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No team in baseball history has ever gone back two games without conceding a hit. For a while Sunday seemed like the team with the best baseball record and run scoring in the American League could go first.
A day after three Houston pitchers threw a combined no-hitter against the Yankees, righty Jose Urquidy carried another no-no bid into the seventh inning. But Aaron Boone’s team bounced back from a three-run hole and pulled a split of a four-game series against the Nemesis Astros on Aaron Judge’s walk-off homer for a nice 6-3 win in 10 innings at the ballpark.
Giancarlo Stanton broke Urquidy’s no-hit bid with a one-out home run to center in the seventh, ending a 16-inning losing streak for the Yankees since the eighth inning Friday night. DJ LeMahieu then hit a crucial two-run shot in the eighth game before Judge won it in the 10th with a three-run homer to the left — his MLB-leading 28th of the season — from reliever Seth Martinez to the Yanks to complete. MLB-high 22nd comeback win of the season.
The Yanks had a chance to win in ninth place after Gleyber Torres went with an out before snagging second place and moving to third place due to a throwing error by catcher Jason Castro. But Torres fell while taking his second lead and was doubled from third on Aaron Hicks’ strikeout before being helped off the field and pulled out of the game with an apparent leg injury.
Michael King also worked his way out of a bases-laden jam at the top of 10th as the Yanks (53-20) avoided their second losing streak in three games of the season.
“We’re going to be ready to play and go out there and try to get a W without giving it the slightest thought as to how we’re going to react,” Yanks manager Aaron Boone said ahead of Sunday’s game. “I know we are strong and will turn the tide [Saturday] and go out and look for it and hope to save a series.
Yankees starter Nestor Cortes was also looking to bounce back from a rare bumpy start this season, in which he was tagged for three homers in 4¹/₃ innings in a 5-4 loss to the Rays. Cortes was rocked by leadoff batter Jose Altuve for a first-pitch homer in the first inning, and the left-hander went back after five with three runs.
Altuve, who also hit a homer in the eighth inning of Saturday’s game, again heard boos and profanity chanting of his last name from the stadium crowd for his role in the Astros sign-theft scandal. The former AL MVP calmed the mockery as he opened up his seventh homer of the season to put the Yanks in a quick 1-0 hole.
Cortes didn’t allow another hit until Yuri Gurriel’s infield single with two outs in the fourth, recording six of his seven strikeouts in that span. But Jeremy Pena followed with a brace, and both runners scored in Mauricio Dubon’s singles to give Houston a 3-0 lead.
The Yanks extended their streak of innings without a hit to 16 since LeMahieu’s single in the eighth inning of Friday night’s game. Urquidy retired the first 11 batters he faced until going to Anthony Rizzo in the fourth. The Yanks’ hitless string marked their longest in at least 70 years, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.
After Rizzo was knocked out by a flyball in the first of seven games, Stanton squandered Urquidy’s chance for history with a first pitch homer into the net over Monument Park, his 17th of the season, for a 3-1 game.
No team has ever thrown a no-hitter or been no-hit in consecutive games, although the St. Louis Browns did to the White Sox on consecutive days in 1917. Ernie Koob threw a no hit. no on May 5th with Bob Groom completing his jewel in the second game of a doubleheader the following day.
LeMahieu equalized the Yanks by pushing a 2-2 shifter from right-back Phil Maton to left field spots with two losses in eighth.
