The Martian Blasts Off Again! NY 6 Houston 1

September 4, 2023 paperbacklou 2023 0
Jasson Dominguez, aka The Martian -- hits a 2-run MOON SHOT in the 6th to give NY a 3-1 lead -- the eventual game winner.

The kids are alright.

Jasson Dominguez — knicknamed “The Martian” for his otherworldly skills — hit his 2nd homerun in just his 3rd MLB game — this one a 2-run MOON SHOT rocketed HIGH into the September night in the 6th inning to give the Yanks a 3-1 lead, en route to a 6-1 win over the Astros in Houston.

‘Old man’ Gleyber Torres — all of 26 years old — hit a 435-foot BOMB to left in the 9th, hitting the tracks of the Choo Choo train the Astros have that sounds off after every Astro homer, causing Gleyber to pull the train horn twice in pantomime as he rounded 2nd. A Huge insurance run to make it 4-1.

And then the kids took over again — a 2-run rally on the bats of Anthony Volpe, Austin Wells, and Oswaldo Peraza to put the game away 6-1.

On the hill, ‘veteran’ Michael King — now 28 and in his 5th year as a Yank, but newly minted again as a starter — threw 5 shutout innings for the win. The bullpen of Tommy Kahnle, Jonathan Loaisiga, and Clay Holmes was spotless.

On a Sunday night in Houston.

NY sweeps the 3-game series, after having just won 3 of 4 vs Detroit, and are now 8.5 behind the final Wild Card — now held by Houston.

“Obviously what we’ve been through this year, to play like we did in Detroit and come in here and play a very good team in the middle of a division and wild card fight is nice,” said manager Aaron Boone afterwards. “Just happy for those guys who have been grinding and are continuing to put in the work. It’s nice that we’re finally seeing some results and its fun to be a part of that.”

The Yanks improve to 68-69. Houston falls to 77-61.

1. King Great

The good news continued on all fronts. Michael King, who has asked for and received opportunity to become a starter once again — like he was when he first came up and like he was in the minors when he went 11-5 1.79 in 2018 — pitched his longest and most impressive start of the season. Amazingly it was King’s first win as a starter in his career.

“He had fastball command of both sides of the plate,” said Boone of King afterwards. “I thought his stuff was really good tonite too. He’s carrying his stuff with him. The sinker and the four-seamer are both really good weapons for him to go along with his slider/changeup. Another strong outing against a good offense.”

King allowed a Houston run in the 1st on an infield single by Alex Bregman, single by Yordan Alvarez, and sac fly by Kyle Tucker — but then shut out the Astros through the 5th.

King’s final line: 5 innings, 5 hits, 1 run, 4 K’s, 0 walks.

2. Wells’ Catching Gets High Grade

Afterwards King credited Austin Wells with a tremendous job of game calling in this game and the entire weekend. “He had a great game plan coming in,” said King of Wells. “He’s phenomenal adjusting and he’s a great communicator. We had a ton of conversations in between innings about what we thought they were doing, what they were sitting on, different sequences to use — I loved working with him.”

“They’ve done a really good job communicating with me what they’re trying to do,” said Wells afterwards about the Yankee pitchers he caught this weekend. “And that’s made my job easier; calling the pitches that have given them high-success outs all year.”

Wells has been labeled a hit-first catcher in his career so far, but said its the defense and game calling are where his priorities lie. “Arguably catching is definitely more important to me,” said Wells. “Hitting is definitely important, but being able to go back there and get outs and control the pitching staff, that’s my number one goal.”

With 1 out in the 5th, Mauricio Dubon attempted to steal 2nd but Wells gunned him down for the 2nd out of the inning. It was the first baserunner to attempt to steal on Wells in his 3-game MLB career.

3. Oswaldo & DJ Tie It

Meanwhile on the other hill was the very tough Christian Javier, who came into the game with a 9-2 4.66 record. Javier shut the Yankees out through the first 5 innings — the score entering the top of the 6th: Houston 1 NY 0.

But with 1 out in the top of the 6th, Oswaldo Cabrera singled. And then DJ LeMahieu ripped a double to center to score Oswaldo and tie the game 1-1.

4. The Martian with a MOON SHOT

With DJ on 2nd representing the go-ahead run, Aaron Judge struck out, but Jasson Dominguez came up — in the Nationally televised game on ESPN Sunday night baseball — and hit the MOON SHOT to right for a 3-1 Yankee lead!

5. Bullpen Spotless

The Yankee bullpen came in and held the tough Houston lineup down:

  • Tommy Kahnle pitched 1-2-3 innings in the 6th and 7th. In the 6th he got strikeout, ground out, and then a foul fly towards the stands in left by Alvarez that Everson Pereira ran over to catch but a fan reached out and knocked the ball attempting to catch it over the field of play. After a review the umps ruled it fan interference for an out. Afterwards the ESPN crew interviewed the fan which turned into the fan interview of the season.

  • In the bottom of the 7th Kahnle got lineout, ground out, ground out. The lineout was to Oswaldo Cabrera who made a fine sprinting catch toward the line in right; the final ground out was a hard short-hopper to Anthony Volpe who made a terrific play on it.
  • Jonathan Loaisiga pitched a shutout 8th — allowing a leadoff single, then a fly out, then a single to Yanier Diaz putting runners on 1st and 2nd — but getting Jose Altuve to hit into a HUGE double play to end the inning and keep NY up 3-1.

6. Gleyber ‘Choo Choo’ BOMB

To the 9th — NY up precariously 3-1. Jose Urquidy in pitching for Houston.

With 1 out, Gleyber Torres hit an 0-1 fastball HIGH and DEEP into the night — hitting the Choo Choo tracks in left. NY 4 Houston 1.

7. The Kids Pour It On

And then the kids poured it on: single by Anthony Volpe and double by Austin Wells and NY was up 5-1.

Next batter Oswald Peraza doubled to left and NY was up 6-1.

Clay Holmes came in with the 6-1 lead and pitched a 1-2-3 inning in the 9th — groundout on 1st pitch, groundout on 1st pitch, and lineout on a 3-2 pitch for the old ballgame.

The Boxscore

https://www.espn.com/mlb/boxscore/_/gameId/401473066

 

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