Baseball: Frazier, Judge Power Yankees Over Astros

Home runs from Todd Frazier and Aaron Judge powered the New York Yankees to an 8-1 victory over the Houston Astros on Monday and back into their American League Championship Series

New York, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 17th Oct, 2017 ) :Home runs from Todd Frazier and Aaron Judge powered the New York Yankees to an 8-1 victory over the Houston Astros on Monday and back into their American League Championship Series.

After dropping the first two games of the best-of-seven series in Houston, the Yankees bounced back before a sell-out crowd of 49,373 at Yankee Stadium. Aaron Judge, the rookie sensation and AL Most Valuable Player candidate, broke out of his playoff slump with a two-out, three-run home run off of Astros relief pitcher Charlie Morton that highlighted a five-run fourth inning.

Judge came up big defensively as well, with a leaping catch into the right field wall in the top of the fourth that denied Yuli Gurriel at least an extra base hit and possibly a home run. Judge's diving catch of a ball hit by Cameron Maybin gave the Yankees their first out of the fifth.

Yankees pitcher CC Sabathia pitched six gritty, scoreless innings. Frazier gave Sabathia some early breathing room with a two-out, three-run homer off of Astros starting pitcher Charlie Morton in the bottom of the second inning.

Judge came into the game in a 4-for-31 slump in these playoffs -- including 19 strikeouts -- said he was pleased to provide support for Sabathia. "It felt good to put a couple more runs on the board for CC," Judge said of his home run.

"He was working his butt off, did a great job tonight, and just to add those extra couple of runs was huge for us." Sabathia allowed three hits in six scoreless innings, striking out five. He's 10-0 this season when pitching following a Yankees defeat.

New York took the lead in the second. Starlin Castro sparked the two-out rally with an infield single. Aaron Hicks followed with a single to left-center before third baseman Frazier smacked a fastball that was down and outside into the right field stands.

"That home run I hit, it was unorthodox, but I'll take a hundred like it," he said. While the Astros' big bats struggled -- Jose Altuve and Carlos Correa were a combined 1-for-8 at the plate -- Houston avoided being blanked when they posted their lone run in the ninth on a bases-loaded walk by Alex Bregman. The Yankees will try to level the series when they host game four on Tuesday.