Yankees 1, Astros 0: Pitcher's Duel Fizzles Out In The Ninth

What Happened

Scott Feldman and Nathan Eovaldi went back and forth for eight innings.  Two totally different styles of pitchers getting the same results.  First let's talk about Feldman.  For the fifth time out of seven starts since coming back from the disabled list he turned in a quality start.  For the second time in his last three starts he gave up zero runs.  Tonight Feldman went eight innings (his longest outing of the season) and gave up six hits, walking none and striking out six.  The only trouble he had all night was in the seventh inning when he gave up back-to-back singles and had runners on first and third with no outs.  He dug down and struck out Greg Bird, then got a fly ball to center field.  Carlos Gomez made the catch and threw a strike to home plate where Hank Conger made a great tag on speedster Brian McCann to complete the double play.

On the other side Eovaldi was just as good.  Pumping fastball after fastball at 98 plus, mixed in with his splitter and slider he kept the Astros hitters off balance all night.  Like Feldman he only had one tough inning.  In the sixth inning Carlos Correa started the inning with a single and Colby Rasmus folllowed with a walk.  Carlos Gomez bunted them to second and third.  Evan Gattis came up next and hit a hard chopper to first that was fielded quickly by Bird.  Correa held up at third, but Rasmus didn't hold up.  Rasmus ended up getting tagged out going back to second.  Eovaldi got Luis Valbuena to fly out to end the inning.

After eight innings of stellar pitching by both sides it was time for the bullpen to do their work.  Andrew Miller worked around a leadoff single by Gattis by striking out Valbuena and getting a caught stealing on pinch runner Jake Marisnick.  In the bottom of the ninth our lefty specialist Oliver Perez came in to face the two lefties sandwiched around Alex Rodriguez.  He didn't even give Brett Gardner a chance to hit as he walked him quickly.  With Gardner on base, Perez then threw a pitch just a bit outside that rattled around the backstop and allowed Gardner to go to second.  With first base open they elected to intentionally walk Arod to get to the next lefty, Brian McCann.  Perez then walked McCann on five pitches.  Chad Qualls was brought in to the unenviable position of having bases loaded and no outs.  He got a fly ball, but it was deep enough to end the game on the bad side of a walk off.

Tomorrow the Astros will send Dallas Keuchel to the mound to face the Yankees Ivan Nova at 6 pm Central time.

Fun Facts

This was Feldman's longest outing since September 6th of last season when he went 8.1 innings.

Astros have now lost 29 of their last 38 road games.

Tweets of the Night

Watching the #Astros tonight pic.twitter.com/72vQgM5JpK

— Htown Astros (@HtownAstros) August 25, 2015

Here is a good idea...goodnight

Let's all quickly forget about this one and drink scotch.

— Jim "Da Owner" Crane (@CranesBrain) August 25, 2015