HOUSTON — Nathan Eovaldi delivered his best performance of a brief Yankees career in front of a bevy of family and friends who made the short trip and Hall of Famer Nolan Ryan, the pride and joy of Alvin, Texas, where Eovaldi was raised.
Chris Young, a product of the legendary Bellaire High School baseball program that was run by Chuck Knoblauch’s father, turned Friday night into a local party with a three-run homer.
Together, Eovaldi and Young, with help from Chasen Shreve, Justin Wilson and Dellin Betances, carried the Yankees to a 3-2 win over the Astros in front of 37,348 at Minute Maid Park.
“With him in our town, Nolan Ryan was everything,’’ Eovaldi said of the legend, who was sitting behind the plate watching Eovaldi keep the Astros hitters off balance with curveballs and splitters to go with his 99-mph fastball.
Everybody knows that Eovaldi has enough fastball, but what was most impressive was the way he used the other pitches against a very aggressive Astros lineup.
“I was getting first-pitch strikes with curveballs and fast outs,’’ said Eovaldi, who gave up two runs, five hits and improved to 7-2 in front of the 100 people he left tickets for. “They are a real aggressive team that jumps on the fastball. I tried to keep them off the fastball and ahead in the count.’’
Coupled with the AL East-leading Rays’ loss to the Red Sox, the Yankees moved within a half-game of the top spot in the division.
Carlos Correa’s two-out single provided the game’s first run in the third inning and the Astros got a cheap run in the sixth when the Jose Altuve reached on an infield single, stole second and scored on Evan Gattis’ bloop single to center for a 2-0 lead.
Vincent Velasquez, a rookie right-hander making his fourth big league start, held the Yankees scoreless through six and extended the Bombers’ streak of not touching home plate to 16 innings.
That ended in the seventh, when Carlos Beltran and Garrett Jones delivered back-to-back one-out singles. Velasquez was replaced by right-hander reliever Will Harris and Young smoked a 1-1 pitch into the left-field seats above the scoreboard for a 3-2 lead.
“Me and Evo had a whole section combined,’’ said Young, who went 3-for-4, and has a nine-game hitting streak going during which he is 16-for-34 (.471). Young left 50 tickets.
Shreve, Wilson and Betances didn’t have family and friends to get tickets for but they made sure Eovaldi and Young didn’t have to explain a loss getting away in the late innings.
Shreve fanned three in the seventh. Wilson got the first two outs of the eighth before walking Luis Valbuena. Betances entered and wasn’t bothered by pinch-runner Marwin Gonzalez stealing second base before Gattis looked ill swinging and missing at a 0-2 pitch. Betances worked a perfect ninth for his fifth save.
Having watched Eovaldi get over-amped against the Marlins, the team that traded him to the Yankees, two starts ago, manager Joe Girardi was concerned the same thing could happen in front of so many family and friends.
“There were a lot of emotions and I tried to not let them get the best of me,’’ said Eovaldi, who controlled his emotions as well as his fastball, curveball and splitter.
