Two of AL's best square off as Astros visit Yankees (May 11, 2017)
NEW YORK -- Last season, Dallas Keuchel followed up winning 20 games and an American League Cy Young Award by posting a losing record in a disappointing 2016 season for the Houston Astros.
Things are significantly different for Keuchel and the Astros so far this year.
Keuchel takes the mound Thursday night when Houston (23-110) begins a four-game series with the New York Yankees (21-10) at Yankee Stadium.
Last season, the Astros won 84 games and Keuchel posted a 9-12 record with 4.55 ERA in 26 starts.
So far, the left-hander is 5-0 with a 1.88 ERA through his first seven starts.
Keuchel, one of four five-game winners in the AL, is fifth in ERA and fourth with a 0.85 WHIP.
He has only recorded 41 strikeouts, but he is tied with Toronto's Marcus Stroman for the league lead with double plays induced at 11. Keuchel also is getting ground balls 63 percent of the time after slipping to 56.8 percent last season.
"I'm going to continue to attack the zone and get some early contact and let the defense work," Keuchel said after an April 30 start vs. the Oakland A's. "I have such a great defense that it's kind of fun to release the ball and let the guys go get it."
Keuchel has also limited opposing hitters to a .179 average (32-for-179), which ranks fourth in the league.
Including his performance in the 2015 AL wild-card game, Keuchel is 4-2 with a 1.42 ERA in six starts against the Yankees. He last faced them July 25 in Houston when he allowed two runs and six hits in 7 2/3 innings of a 2-1 loss.
"It's always nice when Dallas' turn rolls around," Astros manager A.J. Hinch said. "You never feel like you can go into too much of a slump when you have Keuchel going every fifth day."
The current New York roster has a combined .185 average off Keuchel, but those stats don't include Aaron Judge and Gary Sanchez. They joined the Yankees shortly after the 2016 season series ended in July.
The Astros are 8-3 in their past 11 games after a 4-2 victory over the Atlanta Braves on Wednesday. Carlos Correa continued his torrid May with the go-ahead RBI double. Correa batted .233 last month, but in his past nine games, the shortstop is hitting .344.
While Houston might have been expected to start quickly, the Yankees were not projected to be one of the league's best. New York is 20-6 in its last 26 games starting with a comeback win in Baltimore on April 9.
"It's a huge series," Astros designated hitter Carlos Beltran said. "They're playing well right now, we're playing well right now. They feel good about themselves, we feel good about ourselves. So it's going to be a fun one."
The Yankees went 4-1 on a five-game trip to face the Chicago Cubs and the Cincinnati Reds. The trip was highlighted by Brett Gardner's three-run home run with two strikes and two outs in the ninth inning Friday against the Cubs, then an 18-inning win at Wrigley Field on Sunday.
"I feel like we can play this way," New York manager Joe Girardi said. "You go back to the last four months of last year and the first month this year, we've been playing really well."
New York saw a six-game winning streak end Tuesday with a 5-3 loss in Cincinnati. Despite the loss, the lineup boasts a few hot hitters.
"A really good trip," Girardi said.
Starlin Castro is batting .354 and has a 10-game hitting streak at home. Gardner is batting .346 during a career-best, 12-game hitting streak, while Sanchez is batting .412 since returning Friday from a right biceps injury.
New York owns a 3.58 team ERA, and early success from the Yankees' Thursday starter, Michael Pineda, is helping that figure. Pineda is 3-1 with a 3.12 ERA, but since struggling in his season debut, he is 3-0 with a 2.32 ERA in his past five starts.
Pineda last pitched Friday when he allowed home runs to the Chicago Cubs' Kris Bryant and Kyle Schwarber, the only two runs he permitted in six innings. However, he was taken off the hook thanks to Gardner's late-inning heroics.
In five career starts against the Astros, Pineda is 2-2 with a 4.75 ERA. Pineda last opposed the Astros on July 25 when he allowed one run and five hits in seven innings to win a pitchers' duel with Keuchel.
Besides two of the AL's top teams meeting for the first time, Thursday will mark the returns of Brian McCann and Beltran to New York. McCann spent three seasons with the Yankees before being traded last fall. Beltran was traded to the Texas Rangers at the 2016 deadline before signing with the Astros in free agency.
