Aaron Boone screams at home plate umpire Brian Walsh after being ejected in the eighth inning against the Astros on Wednesday night. (Photo by Alex Slitz/Getty Images)
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If the New York Yankees lose the division by one game, or, even worse, if they fail to make the playoffs by one game, the team will look to the night of September 3rd as the reason why. Of course, as any baseball fan knows, a season of 162 games never comes down to a single contest. Win or lose, there are dozens of others that could have turned the tide – a chilly night in April, an afternoon game before the All-Star break, and/or a tense battle the last week of the season. But, man, last night’s game against their nemesis, the Houston Astros, has to hurt.
To set the stage, the Yankees, behind home runs from Giancarlo Stanton and Austin Wells and a Ryan McMahon sacrifice fly, held a 4-1 lead going into the bottom of the 6th inning at Daikin Park in Houston.
Jeremy Peña led off the bottom of the sixth with his 15th homer of the year to cut the lead to two. Yordan Alvarez then collected his third hit of the night, a double to left. He moved to third on a wild pitch by Fernando Cruz, and then scored on a soft ground out to third. The Yankees got the next two outs to escape the sixth with a one-run lead.
Victor Caratini led off the bottom of the seventh with a single for Houston, and remained there after the Yankees recorded two outs. Luke Weaver walked Peña, moving the tying run into scoring position. That man, Alvarez, came to the plate again, and promptly banged a single to left to drive in the tying run.
The Yankees went quickly – on seven pitches – in the top of the eighth. In the bottom half, after getting ahead of Carlos Correa 0-2, Devin Williams threw his patented change-up in the dirt and then left a 96 MPH fastball over the heart of the plate, which the third baseman promptly smacked to right for a lead-off double. Jesús Sánchez then walked on five pitches. After a Yanier Diaz strike out, Christian Walker walked on a very close 3-2 pitch. Williams thought it was a strike, but he was incorrect, and now the bases were loaded with just one out.
Ball four to Christian Walker was very close, but despite Devin Williams’ protests, it was a ball.
-DFF
Ramón Urías struck out, which gave the Yankees a chance to get out of the inning unscathed. Taylor Trammell then battled for five-pitch walk, but it is not so neat.
Even though he struck out, the last two pitches to Urías were out of the zone. As you can see below, the first two pitches to Trammell were equally bad. So, when Williams unleashed a 96 MPH fastball that rode up and in on the batter, and when Trammell twisted to avoid the pitch, home plate umpire Brian Walsh was inclined to call it ball three (it should have been strike one). Williams laid the 3-0 offering right down the middle to bring the count to 3-1. The fifth pitch (like the third) will be a strike next season if/when MLB institutes the ABS system and calls can be appealed. But on this night, in 2025, Williams’ change-up looked low, and Trammell sold the heck out of it and walked to first base, allowing the Astros to take their first lead of the night. This led to a pitching change, and Williams and manager Aaron Boone both being ejected (it’s hard to be right!).
Both ball three and ball four to Taylor Trammell could have been called strikes. Williams was right to be upset.
-DFF
Peña then singled to right to make the score 6-4. Camilo Doval, recently in the game, rushed his first pitch to Alvarez, failing to come set. Balk. 7-4 Astros. Doval then spiked a slider that went to the backstop. 8-4 Astros. Somehow Alvarez retired Alvarez for the first time on the night (after he swung at ball four), to move the game to the ninth.
After a Jasson Domínguez ground out, McMahon singled to center. After a Trent Grisham strike out, Aaron Judge singled to center. With the Yankees down to their last strike, Bellinger hit a low line drive into the right field seats for a three-run home run, making it a one-run game.
Up came Jazz Chisolm representing the tying run. Jazz took a slider for a ball, and then swung through two sliders to fall behind 1-2. A slider in the dirt squared the count at 2-2. A 99 MPH fastball may have clipped the zone (hard to know how ABS would have called it), but Walsh called it ball three. The final pitch of the game was a slider on the outside corner. Well, it was outside the outside corner. Chisolm immediately dropped his bat and unfastened his elbow guard. He was on his way to first base, with Stanton coming to the plate representing the lead run, when he heard Walsh call strike three. Ballgame.
Jazz Chisolm was right to be incensed that the 3-2 pitch was called strike three rather than ball four.
-DFF
Suffice it to say, Jazz was none-too-pleased. And he was right. As we were Williams and Boone earlier. Managers always say, “it’s too close to take.” But major league hitters are so finely attuned to the strike zone, have such a keen understanding of what is and is not a strike, you cannot blame one for taking that pitch. Especially when it actually was a ball.
Chisolm hollered and complained, and the Astros shook hands and walked off the field. There are countless moments in a baseball game that turn the tide in one direction or another – and it is hard to pinpoint any single play or pitch that cost any team any particular game. But, when there are multiple such pitches, multiple such moments, a team has a pretty good argument to make.
With the loss, the Yankees fell to 3.5 games behind the AL East-leading Toronto Blue Jays, who won earlier in the day. They failed to gain any ground on the Boston Red Sox, who got blown out by the Guardians. New York still has a six-game cushion in the Wild Card race (actually seven in the loss column). Fangraphs gives them a 99.4% chance to make the playoffs. So, in the end, this game may mean only a few hours of frustration. But, in that moment, it felt a whole lot more significant than that.
