astros came out swinging against Masahiro Tanaka in front of a revved-up Yankee Stadium crowd.

Rasmus sent Tanaka’s first pitch of the second inning soaring into deep right field. Gomez, who only had five plate appearances after missing nearly two weeks with a strained chest muscled in mid-September, connected on the first offering of the fourth.

American League hits leader Jose Altuve had an RBI single off All-Star reliever Dellin Betances in the seventh.

Reliever Tony Sipp walked one, and Will Harris and Luke Gregerson were each perfect for an inning to finish the three-hitter. The boos from the 50,113 stunned fans in the crowd grew with each out as Gregerson closed for a save.

The Astros raced to an area between first and second after Brian McCann grounded out to end it and jumped up and down in a big scrum.

As he was coming off the field, Keuchel pumped his fists as a group of cheering Astros supporters in orange shirts behind the visiting dugout.

It was a celebration a few years in the making — the Astros have averaged 104 losses in their last four seasons.

In a matchup of two teams that surprised many by building big division leads before wasting them late, the upstart Astros, just two years removed from an 111-loss season, looked the more comfortable team in the October limelight.

The Yankees limped into their first postseason since 2012, losing six of seven and, despite all the talk of a postseason reset for the struggling lineup, New York went bust against a new nemesis in their first — and only — postseason game of the post-Derek Jeter era.

“Just didn’t get it done,” manager Joe Girardi said.