Ageless Verlander lifts Houston Astros over New York Yankees in ALCS opener

Justin Verlander struck out 11 in six strong innings and Yuli Gurriel, Chas McCormick and Jeremy Pena all homered to power the Houston Astros to a 4-2 win over the New York Yankees in their AL Championship Series opener Wednesday night.

The Astros are in their sixth consecutive ALCS, looking to reach the World Series for the fourth time in that span, against a New York team in the LCS for the first time since being eliminated by Houston in 2019.

The game was tied 1-all in the sixth when Gurriel connected off reliever Clarke Schmidt on a solo shot to the seats in left field to put Houston on top. Two batters later, McCormick sent a sinker from Schmidt into right field to make it 3-1.

Verlander set a major league record with the eighth double-digit strikeout game of his postseason career and passed Clayton Kershaw (213) to become the all-time leader in strikeouts in the playoffs with 219.

Pena, whose 18th-inning home run completed a sweep of the Mariners in the ALDS, belted a homer off Frankie Montas to start the seventh and extend the lead to 4-1. Montas was pitching for the first time since Sept. 16 because of a shoulder injury that kept him off the Division Series roster.

Anthony Rizzo homered off Rafael Montero with two outs in the eighth to get the Yankees within two. Giancarlo Stanton singled before Josh Donaldson walked to spur Astros manager Dusty Baker to bring in closer Ryan Pressly.

He struck out Matt Carpenter to end the inning and pitched a 1-2-3 ninth to get the four-out save.

After struggling in Game 1 of the ALDS against Seattle, Verlander looked shaky early in this one, giving up a second-inning homer to Harrison Bader to put the Yankees up 1-0. But the Astros tied it in the bottom of the inning on an RBI