The Yankees clubbed three home runs on a sometimes-sunny, sometimes-overcast day in the Bronx and picked up an encouraging opening-series win over the Astros with an 8-5 rubber game victory.
Starlin Castro picked right up where he left off on Wednesday night with a 2-for-4 day at the dish, and blasted a two-out homer in the fourth off of Mike Fiers to give him a league-leading eight RBIs and a team-high two roundtrippers. The Yankees offense as a unit came out of a 5-2 hole early on, and fought back with great at-bats. Their three home runs bring their season total to seven.
• WATCH: Starlin Castro hits another home run, continues torrid start
The mid-game offensive surge was backed up by the Yankees bullpen, which worked four scoreless innings, and the game was highlighted with a nice defensive snag from Jacoby Ellsbury.
The Play: Teixeira’s three-run homer in the seventh (+.294 WPA)
With the game tied at 5-5 in the bottom of the seventh, Mark Teixeira stepped in after an Alex Rodriguez single sent Brett Gardner to third base. With two on, Teixeira was dealt a second straight four-seam fastball by Ken Giles, and hit the 98 mph heater into the left field seats for an opposite-field home run to give the Yankees an 8-5 lead.
“It was tailing away a bit, and I put a good swing on it,” Teixeira said after the game. “I hit it really well. I didn’t think it was going to get high enough.”
The pitch was Giles’ fifth four-seamer in five pitches, and Teixeira made a correct read. It helped him erase strikeouts in his previous two at-bats from memory, and remain warm with seven RBIs in his opening series.
Top Performers
Yankees – Mark Teixeira (2-for-3, 2 R, 3 RBI)
Astros – Tyler White (2-for-3, HR, 4 RBI)
Notes
– Nate Eovaldi started this game, and tossed five five-run innings. He did strike out seven, and have a fairly high success rate with his fastball. It was the off-speed pitches that hurt him; two of the three home runs he allowed were on splitters, which weren’t there. This is often used too liberally, but he really did battle in this game. He leaned on his fastball when possible, and squeezed out five okay innings with maybe his C+ stuff.
– The Yankees’ bullpen was superb, which may get lost in the eight runs the team scored. Chasen Shreve was dynamite once again, Kirby Yates looked good, and Betances rebounded from what Joe Girardi called “a strange inning” on Opening Day when he airmailed a ball and struggled afterwards with a scoreless eighth.
– Andrew Miller’s wrist is fine, according to Andrew Miller. He didn’t even want to talk about it after the game. He says he feels no pain, he’s not thinking about it, and he’s not even wearing a brace on it. He went out and earned the save, allowing two hits but striking out three in the ninth.
– Brian McCann has quietly started the season very well. He homered in the game and is now 5-for-11 with five runs scored on the young season.
– This is the first time the Yankees have had a winning record after their opening three games since 2011.
The Quote
“We want to be together for a long time” – Starlin Castro, on fellow middle infielder Didi Gregorius
The Highlight: Ellsbury robs Correa at the wall
Next Up
It’s off to Detroit for a three-game weekend series. Luis Severino gets his first start of the season against former Nationals lefty Jordan Zimmermann, who will be making his Tigers debut. 1:10 p.m. ET on YES.
Lead photo: Anthony Grupposo /USA Today Sports