HOUSTON — The Yankees are in the midst of a daunting 12-game stretch against four tough opponents.
Or five, if you include Brian Walsh.
But unlike Wednesday night, when they felt Walsh cost them the game from behind the plate, the Yankees were able to overcome another gaffe from the same umpire to claim the rubber game of the three-game series with a tense 8-4 win over the Astros on Thursday night.
Walsh’s controversial call that Ryan McMahon dropped a ball at third base rather than lose it on his transfer to making a throw— which appeared to clearly be the case — led to a run in the sixth inning that pulled the Astros within 4-2.
It was 4-3 entering the eighth when McMahon created some breathing room with an RBI single before Trent Grisham unloaded for a three-run shot, his 30th of the year, that put the Yankees ahead 8-3 and silenced the crowd of 35,018.
Still, more drama ensued in the bottom of the ninth.
David Bednar entered and allowed back-to-back hits, the second one a double by Taylor Trammell, at which point manager Aaron Boone asked umpire crew chief Adrian Johnson to inspect the bat because the Yankees noticed during the series it had some discoloration that might have been illegal.
After the bat was eventually handed to an official authenticator, the Astros (77-64) went on to bring the potential tying run to the plate with one out before Bednar struck out Carlos Correa and Christian Walker to end it.
“This [series] took some months and some years off me, for sure,” Boone said with a chuckle. “But look, really, really gritty, good performance by the guys, especially as they started to come back off of how emotional [Wednesday] night was and everything and a tough loss.
“For the guys to come out and build a lead, have the Astros come back and then just keep pulling away and some big performances out of the pen to finish it off, just a really good win to finish off a good road trip here and a big road series win and now we got a quick turnaround and get ready for a big home stand.”
The wild win sent the Yankees (78-62) flying high back to New York for another big weekend showdown against the Blue Jays, whom they now trail by 3 games for the AL East with 22 games to play.
The Yankees also moved a half-game ahead of the Red Sox for the top AL wild card.
“We’ve played good ball of late, but at the end of the day, we got to play well against those guys,” Grisham said of the Blue Jays.
Coming off an excruciating loss on Wednesday night, the Yankees led 4-1 entering the sixth inning when the umpiring crew made its presence known once again.
With a man on second, Jose Altuve hit a soft liner to third base, where McMahon appeared to catch it in his glove and then lose the ball as he attempted to grip it with his throwing hand.
But Walsh, who missed multiple calls behind the plate during Devin Williams’ eighth-inning meltdown Wednesday, ruled that McMahon never secured the ball.
The umpires eventually talked among themselves about the play — which was not reviewable — but ultimately they came to the conclusion that McMahon did not catch the ball.
“More just [ticked] off at myself for not making sure to keep holding onto it,” said McMahon, who went 3-for-4 with three RBIs. “I got cute, I wanted to look at second and see if we could double him off. But right there, just got to make sure I squeeze it and hold on tight. I do think I caught it though.”
Incredulous, Boone headed back onto the field to try to get an explanation, though somehow he maintained his composure and did not get ejected for what would have been the second night in a row.
Carlos Rodón got the next batter, Correa, to ground into a fielder’s choice that should have been a double play, except Ben Rice could not catch a low throw from second baseman José Caballero, allowing the run to score from second to make it 4-2.
But Rodón retired the next two batters in order to keep the inning from getting out of hand, finishing off a strong effort on 109 pitches.
“It was my turn to pick them up,” Rodón said. “They’ve picked me up all season.”
Luke Weaver gave up a home run in the seventh to make it 4-3, but then after two men reached with two outs, Fernando Cruz entered from the bullpen to get a huge strikeout of forever Yankees nemesis Altuve — who went hitless in the series — to escape the jam.
“Winning the series in this place is a tough thing,” Cruz said. “For me, I knew we had a really, really good chance after that of winning the game. So my emotions just exploded.”
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