2022 MLB Playoffs: Astros sweep Yankees in ALCS, cruise into World Series

By Deesha Thosar
FOX Sports MLB Writer

NEW YORK — Jeremy Peña clubbed a game-tying, three-run home run and shrugged at his brethren. 

Doesn’t everyone know by now, the Astros rookie shortstop and soon-to-be ALCS MVP seemed to say with that gesture of indifference, that this is what he does? Doesn’t everyone know by now that this is who the Astros are: a team of talented, hungry, unstoppable baseball players who will crush a weaker opponent with no mercy? 

The Yankees knew. Their previous postseason losses to the Astros in 2015, ‘17 and ‘19 became almost annual reminders of Houston’s seemingly limitless fortitude. And the Yankees’ best effort yet to halt Houston’s moving train and prolong the series wasn’t enough to prevent the inevitable. On Sunday, the Yankees were swept by the Astros in the best-of-seven ALCS.

The Astros came back from behind and won 6-5 in Game 4 at Yankee Stadium, advancing to the World Series for the fourth time in the past six years. They swept a seven-game set for the first time in franchise history. 

"It's surreal," Peña said later. "You dream about this stuff when you're a kid."

On Friday, they will face the Phillies in the World Series.

Astros skipper Dusty Baker advanced to the Fall Classic for the third time in his 25-year managerial career. Baker is one of 12 managers in history with 2,000 regular-season wins, and he’s the only one in that group without a World Series ring. The Astros are four wins away from changing that statistic. 

"We want it, we earned it, and we think we deserve it," Baker said. "But nobody's going to give it to you. You got to go out and take what you want."

"From sitting on my couch last year, watching these guys and wishing I was part of it, to not knowing whether I was going to pitch, to not knowing if I was going to be good again, to find myself here, now, after a great season, part of this run, back with the boys, it’s a hell of a ride, and I’m just enjoying every moment of it," Astros ace Justin Verlander said.

The ALCS between the Astros and Yankees was tabbed as the boring series in comparison to the other, way more exciting NLCS between the Phillies and Padres. As far as postseason games go, it was difficult for any two teams to compete with the home-run frenzy and pitching pandemonium that took place this weekend in Philadelphia. 

But one thing was for sure: Leading up to Sunday, the lifeless Yankees offense getting steamrollered by Houston’s dominant pitching wasn't living up to the playoff atmosphere many fans had expected. It certainly wasn’t the type of October electricity that captured the City of Brotherly Love just over 100 miles southwest of the Bronx.

"It stings to say this, but congratulations to them," Yankees first baseman Anthony Rizzo said. "What they’re doing is incredible. It sucks for us."

Following an 84-minute rain delay, the Yankees grabbed everyone’s attention early Sunday, when their fans still believed they could do the near-impossible and string together four consecutive wins against the Astros. They scored first, tacking on three runs in the first two innings against Astros right-hander Lance McCullers Jr. 

The Yankees scored four runs (two unearned) in their first three games of the ALCS. But on Sunday, their game plan of attacking McCullers early finally snapped their streak of 14 consecutive scoreless innings, which dated to Thursday’s Game 2 in Houston.

"They’re just tough," McCullers later said of the Yankees. "You can’t hold down a good team forever. And they’re at home, they do not want to get swept, they do not want to lose. I know the feeling of a clubhouse just needing to break through, needing to win just one game. So they came in today and gave me everything I could handle, and I grinded, and I battled."

But the third was a nightmarish inning to be a Yankees pitcher. After left-handed starter Nestor Cortes survived just two-plus innings against the Astros, departing after two separate visits from a trainer and the three-run bomb from Peña, reliever Wandy Peralta was struck on his right hand by a Kyle Tucker comebacker. Then it was Peralta’s turn to be checked on by a trainer.

The Yankees later announced that Cortes left the game due to a groin injury. New York had to cover 21 outs with its bullpen.

The Yankees gave it their best shot. Harrison Bader, the Bronxville native, crushed a game-tying, solo home run to left field in the sixth, making it a 5-5 game. It was Bader’s fifth home run in nine playoff games and 34 plate appearances this October. The Yankees couldn’t have asked for much more than his sixth RBI and eighth run scored of the postseason to help them scratch out at least one win against the Astros. 

But it just wasn’t enough. No matter what the Yankees tried — hours before Sunday’s game, they watched highlights of the 2004 Red Sox's comeback from a 3-0 series deficit as inspiration — it fell short against an impressive Astros team that was always the better squad, on paper and in the box score. 

In what might be his last at-bat as a Yankee, free-agent-to-be Aaron Judge grounded out to the pitcher for the final out of the ALCS. The Astros jumped and danced and hollered on the field as 46,545 fans trudged out of Yankee Stadium for the final time this year.

"It's an awful day, just an awful ending," Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. "It stings. It hurts."

By the end, when the Astros were being presented with the AL pennant trophy on the field, the scene was surreal. The hundreds of Astros fans remaining in the stands at Yankee Stadium chanted "Jose, Jose, Jose" for Jose Altuve and roared when Peña, who has three home runs this postseason, was named ALCS MVP. In their rival’s home, the Astros smiled and cheered and soaked in their glory.

And then they trashed the place. A never-ending stream of champagne shot through the visitors clubhouse and drenched the players, the coaches, the staffers, the walls and the floor. The Astros huddled in circles, put their arms around one another and swayed to the sound of their own chants, pounding their feet in the champagne puddles. 

Winning — no matter how often the Astros do it — never gets old.

"It definitely was not easy," Peña said. "There was a lot of work that went into this. A lot of blood, sweat and tears. This team stuck with one another. We rooted for one another. 

"We picked each other up all year, and we battled all year, and it's great to be here at this point."

Deesha Thosar is an MLB writer for FOX Sports. She previously covered the Mets for the New York Daily News. Follow her on Twitter at @DeeshaThosar.