The New York Yankees turned the page on their season last month and have called up several top prospects in recent weeks. The early returns could not be more promising. Sunday night the Yankees completed a three-game sweep of the Houston Astros at Minute Maid Park (NYY 6, HOU 1) thanks largely to new starter Michael King and wunderkind Jasson Domínguez.
Astros righty Cristian Javier, who started a combined no-hitter against the Yankees last summer, cruised through five innings before running into trouble in the sixth. DJ LeMahieu tied the game at 1 with a booming double -- Yordan Alvarez slipped on the play and appeared to hurt his left knee, though he remained in the game -- then Domínguez clobbered a go-ahead two-run homer.
Here is Domínguez's game-winning blast:
Dominguez hit a two-run home run against future Hall of Famer Justin Verlander in his first big league at-bat Friday night -- it was his first MLB swing -- and now he has swatted a sweep-clinching homer Sunday. He is the fourth Yankee ever to go deep twice within his first three career games, joining Aaron Judge (2016), Joe Lefebvre (1980) and Hall of Famer Yogi Berra (1946).
As for King, the 28-year-old has been a highly effective setup man the past two seasons, but the Yankees are now giving him a chance to start to see whether he can be a factor in next year's rotation. King struck out four and allowed just one run in five innings. He was on a 70-ish pitch limit and got through those five innings on 69 pitches against a tough Astros lineup.
Domínguez and catcher Austin Wells joined the Yankees for Friday's series opener at Houston. Two weeks ago, New York called up outfielder Everson Pereira and infielder Oswald Peraza, two other touted prospects, to launch this youth movement. Wells and Peraza both doubled in insurance runs Sunday. The Yankees are 8-5 since calling up Pereira and Peraza after winning only eight of their previous 25 games.
Of course, the Yankees will miss the postseason this year barring a miraculous September, and they could finish with a losing record for the first time since 1992. While Sunday's win improved New York to 68-69 and they are still 8.5 games behind the third wild-card spot. The Yankees will use September to evaluate Domínguez, King and all their youngsters.
The series sweep is a blow to an Astros team battling for the AL West title. Sunday's loss drops them to 77-61 on the season. They are one game behind the Seattle Mariners in the division and percentage points behind the Texas Rangers for third place. The Astros and Rangers begin a crucial three-game series Monday.
The Astros have tormented the Yankees over the years, notably eliminating them from the postseason in the 2015 Wild Card Game and the 2017, 2019 and 2022 ALCS. The sweep was New York's first of the Astros since the final series of 2013, when Houston was still deep in their rebuild and the worst team in baseball.
