Yankees stave off elimination, beat Justin Verlander, Astros in Game 5 of ALCS – USA TODAY, USA Today

NEW YORK – The New York Yankees aren’t sure who their starting pitcher will be Saturday, or who will be available out of the bullpen, or even know who they’ll be facing.

They don’t care.

All they know is that Friday evening they were packing their bags and taking a flight to Houston.

There will be a Game 6 of the American League Championship Series.

The Yankees, shrugging off a pitiful performance, with their fans at Yankee Stadium showing up subdued after viciously booing them a night earlier, woke up just in time to make this a series.

The Yankees, thanks to an histori c first-inning uprising, knocked off the Astros, 4-1, keeping their season alive, and forcing a Game 6 at Minute Maid Park in Houston.

) “When we took the field, ” said Yankees reliever Zack Britton, who pitched 1 ⅔ hitless innings,“ it didn’t feel like our season was over. ”

Pardon everyone else for feeling differently, especially with theirstinker in Game 5, committing four errors, striking out 13 times, and extending their hitless streak to 14 at-bats with runners in scoring position.

Instead, it was the Astros falling victims of the most stunning first inning in Yankee Stadium playoff history.

It began when DJ LeMahieu hit the second pitch of the game into the right-field seats off Cy Young favorite Justin Verlander – the first leadoff homer at Yankee Stadium since Derek Jeter in 2004 – and ended when Aaron Hicks hit a three-run homer off the right-field foul pole .

Just like that, the Yankees set a Yankee Stadium record. Never in their storied franchise history, spanning 405 games, had they ever hit two homers in the first inning of a postseason game.

Verlander, who had permitted just four runs and two homers in his last four postseason starts against the Yankees, wound up giving up that many to the first five batters he faced.

Why, it was the first time Verlander gave up four runs in any single inning since Aug. 11, 2014, against Pittsburgh Pirates.

“The fastball command wasn’t very good, ” Verlander said, “and the slider was just hanging. I wasn’t really able to execute anything. ”

Verlander settled back down, commanding his fastball again, retiring 20 of the next 21 batters.

“At that point, ” Verlander said,“ you’re hoping and praying your team can scratch and claw and get back in the game. ”

The Yankees refused to let them.

The Astros, who scored a run in the first on an infield single, a passed ball and a wild pitch, were shut down the rest of the way. James Paxton, throwing 112 pitches, the most by a Yankees’ pitcher this season, went seven innings before turning the game over to the bullpen.

It was the first time in baseball history that two teams scored in the first inning, and never again the rest of the game.

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“They’re a tough group, ” Yankees manager Aaron Boone says,“ they really are. Certainly, that first inning started a little rough, but it didn’t faze them. They continued to grind, continued to make plays.

“But it’s what they’ve been good at all year, coming in the next day with an energy and a focus and an edge and a hunger. And it showed up again today. I’m not surprised. ”

He only surprised himself when he went to the mound with two outs in the seventh inning and Robinson Chirinos at the plate . He was ready to pull Paxton with a torrent of boos from the crowd every step he took. He checked on him, Paxton told him he wanted one more batter, and Boone came back alone, hearing thunderous cheers from the sellout crowd of 48, 483.

Moments later, it was Boone gasping for breath when Chirinos’ deep fly ball to left field fell just a foot shy of going over the fence.

“He gave me the chance to compete and keep on going, ” Paxton said. “I wanted it. And I did everything I could. ’’

It was that kind of evening for the Yankees, with veteran J.A. Happ saying, “You talk about a game of inches. Unbelievable. ’’

The Astros, of course, still are sitting pretty. They lead 3 games to 2 with Gerrit Cole in their back pocket, a pitcher who is 19 – 0 with a 1. 59 ERA in his last 25 starts.

“We’re up 3-2, we’re in the driver’s seat, ” Verlander said. “We’re going back to Houston. But this is a great ballclub. This team is stacked. So these boys are not going to lay down for us.

“ We have to go take care of business at home. ”

Yet, when you see crazing things happening like Friday night at Yankee Stadium, the Astros know anything is possible.

If they’re going to win their second World Series in three years, they’re eventually going to have to hit. They are hitting just. 210 this postseason, scoring just (runs in) ********************************************************************** (games.)

They’ve been pitiful against the Yankees, hitting just. 178. Yordan Alvarez, the heavy favorite to win the National League Rookie of the Year, has disappeared. He is one-for – 19 this series with nine strikeouts, including three times Friday.

It’s enough to give a team hope, no matter the odds stacked against them.

“I don’t know how we’re going to piece it together, ” LeMahieu said, “but today was a big step gaining confidence. I think we all kind of expected something good to happen today.

“The first inning kind of got us get our swagger on a little bit again. ‘ ‘

And just like that, the Yankees are alive, and still awfully dangerous.

“That’s what this team is about, we’ve never been defined by wins and losses, ” Yankees slugger Aaron Judge said. “We always get up after we get knocked down. We always fight back.

“I know with their crowd everybody will be on us. It will be a tough situation. But we’re looking forward to it. This is what we wanted.

“ We thought this series would go six or seven games, and here it is. ”

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