The numbers in the playoffs were ugly for Matt Carpenter heading into Game 3 of the ALCS on Saturday, but that didn’t stop Yankees manager Aaron Boone from putting him back in the lineup against Houston right-hander Cristian Javier.

Carpenter had struck out in all seven of his postseason plate appearances heading into Game 3 after missing the final two months of the regular season with a fractured left foot.
Asked what made him confident Carpenter would find his swing this October, Boone said, “He’s Matt Carpenter.”

Carpenter provided one of the Yankees’ three hits in their 5-0 loss to the Astros on Saturday, but he also struck out two more times.

“The results haven’t been there,’’ Carpenter said. “But it’s more getting pitched tough than anything.”

Hitting coach Dillon Lawson said there are ways to determine if Carpenter is back to his old self, even though he hadn’t started a game after Aug. 8 until the ALCS.

The Yankees came to that conclusion during the five-day window between the end of the regular season and the start of the ALDS against Cleveland, when the team worked out at the Stadium.

“One thing that made us feel better is we know his yearly average bat speed and we also know he’s had live at-bats when he exceeded it,’’ Lawson said of the workouts.

“Now, it’s a matter of him getting back to game-speed and rhythm against the best pitching there is. We’re comfortable with him being in there. Otherwise, he wouldn’t be.”

The decision to keep playing Carpenter is the result of a mix of information.

“It’s what he tells us and what the trainers tell us and then it’s a matter of him settling in and getting a good pitch,’’ Lawson said. “It takes time for anyone to get their timing back, but he’s a veteran, so hopefully it won’t take as much time.”

But even Carpenter is starting to look at the clock.

“We just didn’t have time to get back in the regular season,’’ Carpenter said of his comeback. “Every day I’m feeling better, but I’ve got to be able to contribute now so we can keep going.”

With the bases loaded and no one out in the sixth inning and the Yankees trailing by two runs, Boone turned to Lou Trivino to relieve Gerrit Cole, despite having more high-leverage relievers, such as Jonathan Loaisiga and Clay Holmes, available.

Trivino entered and gave up a sacrifice fly to Trey Mancini and a two-run single Christian Vazquez, all but ending the Yankees’ hopes of a comeback in the game and the series.

“I got Trivino up, just in case [Cole] needed some help there with the bottom [of the lineup] righties that we liked him against,’’ Boone said of Houston’s 7-8-9 hitters, who drove in all five runs. “But obviously it turned out it didn’t work for us.”

Anthony Rizzo hit leadoff Saturday for just the second time in a postseason game in his career. The other time was the wild-card game in Boston last year.

Boone said he wanted to split up the team’s three lefty hitters in the lineup. Carpenter hit fifth and the switch-hitting Oswaldo Cabrera hit eighth against right-hander Cristian Javier.
Boone said despite being pitched to very carefully during the playoffs, Rizzo — who went 0-for-3 with a walk Saturday — has still had “quality at-bats. He’s not chasing and he’s getting into deep counts.”

Before Game 3, Rizzo had an on-base percentage of .414 this postseason, with Josh Donaldson (.393) and Harrison Bader (.385) the only other Yankees above even .300.
“He’s getting on base and is a power threat out of the chute,’’ Boone said.

Gleyber Torres has traditionally been an excellent hitter in the playoffs, but he was among the many Yankees not doing much at the plate during these playoffs.

Since a two-hit game against Cleveland in Game 2 of the ALDS, Torres is just 2-for-22 with one RBI in his last six games — including an 0-for-3 effort in Game 3 on Saturday.

It’s a contrast to previous Octobers, when Torres hit well in 2019 in the ALDS against Minnesota and the ALCS versus Houston, as well as the following postseason, when Torres hit well against Cleveland in the wild card round and Tampa Bay in the ALDS.