Houston Astros first baseman Yuli Gurriel. (Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports)
The Astros took control of Game 1 of the ALCS against the Yankees with a trio of home runs that had New Yorkers pulling their hair in frustration.
The Yankees are trying to get the monkey off their back against the Astros in the ALCS after two previous championship series losses to the franchise.
It’s safe to say giving up three home runs in the pivotal innings of Game 1 isn’t the way to do it.
Houston and New York were locked at 1-1 until the sixth inning when the Astros unloaded on reliever Clarke Schmidt to blow open the game.
Yuli Gurriel broke the deadlock with his 381-foot home run to start the inning.
One batter later, Chas McCormick went 386 feet
Jeremy Peña added to the lead in the seventh inning with his own 386-foot homer.
Astros broke Yankees Twitter with home runs
Yankees fans were not pleased with the turn of events.
Anthony Rizzo went on to stop the bleeding with an eight-inning home run but the damage was done.
New York has never beaten the Astros in a playoff series. Falling behind in Game 1 is not a death sentence by any means. Still, the psychology of the series is clear. Houston has an edge on that front. Giving them an early advantage won’t help flip the script.
Then again, it was always going to be tough going against Justin Verlander. The Astros ace went six innings, giving up just three hits and one run while striking out 11. The Yankees needed their pitching staff from top to bottom to keep things close and they struggled to do that.