HOUSTON — Aaron Judge and the Yankees trolled Jose Altuve Saturday night, but the Astros and their second baseman had the last laugh Sunday.
On the heels of perhaps their biggest win of the year — beating the Astros behind a resurgent Gerrit Cole’s complete game shutout — the Yankees suffered a brutal loss.
Altuve had hit a walkoff home run off Aroldis Chapman to send the Astros to the World Series in 2019 and had hugged his jersey to his chest as he came home, telling his teammates not to tear his jersey off in celebration.
So Sunday, when Gary Sanchez hit his 15th home run of the season, he too mimicked Altuve and then his teammate put a coat over his shoulders to make sure he didn’t catch a chill.
I don’t think it had anything to do with any of the things, the extra stuff people are talking about,” Boone said.
After winning four of six games on this road trip and taking both series against the Mariners and Astros, the Yankees ended their first half with the same concerns, an inconsistent offense and a struggling closer, that dogged them for the last month.
After this deflating loss, they go into the All-Star break still eight games behind the American League East-leading Red Sox, who they will face eight times in their first 10 games out of the hiatus.
It’s right in front of us, we’ll have eight or 10 games so we can go out and take what’s ours and if we play well we can put ourselves right back in the mix,” said Jameson Taillon, who allowed two hits over six innings Sunday.