Bob Klapisch

NorthJersey

NEW YORK – Maybe the Astros would’ve been better off saving Dallas Keuchel for Game 6, pushing Justin Verlander to Game 7 and being honest about the three AL Championship Series games in the Bronx this week: they weren’t going to win them. Not a single one.

The Yankees were too good, the crowd was too tough. The Astros might have won 101 games this season, but they were no match for the raging masses that intimidated them in Games 3, 4, and 5 while the Yankees took a commanding 3-2 lead in this miracle ALCS.

The Astros left town looking like they picked the wrong guy in a bar fight – staggering, dazed. They crawled home to the safety of Minute Maid Park, but won’t soon forget the stomping the Yankees put on them in the meantime.

“In the playoffs, if they get you to crack a little bit outside of your game plan, then they’ve got you,” A.J. Hinch said after. It was as close to a concession speech as any manager could make in the post-season, but his assessment was incredibly candid. The Astros are broken. They looked scared of the city and the fans.

The Yankees? They’re on one long magic carpet ride, just one win away from the World Series after Wednesday’s 5-0 victory. It looks like nothing can stop them.

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Except Verlander, that is, the Astros’ last, best hope. He threw a complete-game gem in a 2-1 victory in Game 2, striking out 13. The Yankees conceded Verlander was unhittable that night – he covered all four quadrants of the strike zone with power fastballs and sliders. But the memory of those at-bats are still fresh in the Bombers’ memory, just as they remembered how well Keuchel pitched in a similar 2-1 victory in Game 1.

The Yankees solved Keuchel because they knew his tricks, they were prepared this time for the way he subtly expands the strike zone and induces hitters to chase bad pitches.

“You have to make him throw strikes,” Didi Gregorius said. “We adjusted and we got to him.”

Verlander will be next, with a slight tweak of the battle plan: be aggressive, don’t take too many pitches early in the at-bat, don’t fall behind in the count. Don’t let Verlander bury you with his 96-98 four-seamer or late-breaking slider.

It might work, but the Yankees have a Plan B ready even if this series goes to a seventh game. It’s called old man CC Sabathia, who would be a huge favorite over Charlie Morton, the Astros’ last line of defense. That’s why the Bombers can practically taste the World Series at this point. All they had to do was beat Keuchel or Verlander and they’d be home free.

Of course, no one would dare say so. It would be an act of treason to start gloating now. Aaron Judge was the voice of restraint when he said, “this feels great, but we’re not done. We still have to grind out our at-bats. This (Series) is not over.”

Still, the Yankees were able to inflict a huge psychological blow to the Astros by knocking out Keuchel early. In eight previous starts (57.2 innings), the ace lefthander had allowed only seven earned runs. This time Keuchel was slugged for four earned runs in 4.2 innings. The hyped-up pitchers’ duel with Masahiro Tanaka was over before it started.

The big hits came from Greg Bird (second-inning RBI single) and Judge (third-inning RBI double) followed by Gary Sanchez and Gregorius in the fifth (run-scoring double and RBI single). Hinch stayed with Keuchel as long as possible but Gregorius was right: the Yankees had done their homework.

The sight of Keuchel taking that million-mile walk to the dugout must’ve crushed the Astros just as it catalyzed the predatory crowd. The lefthander was savaged by the fans behind the third base dugout, a street-hardened send-off the likes of which the Astros hadn’t experienced anywhere else.

‘It's a tough environment. These people love their Yankees, they love baseball, they love the moments,” Hinch said before the game, presciently adding, “they're smart with how they try to get loud and put pressure on the players.”

The manager also promised, “we’re not going to cave to it” but the Astros did just that. Their only consolation is knowing, win or lose, they won’t have to step inside the Bronx madhouse again in 2017. The Astros packed their suitcases, showered, shaved and headed to the airport. They couldn’t get on the plane fast enough.

But the damage has been done, as the Yankees have out-performed the Astros in every way. Tanaka’s seven shutout innings made Keuchel look bad on Wednesday, just as the Yankees’ bullpen embarrassed the Astros’ relievers 24 hours earlier in Game 4.

The Astros offense is invisible - George Springer, Jose Altuve and Carlos Correa all look lost. If it wasn't for Yuli Gurriel, Houston’s lineup wouldn’t pose a single threat. Now the Astros have one remaining weapon (Verlander) being asked to stop the Yankees’ runaway train. That and Minute Maid Park.

But the Yankees have all that covered with a week's worth of momentum and Sabathia in their back pocket. Here they are, just one win from the World Series. Imagine.