ALCS: Yankees Season Ends as Astros Head to World Series
After the Yankees’ collapse in Game Five, it took a while before anyone wanted to talk about the game. That was then. Now, though, the question everyone wants to ask: What went wrong?
The answer may not be as simple as many had thought.
The simple answer is that the Yankees started off on the wrong foot. They couldn’t get into any kind of rhythm. It was as if the team had never seen a baseball game before. It was the first time in a long, long time that the Yankees didn’t seem to know what kind of team they were.
No one ever has a hot start to the year. You have to finish strong. That was definitely the case here. The Yankees started strong, and eventually lost the leadoff hitter. But they didn’t really know what they were doing.
It took three innings before the Yankees could get to an offense that seemed to have been built in the dark ages. Just ask the Dodgers.
The Houston Astros were just too good. They started off slow, but built the lead. When the Yankees tied it with two outs in the top of the fifth, it looked like the Astros were going to win their second straight World Series, just like they had in 2009.
Then the Yankees went to the top of the order. Maybe it was the result of the off-day, but the Yankees had looked really good at home. So the Astros went to their bench and asked for a run. The Astros got three runs. The Yankees did nothing with it.
It got worse. A run-scoring ground ball down the first baseline turned into an RBIs by Jose Altuve off of Tim Hudson. The Yankees had taken a lead they could never overcome. The game was up to the end.
The Astros came back with three in the bottom of the fifth. The Yankees still never got a runner on.
And then the Astros scored again. But this time, the Yankees didn’t have a chance to get one back.
That’s when the