Yankees 2, Astros 6: Yanks drop series finale to Houston

In today's game, the Yankees matched their combined offensive output from the first two games against the Astros. Problem is, their total output from those first two games was two runs. Two runs was not enough to win this game. Michael Pineda looked solid early, but as he neared his pitch limit, things started to get a little messy. And when the bullpen couldn't clean up that mess, it turned into a deficit the offense couldn't overcome. The Yankees dropped their second straight to the Astros, losing the series finale 6-2.

The Astros got on the board first when Evan Gattis led off the second inning with a home run. After that, Pineda settled in for the most part. Unfortunately, the Yankees' offense couldn't take advantage of that and had a hard time getting anything going against Astros' starter Collin McHugh.

That would lead to non-good things, because in the fifth, the Astros' offense struck again. Carlos Gomez led off the inning with a single, and moved to third on a Luis Valbuena single. Jake Marisnick was up next. He laid down a squeeze bunt that was successful in scoring Gomez, with Marisnick also beating out the throw to first. Pineda then walked Jason Castro, loading the bases with still no one out. The first out finally came when Jose Altuve flew out, but it was deep enough to score Valbuena and make it 3-0. That would be it for Pineda. He went 4.1 innings, allowing six hits and a walk while striking out three. His final earned run total was five. More on that in a second.

Chasen Shreve came in for Pineda, but that didn't go much better. He gave up a single to Marwin Gonzalez, scoring another run to make it 4-0. Shreve then walked Jed Lowrie and threw a wild pitch during the next at bat, scoring another run. Shreve would finally get the last two outs after that, but it was now 5-0.

The Yankees finally got on the board a few innings later in the bottom of the seventh. After Greg Bird drew a lead off walk, Didi Gregorius hit a two-run home run, cutting the Astros' lead to three runs.

After Shreve, Branden Pinder had pitched two scoreless innings before turning it over to Adam Warren in the eighth. After getting the first out of the inning, Warren allowed a long home run to Gattis, making it 6-2.

In the bottom of the eighth, a Bird fly ball fell just a few feet short of a three-run home run that would've made it 6-5. We went off to the ninth with the Yankees still down four. Nick Goody pitched a scoreless inning in the top of the ninth and the Yankees' offense had one last chance. The lineup went down meekly in the bottom of the ninth and the Yankees dropped another game to the Astros, this one by a score of 6-2.

The Yankees have tomorrow off before heading to Atlanta for a three-game series starting Friday.

Box score.