Judge Beats Texas Cheat-ems With Walkoff Single

Last night was my first live game of the season. Awful game. But great result.

Jameson Taillon started for the Yankees, in this opener of a 4-game home series against the Houston Astros, the Red Sox of the South. And he had his worst start of the season. He began in a very satisfying way, hitting José Altuve with a pitch. That got a big cheer from the crowd of 44,071, myself included. By the way, I noticed that the Astros' batboy was taller than Altuve.

Unfortunately, Michael Brantley then singled, and Alex Bregman hit a home run. The Yankees were down 3-0, and hadn't even gotten an out. The Yankees tied it in the bottom of the 1st on a walk by DJ LeMahieu, a single by Aaron Judge, and a 3-run home run by Giancarlo Stanton.

But in the 3rd, Taillon gave up a 3-run homer to Yordan Álvarez. It would remain 6-3 for most of the game. Because the Yankees couldn't get another hit after the 1st inning. Framber Valdez was just about unhittable.

Aaron Boone -- possibly acting on Brian Cashman's orders -- left Taillon in until the 6th, probably to keep the team's better relievers as fresh as possible for the rest of this series. Lucas Luetge got the last out in the 6th, and pitched a perfect 7th. Albert Abreu pitched a scoreless 8th, and Miguel Castro pitched a scoreless 9th. But would it all prove useless?

You know the cliché, and you know the drill: Walks can kill you, especially the leadoff variety. Stanton led off the bottom of the 9th against Ryan Pressly, with a walk. Gleyber Torres followed... with a walk. Up to bat came Aaron Hicks, batting all of .233. Nobody had any confidence that he would do anything. He drilled a home run to right field. Tie ballgame. And there was still nobody out.

In the space of 3 batters, the Yankees' chances of winning the game, according to Baseball-Reference.com, went from 4 percent to 64 percent. The players cited a "Playoff atmosphere." Sure, I was there, and it was, and no wonder: In the last 7 seasons, these guys have made the Playoffs 6 times, played the Yankees 3 times -- and won all 3 times, cheating at least twice.

Isiah Kiner-Falefa hit a grounder that looked like it would get through. Astro shortstop Mauricio Dubon made a great stop, but had no chance to make a throw. Winning run on 1st, nobody out. Jose Trevino up, the previous night's hero. Could he do it again?

IKF stole 2nd. 2nd base umpire Alex Tosi called him out. The Stadium erupted in fury: He was safe. Boone challenged the call. The play was repeatedly shown on the video board. It wasn't close: He was safe. 1st base umpire Todd Tichenor, the crew chief, completed his review, and announced... that the original call stood. IKF was out. If anything, the noise was louder, because Tichenor knew that IKF was safe. It was obvious.

On such lies, games, postseason results, and even a sport's history can change. But, Cliché Alert: If it hurts the Yankees, it ain't cheating, and it's okay.

So now it's 1 out, no one on, and the winning run at the plate Trevino singled, which should have made it 1st and 3rd and no one out. Ryne Stanek was brought in to relieve. Joey Gallo came up. He'd made a great catch in right field earlier in the game, but hit strikeout capped an 0-for-4 night that saw his batting average drop to .176, and he got the hell booed out of him. So now, there were 2 outs, and we had to worry about losing the game in extra innings because of the stupid "ghost runner" rule.

But, Cliché Alert: Walks can kill you. LeMahieu drew a walk. As they used to say on Laugh-In, Here come da Judge. He worked a 3-0 count. Would I have taken another walk at that point? Absolutely. Would I have taken a home run at that point? I would never let a pitcher who hasn't shown that he can throw a strike be given one he didn't deserve, so I would have kept the red light on. But, yes, I would have taken a home run.

I also would have taken a walkoff single into the left-field corner, and did, because that's what Judge did. Ballgame over! Yankees win! Theeeeeeeeeeee  Yankees win! Yankees 7, Astros 6. WP: Castro (4-0). No save. LP: Pressly (1-2).

I wanted this one. Badly. Not just because, my finances being what they are, it will probably be my only live game of the season. But because it was against the Astros. Texas. And cheaters. With an ugly history between the teams.

At any rate, the American League Pennant may well come down to who has home-field advantage in Game 7 of the AL Championship Series. In that regard, the Yankees now lead the Astros by 8 1/2 games.

Two other things I want to note. There were these college kids sitting in the row in front of me, and one was watching the NBA Draft on his phone.

Now, I don't blame him for wanting to know what was going on in the Draft. Basketball is a great sport, and this was an important day on the NBA calendar.

But if you've got a professional sporting event going on in front of you -- even if someone else paid for it for you -- you watch the event in front of you. At least wait until between innings to check your phone.

Who taught this kid?

Also, trying to get home wasn't easy. My Subway train ran on the local track. And the way the New Jersey Transit train schedules worked out, I had almost an hour before I could get on the Northeast Corridor line back to New Brunswick. And the NJT wing of Penn Station was loaded with Yankee Fans. That was good to see, although I'm curious to see what it would look like when the Mets play a big home game, to see if there's as many.

But there were no chairs, no benches, no place to sit except stairs. Trying to keep homeless people out, clearly. But it made everybody look homeless. It was ridiculous. And then, when the various lines -- Dover, North Jersey Coast, and finally Northeast Corridor -- posted their track listings for boarding, the doors weren't automatic, there were stairs and no escalators, and the staircases were too narrow. Total bottlenecks. Only New York's Penn Station could produce a mess like that at midnight.

Anyway, the train left on time at 12:14 AM, but took an hour and a half to get back to New Brunswick. So, after a game that ended at 10:29 PM, the Uber that picked me up at the New Brunswick station dropped me off at the East Brunswick condo at 1:54 AM.

Could be worse. Everything that I just mentioned could have happened, except the bottom of the 9th could have been 1-2-3 and the final score Astros 6, Yankees 3. Think how ticked-off I would've been then!

The series continues tonight. Luis Severino starts against Justin Verlander. I hope, this time, they score maybe 6 runs in the 1st inning and coast the rest of the way.