The Astros have moved to within two wins of a third trip to the World Series after beating the New York Yankees, 4-1 in game 3 of the American League championship series. Gerrit Cole continued his season-long mastery of any opposition in front of him and Jose Altuve extended his major league record for career home runs in the postseason by a second baseman.
Here are some numbers to know following game 3:
- Altuve has at least one hit in each of the Astros eight postseason games and his hitting streak actually reaches 12 games going back to last season's ALCS. The 12-game hitting streak is the second longest in Astros postseason history (14, George Springer, 2017-18)
- His first inning home run off Luis Severino was his 4th of this postseason and the 12th of his career, tying him for the most postseason home runs in Astros franchise history. He also extended his major league record for career home runs in the postseason by a second baseman.
- With two runs scored in Game 3, Altuve now has scored 30 runs in the postseason, extending his lead on the Astros' all-time list. He has scored multiple runs in seven postseason games, tying him with Carlos Beltrans and Alex Bregman atop that list for the Astros.
- Gerrit Cole is now 3-0 this postseason in three starts and has allowed only a single run in 22.2 innings pitched. That's an ERA of 0.40. He's faced 84 batters and struck out 32 of them.
- Cole walked five batters, tying for the most in his career, regular or postseason. In his 199 career starts in the regular and postseason before tonight, he had walked five batters in a game only once (June 18, 2018 vs Rays) .
- By working 7.0 shutout innings, Cole became the 12th pitcher to work seven-or-more innings while allowing one run or fewer in each of his first three starts of a single postseason. Current teammate Justin Verlander, then with the Tigers, was the last to accomplish the feat when he reached those marks in three straight games in 2013. Curt Schilling holds the record with five such outings to start the postseason in 2001.
- Josh Reddick's 2nd inning homer was just the 2nd long ball of his Astros postseason career in his now 105 at-bats over the last three postseasons with Houston.
- The Yankees scored 23 runs to sweep the Twins in three games to claim their American League division series. Houston has held the Yankees to 10 runs in the first three games of the ALCS.
- Game 3 was delayed by 17 minutes after the bottom of the fourth inning when home plate umpire Jeff Nelson left the game after getting hit with a foul ball. Second base umpire Kerwin Danley took over behind home plate, while third base umpire Mark Carlson moved to second base and left field umpire Marvin Hudson moved to third base, leaving the left field umpire spot vacant.