Yankees offense goes quiet as Astros take series with 5-1 win

The Astros took down the Yankees 5-1 to win the series. Gerrit Cole got the starting nod for the Yankees and faced off against former Yankee farmhand Hayden Wesneski. 

Cole navigated around a two-out single in the top of the first inning to work a scoreless frame and recorded his first two strikeouts of the night, one of which was on a perfectly placed heater on the outside corner to punch out Yordan Alvarez looking. 

Trent Grisham, Ben Rice and Luis Garcia Jr. went three up, three down in the bottom half of the first inning. 

The Astros struck first in the top of the third inning thanks to a two-out RBI single from Isaac Paredes, giving them a 1-0 lead. 

Jazz Chisholm Jr. legged out an infield single to lead off the bottom of the third, for the Yankees' first hit of the night. Jazz then stole second base, his 37th stolen base of the season, which leads the American League. However, José Caballero grounded out, and Grisham popped out to strand Jazz at second base. 

Cole worked a nice and easy 1-2-3 top of the fourth inning on just 10 pitches and notched his third strikeout of the ballgame. 

Rice dunked a bloop single into center field to lead off the bottom of the fourth inning. Then with one out, Cody Bellinger worked a nine-pitch walk. But George Lombard Jr. and Spencer Jones both struck out to end the inning. 

In the bottom of the fifth inning, Jazz worked a leadoff walk, then stole his 38th base of the season. But Austin Wells struck out on a pitch well above the zone, Caballero flew out, and Grisham struck out to strand Jazz. 

Cole walked a batter with two outs in the top of the sixth inning, then allowed a two-run bomb to Christian Walker to make it 3-0. 

Yerry De los Santos replaced Cole on the mound in the top of the seventh and allowed a solo shot to Jeremy Peña to give the Astros that run right back. 

Final line for Cole: Six innings pitched, six hits allowed, three earned runs, walked one, and struck out five on 79 pitches. He threw his fastball 49% of the time, the knuckle curve 28%, slider 16%, and the changeup 6%. Cole topped out at 98.9 mph, sitting at 97.1 mph, and had 11 whiffs. 

Justin Topa, who was just called up yesterday, took over for De los Santos and quickly picked up the first two outs, then allowed a double. It looked like Topa induced a groundout to end the inning, but Lombard bobbled it, and Caballero fielded and air-mailed the throw, allowing a run to score. The sixth error in six games for Lombard; the last Yankee shortstop to do that was Roger Peckinpaugh in 1915. 

Topa came back out for the top of the ninth inning and worked a scoreless inning stranding the bases loaded. 

The Yankees will welcome the Red Sox into the Bronx for a crucial four-game set starting tomorrow night. Cam Schlittler will take the mound for Game 1, facing off against Patrick Sandoval. First pitch is slated for 7:15 on Apple TV. 

My thoughts on the game: The Yankees' bipolar offense strikes again. Cole was solid tonight, just made one mistake, which resulted in a two-run home run; that was only gone in 1/30 ballparks, but unfortunately it was the one they were playing in. De los Santos allowed just his third home run as a Yankee in 54.1 innings pitched since they acquired him last year. Topa gave the Yankees two scoreless innings and will probably be rewarded with being DFA'd. The Yankees offense struggled tonight with just five hits and one run and went 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position. Rice had a nice night with a pair of hits, as his OPS is creeping back up towards .900. Jazz reached base a couple of times, with a walk and a single; he also stole a couple of bases. Jazz has looked much better over the last couple of games. Lombard had another error; he needs a day off; he is clearly in his own head. We all saw how good he was defensively in his first 11 games, but he has looked lost over the last six. Just a tough night all around; it would have been nice if the Yankees bullpen didn't blow it in the first game so they could have won the series. On to tomorrow, as the Yankees have to find a way to at least split this series against the Red Sox. 

.