MLB

Yankees game away from World Series after Tanaka masterpiece

They did it to themselves so there is nobody else for the Yankees to smother in blame.

With a 5-0 victory over the Astros in Game 5 of the ALCS on Wednesday in front of 49,647 customers at Yankee Stadium, the Yankees changed the narrative of a season in which the stakes are extremely high.

Now leading the best-of-seven ALCS 3-2, and one victory away from advancing to the World Series, the Yankees are no longer the warm and fuzzy story.

They have gone from the “Little Team That Could’’ to being in the position where if the Yankees don’t make the World Series, they will be viewed in a very different light.

That’s what happens when Dallas Keuchel gets run out of the building an out shy of finishing five innings. Certainly watching Masahiro Tanaka blanking the highest-scoring team in the majors for seven innings washes away the underdog status. Aaron Judge and Gary Sanchez getting hot together couldn’t have happened at a better time.

Game 6 is Friday night at Minute Maid Park where Justin Verlander faces Luis Severino in a rematch of Game 2, when Verlander dominated the Yankees in a complete-game effort that produced 13 strikeouts. Not liking the way Severino looked on the mound, Joe Girardi hooked him after four frames.

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Aaron Judge high-fives his teammates in the dugout after scoring on Didi Gregorius' RBI single in the fifth.Charles Wenzelberg
Jose Altuve and Carlos Correa watch the action from the Astros' dugout.AP
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Chase Headley gives the "thumbs down" reaction after hitting a double in the sixth.Getty Images
Dallas Keuchel leaves the mound after getting pulled in the fifth inning.AP
Masahiro Tanaka reacts after ending the seventh inning with a strikeout, his eighth of the game.Charles Wenzelberg
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Gregorius stretches a double in the seventh inning.for the NY POST
Gary Sanchez watches his home run leave the stadium in the seventh.Getty Images
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“We hit mistakes and did what were supposed to do and we got him out early,’’ Todd Frazier said of Keuchel, who blanked the Yankees in seven innings of Game 1 and started Wednesday’s game 6-2 with a 1.09 ERA in eight career starts against the Yankees.

Greg Bird’s RBI single in the second was followed by Judge’s run-producing double in the third. Sanchez and Didi Gregorius drove in runs in the fourth when A.J. Hinch removed Keuchel. Sanchez added a solo homer in the seventh that provided a 5-0 cushion that Tommy Kahnle protected for the final two frames.

As impressive as the Yankees hitters were against Keuchel, Tanaka dominated an Astros lineup that is hitting a pitiful .147 (22-for-150) with a .447 OPS in five games.

“He was special again,’’ Girardi said of Tanaka, who gave up three hits, a walk and fanned eight. “And we needed it. This was a big game.’’

The Yankees finally got to Dallas Keuchel.Charles Wenzelberg

Tanaka worked around Yuli Gurriel’s leadoff double in the second by retiring the next three batters. Working with a 2-0 lead in the fifth, Tanaka gave up a single to Marwin Gonzalez and walked ninth-place hitter Brian McCann with one out. Tanaka responded by catching George Springer looking at a 94-mph fastball and Josh Reddick swinging at an 89-mph splitter off the plate.

“I feel like I am keeping it really simple,’’ said Tanaka, whose next start will be in the World Series or spring training. “I think I am just really clear of what I need to do out there and I am just executing that.’’

Having faced 0-2 deficits in the ALDS and ALCS, the Yankees know one more loss means winter starts creeping in. That is what faces the Astros should they fail to rebound and win two in Houston.

“I guess right now not too good to be honest with you,’’ Frazier said when asked what the Astros would be feeling like going home. “I don’t know their team but it’s tough to come back. We have played with our backs against the wall this whole postseason. We know we are going to be electric in two days and we want to get a piece of Verlander and we want to get him out early, too.’’

Those aren’t the words of a team simply satisfied to be the feel-good story of the 2017 baseball season. The Yankees no longer are, because being one win away from the World Series changes expectations in a very big way.