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For about ten minutes it looked like maybe the plan to have a bullpen game would backfire on the Houston Astros. The plan had worked until DJ LeMahieu hit a Roberto Osuna pitch for two-run homer to tie the game in the top of the ninth.
But then with two outs and a man on, José Altuve saved his team from going to extra-innings with a pennant winning walkoff two-run homer to send the Astros to the World Series.
Today and Monday will be the longest break without a scheduled regular season or postseason baseball game since the All-Star Break.
Yankees at Astros - ALCS (Astros win 4-2)
The fact that both teams knew there could be a bullpen game in a series that would send the winner to the World Series maybe just part of baseball in 2019. But even this bullpen game did something not done in the century.
This is the 7th game in postseason history where neither starter went a full 2 IP.
— Sarah Langs (@SlangsOnSports) October 20, 2019
It's the 1st such game since Game 4 of the 1999 ALDS between the Indians & Red Sox (Red Sox won, 23-7).
The Yankees have been involved in 5 of the 7 such games.
The Astros are hitting .208 in the playoffs and only .175 with runners in scoring position. But José Altuve is doing some big things for them this year.
José the hero. #CLINCHED pic.twitter.com/2zzalB42tW
— MLB (@MLB) October 20, 2019
The Astros needed that due to something that had not happened since 1972.
.@DJLeMahieu is the 1st player with a game-tying HR in the 9th inning of a postseason game in which the team was facing elimination since Johnny Bench in Game 5 of the 1972 NLCS.
— MLB Stats (@MLBStats) October 20, 2019
All of that set up this particular nugget.
From @jaysonst: José Altuve joins Bill Mazeroski (Game 7 of the 1960 WS) as the only players to hit a walk-off HR to end a postseason series after their team had blown the lead in the same inning.
— MLB Stats (@MLBStats) October 20, 2019
Both came against the Yankees. pic.twitter.com/Uy4pe2usId
No one is going to feel bad for the most successful postseason franchise in MLB history but it has been a dry period for the New York Yankees
With the loss in Game 6, this is the first decade since the 1910’s that the Yankees did not win at least one pennant.
— MLB Stats (@MLBStats) October 20, 2019
The Yankees had played in the following World Series by decade since 1920:
- 1920s - 6 (3 World Series wins)
- 1930s - 5 (5)
- 1940s - 5 (4)
- 1950s - 8 (6)
- 1960s - 5 (2)
- 1970s - 3 (2)
- 1980s - 1
- 1990s - 3 (3)
- 2000s - 4 (2)
The 2010's are the first decade since the 1910s in which the Yankees did not make the World Series.
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) October 20, 2019
The Yankees' 4 straight LCS series losses ties the longest streak in MLB history. pic.twitter.com/UtOrVp1GAt