The Yankees offense took it to Justin Verlander with four home runs, including Jasson Dominguez’s big blast to defeat the Astros, 6-2, on Friday night in Houston.
Gleyber Torres, who is one of the Yankees’ hottest hitters, was scratched from the lineup with lower back tightness.
Here are the takeaways…
– The Yankees offense got to Justin Verlander early and often, especially with the longball. DJ LeMahieu started things off when he drove a first-pitch fastball the other way and over the right field wall to give the Yanks a 1-0 lead.
Jasson Dominguez, making his MLB debut, took Verlander the other way and deposited a 73 mph into the Crawford boxes in left field to put the Yankees up 3-0. He’s the youngest Yankee to hit a home run in his MLB debut.
Giancarlo Stanton would hit a moonshot 433 feet just inside the left-field foul pole with a man on to put the Yankees up 5-1. It’s the slugger’s 399th career home run. Aaron Judge then launched a solo shot 426 feet to dead center to put the Yankees up 6-2. It was Judge’s 250th career homer and he’s done it in the fewest games ever in MLB history (810 games).
– Opposite Verlander was Carlos Rodon who was solid for the third straight start. The lefty went five strong, his two mistakes being a Jose Abreu solo shot in the second and a Kyle Tucker RBI double in the third.
Rodon went five innings (92 pitches) giving up two runs on three hits, one walk and struck out four batters.
– Aside from the home run, Dominguez flied out twice and ground out to finish 1-for-3 but his impact was felt with that home run in the first.
Austin Wells was behind the plate making his MLB debut as well. He seemingly worked well with all of the pitchers on Friday and picked up his first major league hit in his first at-bat as well, a single in the second inning. He popped out twice and grounded out in his other at-bats of this game to finish 1-for-4.
As for the other kids in the lineup, Everson Pereira went 1-for-4 with a double while Oswald Peraza finished 0-for-4. Anthony Volpe, hitting third in the lineup with Torres’ scratch, went 0-for-4.
– In relief of Rodon, the combination of Randy Vasquez (2 IP) — who was called up Friday — Wandy Peralta (0.2 IP) and Jonathan Loaisiga (1.1 IP) finished this game.
Highlights
What’s Next
The Yankees continue their three-game series with the Astros on Saturday night. First pitch is scheduled for 7:10 p.m..
The Yankees will send Luis Severino (4-8, 6.64 ERA) to the mound to go up against RHP Hunter Brown (10-9, 4.47 ERA).