The Yankees Have The Astros Right Where They Want 'Em, Down 2-0

The Yankees have been here before. Their backs are against the wall with hope seemingly diminishing every single at bat. Their bats couldn’t be colder as Dallas Keuchel and Justin Verlander have completely dominated them over the last two games. The good news is this is a seven games series and the next three games will be played within the friendly confines of Yankee Stadium where New York has been nearly unbeatable over the last month.

Tonight is a massive, massive game and of course CC Sabathia gets the ball. You have to wonder how many times he can step in and be the stopper, but so far in the postseason he’s been nothing but nails. He hasn’t really faced the Astros a whole lot in his career, at least these young Astros, with most of them not registering more than three career at bats against the big fellas. And the Astros roll out Charlie Morton, who out of nowhere blossomed into a very good pitcher after being a middle of the road journeyman for his whole career. All of a sudden he throws CHEDDAR and reaches near triple digits (totally not suspicious). But the Yankees have pretty good numbers overall against him: Castro 12-30, 3 homers, 9 RBIs; Todd Frazier 7-18, 2 homers, 6 RBIs; Gardner 3-4; Matt Holliday 9-34 2 homers, 8 RBIs.

Bottom line, this offense needs to come alive. CC could pitch another gem and it will all be for nothing if this offense continues to be brain dead. The fact that they’ve held this Astros offense to two runs back to back games and have lost both games is nuts. At minimum this series should be tied 1-1 heading back to the Bronx. So will Girardi shuffle the lineup? I sure fucking hope so.

Aaron Judge needs to be dropped in the lineup. Hitting him 2nd is taking away at bats from guys who deserve more hacks like Aaron Hicks. At this point he’s inside his own head again and is chasing every single slider you throw to him. I’m convinced if I was on the mound and threw him a slider away he wouldn’t be able to hit it. So, that’s where I’m at with him. Have I lost faith? No chance. I’m gonna be an Aaron Judge guy till the day I die. But I don’t see any issue hitting him 6th tonight. This offense needs a little bit of a change and I think that’s the move you have to make, but something tells me stubborn Girardi won’t change a thing.

Also, Joe Espada needs to stop sending everyone. Whether it was Greg Bird on Friday or Gardner on Saturday like what are you doing dude?

Motherfuckin’ Joe Espada needs to be stopped before he ruins the entire series.

So what do I expect tonight? I expect the Yankees to rock Charlie Morton. I need this guy outta the game by the 5th inning so we can dig into this bullpen. I need CC to give me five innings and hand the ball off to the pen. It’s tough to tell if Kahnle or Robertson will be available, but I’d imagine so considering how important tonight is. Kahnle has turned into my favorite player on the Yankees. He’s Joba Chamberlain back when he was the 8th inning electric factory. You can expect Chad Green tonight for a few innings, since he hasn’t pitched since Friday, along with hopefully everyone else. Tonight is a must win game. You cannot go down 3-0 to this Astros team. Win tonight and take this baby one at a time.

Yankees in 7