HOUSTON — Gleyber Torres kept up his October surge with a homer and five RBIs, Masahiro Tanaka polished his playoff resume and the New York Yankees blanked the Houston Astros, 7-0, on Saturday night in the AL Championship Series opener.
With so much attention focused on the Astros aces, Tanaka showed he more than belonged on this stage, too. He threw one-hit ball for six innings to outpitch Zack Greinke, improving to 5-2 with a 1.32 ERA in the postseason.
Torres did his part in this matchup of 100-win behemoths with a go-ahead double, a solo homer, a two-run single and an RBI grounder. Moved up to third in the batting order after mashing in a sweep of Minnesota, the 22-year-old star became the youngest AL player to drive in five runs during a postseason game.
Giancarlo Stanton and Gio Urshela also homered, and right fielder Aaron Judge turned in the key play, catching a line drive and doubling Alex Bregman off first base.
The Yankees will try to build on their early momentum when James Paxton starts against 21-game winner Justin Verlander in Game 2 on Sunday night.
