The New York Yankees soured the return of starter Justin Verlander to the cityafter beating the Houston Astros 3-1 with a final score in an exciting weekend series in the Bronx.
The Yankees took the lead in the bottom of the second inning, after Isiah Kiner-Falefa’s single to left field, followed by Harrison Bader’s double to put runners on third and second and Anthony Volpe’s sacrifice fly; Kiner-Falefa scored the first for the locals.
The equalization of the Houston Astros came in the top of the third inning with a home run by Venezuelan José Altuve, his eighth of the season. This became the 200th home run of Altuve’s major league career.
Altuve joined a select list of Venezuelan-born players who have hit 200 home runs in MLB: Miguel Cabrera (508), Andrés Galarraga (399), Magglio Ordóñez (294), Bob Abreu (288), Antonio Armas (251), Víctor Martínez (246), Salvador Pérez and Eugenio Suárez (240), Carlos González (234).
But the New Yorkers were not far behind and with a home run by Jake Bauers to the right field in the fifth inning they took the lead that they never wasted. Venezuelan Gleyber Torres put in the third run for his team, with his 17th home run of the Major League season.
Launchers did their job
The Cuban guy Néstor Cortes, was in charge of opening the game for the Yankees, throwing four complete innings, one hit, one ticket and eight strikeouts., to leave a 4.07 ERA. Reliever Ian Hamilton scored his second win of the year and Clay Holmes retired the ninth with a strikeout to earn his 16th save.
For his part, Verlander on his return to New York, pitched seven innings, with seven hitsthe second most this season and lost a start to the Yankees in the regular season for the first time since June 19, 2015, in Detroit.
In his first start since returning to the Astros, he struck out four and walked two. And with the loss he fell to 10-8 in his career against the Bronx Mules in the regular season.
Notably, the Astros reacquired Verlander Tuesday in a trade with the New York Mets for prospective outfielders Drew Gilbert and Ryan Clifford.
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