While the Houston Astros' conspiracy to steal signals through unknown ans was cracked, it cannot be denied that the 2017 Astros are no ordinary team; their hard strength is at least in the league's top tier:
For example, today's starter, Justin Verlander, although hit by a solo ho run from Lin Guanglai in the opening stage, the old and resilient "Tiger King" displayed an impeccable pitching performance today. Not only did he not allow the Yankees to score another run, but he also completed the ga, delivering 13 strikeouts and single-handedly shutting down the Yankees' batting lineup.
In the away team dugout on the third base side, Joe Girardi silently thanked his lucky stars that they had Lin Guanglai on their team, otherwise, the Yankees might not have been able to leave Texas unscathed from today's ga.
After the top of the ninth inning ended, the score was the sa as it was in the first inning. The Yankees, playing away, still maintained a slight 1-run advantage; like the Astros, the Yankees also did not make any pitching changes, seemingly intending to let Lin Guanglai pitch the entire ga.
This was a decision made by the entire Yankees coaching staff after careful consideration: on one hand, despite the first inning's fluctuations due to external factors, Lin Guanglai's pitching was outstanding, his pitch count was within a reasonable range, and there was no reason not to trust him to complete a shutout.
On the other hand, although the Astros perhaps out of guilt or so other reason, did not blatantly steal signals in subsequent innings, if a relief pitcher were brought in to close, there's no guarantee they wouldn't repeat their tactics.
Although the Yankees bullpen is the strongest in the league, compared to Lin Guanglai, who possesses a rich arsenal of pitches, including three ace pitches, the relief pitchers, who averagely control 2-3 types of pitches, are evidently more easily seen through and figured out — since Lin Guanglai can still hold on, it's better to trust the ace and not overcomplicate things.
"Boo——Boo——Boo——"
As the bottom of the ninth began, the noisy boos from Minute Maid Park erupted once again, but this ti, the montum created by the Astros' ho crowd had no effect — Lin Guanglai just walked straight to the pitcher's mound, seemingly indifferent to it all.
The last half-inning of the entire ga (if Lin Guanglai can hold it), the Astros' batting order will rotate back to the top, and the first to appear again is their steadfast leadoff hitter, George Springer.
Judging from the performance of this series, the Astros' high-efficiency offensive lineup encountered significant problems, the main reason being the sudden offensive slump of their outfield trio.
Leadoff hitter Springer, second hitter Redick, and fifth hitter Gonzalez, in this series, besides Gonzalez reaching base once with a walk, have not collectively managed even a single hit.
It didn't take Lin Guanglai much effort to retire Springer: he first distracted Springer's attention with an outside bad pitch, followed by a 97 mph high fastball in the strike zone that induced a swing and miss. The third pitch again moved the action back to the outside corner, easily baiting Springer into swinging and resulting in a weak fly ball to right field, which Aaron Judge caught easily.
Then against the Astros' second hitter Josh Reddick, he repeated his tactics: using an inside pitch to seize the strike count, then an outside low ball that Reddick swung and drove to the left field side, allowing Brett Gardner, who was covering defense, to barely move, just picking his spot to catch the ball in his glove.
In less than 5 minutes since the start of the bottom of the ninth, Lin Guanglai used only 5 pitches to get two outs, the process was so quick that even the ho fans in the stands didn't have ti to react.
Seeing this scene, in the broadcast, so TV comntators even started summarizing this AL Championship Series Ga 2:
"Before this AL Championship Series started, I always thought the Yankees and Astros were teams on the sa level, perhaps the Astros were even superior in so aspects; but from the current situation through two gas, the Astros' strong lineup completely lost its regular season aggressiveness, failing to score even 1 run over two gas. If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I would find it hard to believe."
"Currently, it seems the New York Yankees are likely to take G2, extending the series lead to 2-0 — if they can achieve that, then followed by a three-ga ho stretch in the Bronx, they have a high probability of returning to the World Series... Could it be, the New York fans' long-awaited 28th championship is actually coming?"
Just as the comntator was saying this, for the Astros, their core third hitter, star Jose Altuve stepped into the batter's box.
"I'm saying this for the last ti, I don't care how you guys want to steal opponents' signals for profit, but I hope you give a fair competitive environnt when I'm batting, or else don't bla for turning hostile!"
Standing in the batter's box, Jose Altuve's mind still lingered on what had just happened in his team's section: as one of the leading candidates for MVP this season, he had so pride as a star player — he couldn't stop his teammates' actions, so he could only ensure that he didn't get involved in this, which he felt was the only thing he could do.
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