Booed, heckled and chanted at in mostly expletive-laden terms seemingly since the Stadium gates opened at 5:30 p.m.
“It’s a go-ahead homer,” Green said of allowing it to Altuve, clearly enemy No.
The second baseman, 2-for-11 to that point of the series and serenaded by a boisterous “Cheater! Cheater!” chant, turned on a full-count fastball, which came in at 96-mph, and yanked it to left-center, his third homer making it 5-3.
Gleyber Torres’ mad dash around the bases in the bottom half, when he scored from first on an infield single, cut the Yankees’ deficit to 5-4 but Martin Maldonado’s two-out, two-run homer in the ninth off Justin Wilson extended the Houston lead to 7-4.
Gerrit Cole, of course, had been getting the job done all season.
He did not have that kind of swing-and-miss stuff Thursday, but nonetheless had his team in position to win late, allowing two runs and five hits over seven innings, his ERA ticking up to 1.61.
“It was tough,” Cole said of facing a team he pitched for from 2018-19.