About Last Night: Yankees Top Houston, 7-1

About Last Night: The Yankees Gave Houston a Problem by Winning 7-1

By Tim Kabel

September 3, 2025

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The Yankees began a crucial 12-game stretch against playoff teams last night. They have series against the Astros, Blue Jays, Tigers, and Red Sox. Before this gauntlet, the Yankees went 6-1 against the Nationals and White Sox. The question was how they would do against tougher competition. Well, last night, they did perfectly well. Let's temper our euphoria by realizing that it was just one game. But that's how the Yankees have to approach these twelve games: one game at a time.

Quick Stats – 

·       Jazz Chisolm, Jr. had his fourth multiple home run game of the season. He now has 28 home runs and 26 stolen bases for the season.

·       Trent Grisham hit his second Grand Slam in five days.

·       Max Fried allowed four hits and one run with five strikeouts in seven innings. He is now 15-6 on the season.  

·       Grisham's Grand Slam was the 8th of the year for the Yankees.

·       The Astros did not have a hit until Cam Smith singled with no outs in the 5th inning. Fried then struck out the next three batters.

·       On September 2nd, 1978, Reggie Jackson became the 19th player in Major League history to hit 20 home runs in eleven straight years.

·       On September 2nd, 1999, David Wells, then with the Blue Jays, pitched against Bob Wells of the Twins, who struck out Blue Jays’ rookie Vernon Wells in a 6-1 Toronto win. All's Wells that ends Wells.

The Big Story – 

Since the Yankees lost three of four to the Red Sox two weeks ago, they have gone 7-1.  It needs to be mentioned that six of those wins came against last place teams. The Yankees currently sit 2 1/2 games behind the Blue Jays and are percentage points ahead of the Red Sox in second place in the American League East. They have three games coming up against the Blue Jays this weekend and then three against the Red Sox at Fenway Park the following weekend. 

Those six games will be very important to see where the Yankees ultimately wind up in the standings. Right now, they would be the first or second Wild Card team. They have not played the same number of games as the Red Sox, so they are separated only by a few percentage points. If they wind up tied, the Red Sox will win the tiebreaker by virtue of having won the season series against the Yankees.

That means if the Yankees retain the second Wild Card spot or are tied with the Red Sox for the first-place spot, they will play a best of three-game series in Fenway Park. All three games will be held at Fenway Park. That is certainly not ideal. However, at this point, the Yankees simply need to focus on making the playoffs. Because of that long Boone-Swoon they went through, (which may not actually be over. The recent winning streak against awful teams may just be a mirage) put them in a position where they must cross all their fingers and toes and scramble to make the playoffs. They cannot afford to give away games. The Yankees won the first game of this extremely important stretch. Let's see what they do the rest of the way.

Player of the Game – 

Jazz Chisholm, Jr. had three hits, including two home runs and drove in three of the Yankees’ seven runs. He also stole a base. 

Notable Performance – 

Trent Grisham had two hits including a Grand Slam, and now has 29 home runs on the season.

Better To Forget-

Jose Caballero was ejected after arguing about a called strike on a pitch that hit him. Although the umpire did eject him very quickly, Caballero has to be extremely careful. This was the second time in two weeks that he was ejected from a game. Caballero is a role player. The Yankees cannot afford to have him tossed out of games due to his hot temper. He needs to get that under control before the team gets into the playoffs, if they do. 

My Take – 

The Yankees have been playing much better lately, unless you count that four-game series against the Red Sox two weeks ago. Are they playing better or are they simply playing teams that are worse and less effective than they are? That is the big question.

The Yankees went through a very rough stretch from May 30th until the end of August. That is a very significant portion of the season. The Boone-Swoon happened. It was real. For those people who want to pretend that it never happened and that everything is fine, they need to be realistic. They need to face facts.

At the very least, the Yankees have been an inconsistent and erratic team this season. They have been so almost every year since Aaron Boone became the manager, but this year seems to be worse. While it is true they had a substantially worse record in 2023, this Boone-Swoon seems to have lasted longer. It is easy to suggest that they have only been winning recently because they have been playing terrible teams.

Aaron Boone did not suddenly become Casey Stengel. He is just as befuddled now as he was while the team was losing. It is just a lot easier to win games when you are playing the Nationals, White Sox, Twins, and Cardinals than it is when you are playing the Astros, Red Sox, and Blue Jays.

Max Fried pitched like an ace last night and the Yankees had three home runs and scored a lot of runs. They have two games left against the Astros. After that, they play the Blue Jays, Tigers, and Red Sox. Those will all be tough games. Beyond that, they have three more games each against the Twins and White Sox. I suspect that the seven games they have left against the Orioles could be very important to their playoff fortunes. The Orioles always play the Yankees tough and although they are not a playoff team, they have improved a great deal since the beginning of the season. If the question of the Yankees making the playoffs comes down to those seven games against the Orioles, the Yankees might be on the outside looking in at the end of the season.

This is going to be an exciting month. Hopefully, it is not a disappointing one. Let's be clear. The Yankees put themselves in this position. On May 30th, they were leading the division by seven games. The Yankees, their general manager, and their manager, are responsible for the situation they are in now. They very well may make the playoffs, but I anticipate that it will be a struggle all the way until the end of the season. It didn't have to be that way. Actually, because Aaron Boone is the manager, it did have to be that way.

Next Up-

The Yankees will play the second game of the three-game series against the Astros tonight at 8:10 PM at Daikin Park. The Astros will use Jason Alexander, (4-1, 4.61 ERA). The Yankees will send Will Warren, (8-6, 4.30 ERA) to the mound. Let's hope that Jason is Alexander the Mediocre as opposed to Alexander the Great.

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Cover image created by Google Gemini