Written by Joel Sherman at NY Post.com
All hail and all that. Aaron Judge certainly has earned your attention with force-of-nature play and humble attitude.
All praise to the Yankees bullpen, one high-octane flamethrower after another.
The power portion of the Yankees roster — biceps and arms — garners the majority of focus, elicits most of the fear, has been central to games still being on the schedule here in the third week of October.
But in these playoffs in general and, especially, in this ALCS, the Yankees rotation has unplugged the Astros. Turned them off. Put one of the best offenses of the past quarter century on mute. Their offense is so quiet you can hear their bats drop in frustration.
This would be like holding the Warriors to 80 points per game in a playoff series or restricting a Tom Brady offense to a few field goals.
The Astros were a relentless wrecking ball during the season. They scored 38 more runs than any team this year (the Yankees were second), hit the second-most homers (the Yankees were first) and in the Division Series all but had the Red Sox hoping Jim Lonborg or Luis Tiant would show up for support.
In the ALCS, however, Houston has just nine runs in five games, just five of them against starters after another master class Wednesday by Masahiro Tanaka, who was supposed to be the other starter in Game 5 to Dallas Keuchel. Instead, Tanaka was the best supporting actor who stole every scene.
The Yankees hit Keuchel in a way they never had in eight previous starts, amassing four runs and knocking the lefty out in the fifth inning.
Meanwhile, Tanaka pitched the Yankees to the brink of the World Series, using his arsenal of fastball, slider and split to bedevil Houston’s lineup. His six shutout innings provided the backbone of a 5-0 triumph that gave the Yankees a three-games-to-two lead.
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