Six singles and a double weren't enough to get the Yankees their first win of the season.
Tonight's game kicked off the first stop in Derek Jeter's farewell tour. The Astros presented Jeter with a cowboy hat, cowboy boots with the Yankee logo, golf clubs and a trip to a golf resort, which will come in handy when he has free time next year. Andy Pettitte threw out the first pitch.
The Yankees faced Jarred Cosart for the first time and the offense struggled to get anything going. The first hit of the night came in the third inning, when Brian Roberts singled to center, but was ultimately left stranded on base. The fourth and fifth inning were much the same, as Brian McCann, Brett Gardner and Roberts continued the singles-only streak, but were all left stranded on base.
The sixth inning looked promising when Jeter worked a leadoff walk, and McCann ripped his second single of the night into right field to move Jeter over to third. Unfortunately, the inning ended with a Tex strikeout and Alfonso Soriano grounder. The seventh inning started with another leadoff walk, thanks to Gardner, then Roberts hit his third (!) single of the night. The Yankees finally got on the board thanks to Yangervis Solarte, who made his MLB debut by grounding into a double play which allowed Gardner to score. Ellsbury walked to get on base for the first time all night, and then stole his first base of the season but nothing came of it.
Hiroki Kuroda made his season debut tonight by immediately giving up a solo home run to Dexter Fowler. Fowler decided to do most of the hitting for his team tonight, and followed that up with a triple to deep center in the third inning. Tex was charged with an error on an RBI grounder before the inning ended with a double play. Other than being dominated by Fowler, and a triple hit by Robbie Grossman, Kuroda pitched pretty well. He notched 5 K's and only walked one batter, he just didn't get enough run support.
The Astros increased their lead in the seventh inning, when Matt Dominguez hit a home run off of David Phelps. Besides the home run, Phelps got one strikeout, and walked two batters. Matt Thornton came in and got Jason Castro to ground out, before intentionally walking Jose Altuve to load the bases. Shawn Kelley replaced Thornton to get the final out.
It seemed like there was some kind of set rule before the game that said that the Yankees could only hit singles, and the Astros could only get extra base hits, until Carlos Beltran doubled to lead off the eighth. The leadoff double went to waste, as Matt Albers managed to get McCann, Tex and Soriano all to strikeout.
Ivan Nova will take the mound tomorrow night at 8:10 against Brett Oberholtzer as the Yankees look to avoid the sweep.