Can Third Time Possibly Be a Charm for Yanks?

Dallas Keuchel has been very good this season. After all, the 27-year-old Astros hurler won 20 games and is the top contender to win the AL Cy Young award in the coming weeks. However, Keuchel has been especially good against the Yankees. Actually, more like superhuman.

In two games vs. the Bronx Bombers -- one each at Houston’s Minute Maid Park and Yankee Stadium -- Keuchel absolutely destroyed his opponent, yielding just nine hits, one walk and no runs in 16 innings while striking out 21.

The Yankees play right into Keuchel’s hands -- especially his throwing one. While it’s no picnic for right-handers against the All-Star lefty, it’s downright brutal for southpaw batters facing him. They hit just .177 vs. Keuchel this year, with only three homers in 181 at-bats.

With the Yanks’ lineup usually featuring at least six lefties, they appear again ripe for the picking.

However, when the Yankees meet the Astros in the Bronx in Tuesday night’s AL Wild Card contest, they do have one thing going for them: an intimate knowledge of the pitcher they’re facing and a deep familiarity with his strengths and weaknesses. The only problem is, he hasn’t shown any of the latter against the Yanks.

But it’s said that pitchers become less effective each additional time they pass through a lineup. Well, Keuchel has faced New York’s nine six or seven times this year. Maybe (yes, doubtfully, but still, maybe) they’re starting to figure him out.

On the flip side, Yankee ace -- oh wait, they don’t have an ace. OK, their top starter, Masahiro Tanaka, has faced Houston just once in his two-year MLB career. The righty got the win, on the road in late June. But it sure wasn’t pretty. Tanaka surrendered seven hits (three of them over the fence) and six runs in five innings, for an unsightly 10.80 ERA.

On the bright side, it’s not like the visitors can do much better vs. Tanaka than they did last time.

Also, the postseason is essentially a new season, one where experience is enormous -- and Keuchel has none.

And obviously, anything can happen on a given night. Buster Douglas beat Mike Tyson. Villanova beat Georgetown. Ed Whitson beat up Billy Martin, again and again, but only after Martin did the truly unthinkable -- try to break up a fight rather than start one (the pitcher obviously didn’t appreciate Martin’s intervention).

But the fact is the Yankees are in a must-win contest against a guy who has simply dominated them. Tanaka better not give up three homers again.

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