Houston Astros pitcher Christian Javier and two rebounds combined the first striker without a 19-year-old New York Yankees, eliminating the best baseball team for a 3-0 victory at Yankee Stadium on Saturday.
Javier (5-3), a 25-year-old right-hander without a full game in 84 professional starts, peaked his career with 13 outs on 115 pitches in seven innings before being pulled out by manager Dusty Baker after the seventh inning.
“I feel really happy, really proud of this moment that God has given me,” Javier said through an interpreter.
Ryan Presley, who finished the gem with 1-2-3 ninths, said closer: “Doing it in New York is the best feeling in the world.”
In a team match with the first two records in the American League, New York did not come close to a hit in front of a silenced audience of 45,076 people. The top Yankees in the Premier League lost consecutive games for the first time on May 28-29 against Tampa Bay, gaining their only runners in three walks and a mistake.
YearCollectionKsPitcher (s) 2015Nationals17Max Scherzer1973Angels17Nolan Ryan2021Brewers16Combined1991Rangers16Nolan Ryan2022Astros15 * Combined * Equal to 4 others
Hector Neris relieved Javier in the eighth inning, but not without drama. Neris allowed two walks before exiting the inning with a flyball to the warning track by Joey Gallo and a solid farmer by Aaron Judge to select a fielder.
“I said, ‘I have to take him for my team, I have to take him for Javey,'” said Neris, who had never directed without a striker.
Presley, who gave up Aaron Hicks’ three-run equalizer on Homer’s 7-6 loss on Thursday night, withdrew three consecutive batteries in the ninth for his 15th save with 18 chances. After Giancarlo Stanton hit in the final match, the Astros went out on the field and gathered near the mound for a short celebration.
Only two non-attackers have been thrown against the Yankees since Hoyt Wilhelm of Baltimore did so in 1958. Both ended up in the hands of the Astros, who had a combination of six pitchers to do so at the Yankee Stadium on June 11, 2003.
Year Pitcher (s) Team 2022 Combined Astros 2003 Combined Astros 1952 Virgil Tracks Tigers 1946 Bob Feller Guardians 1919 Ray Caldwell Guardians 1908 Cy Young Red Sox
Houston scored in a solo home run by rookie JJ Mathievich in seventh and Jose Altowe in eighth. Yuli Gurriel added the hit single RBI in the ninth.
New York was without a hit for only the eighth time and only the sixth time at home. Two were from Astros, and both are joining forces.
Houston was the last team to do so, across the street from the old Yankee Stadium in 2003. Roy Oswalt tensed his right groin after his second pitch in the second inning, and Pete Munro (2⅔ innings), Kirk Saarlos (1⅓), Brad Lidge (two), Octavio Dotel (one) and Billy Wagner (one) followed with an 8-0 victory.
The Astros already have 14 strikers in their history, the most in major tournaments since the start of Houston’s game in 1962. Three were combined, also a record.
Javier threw 71 of 115 shots. His previous high was 107 games against Seattle on April 27 last year.
He passed Josh Donaldson with a full number of quick balls with two outs in the first, then withdrew 17 in a row until Donaldson reached when third baseman Alex Bregman threw first for a mistake in one out in the seventh. Stanton called for a third shot and Gleyber Torres swung.
Javier, who reduced his ERA to 2.73, started because Jake Odorizzi was injured. Javier started 12 of his first 18 shots with a kick, but started his last five with a ball. His 50.9 percent first hit rate is 155th among 157 pitchers to face 150 or more record appearances this season.
Mathievich, 26, taken from Houston in the second round of the 2017 amateur draft, debuted on April 22. He is 2-for-14 and both goals are solo home runs – he went deep against Michael Kopech of the Chicago White Sox on June 19.
Yankees starter Gerrit Cole did not hit until Jake Myers grounded a slider in the right field with two outs in the heel. In his previous start, Cole kept Tampa Bay unbeaten until Isaac Paredes took the eighth on June 20th. The 31-year-old made a perfect game in the seventh game against Detroit on June 3 before Jonathan Shaw scored two outs single.
So far this season, there have been three strikers, with five New York Mets pitchers combining against the Philadelphia on April 29 and Reed Detmers of the Los Angeles Angels, who scored a feat against Reyes on May 10.
The last one without a Houston striker was thrown by Justin Verlander on September 1, 2019 in Toronto.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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