HOUSTON — The Houston Astros, riding another stellar pitching performance from Justin Verlander, an acrobatic catch from center fielder George Springer and a better-late-than-never awakening of their bats, beat the Yankees, 7-1, on Friday night to force a seventh game in the American League Championship Series.
Verlander, who threw a complete-game, 13-strikeout masterpiece in Game 2, shut out the Yankees for seven innings — thanks in part to Springer, whose leaping catch off Todd Frazier’s seventh-inning drive to the center-field wall with two runners aboard kept the Yankees at bay.
It was one of several anxious moments the Astros endured before they pounded reliever David Robertson for four runs in the bottom of the eighth inning to pull away.