BREAKING: Yankees take down Astros using their new key man with on beating record

It’s only mid-May, but the Yankees have already finished their season series against the Astros, winning decisively 6-1 in the seven games played. This shows that Houston is indeed beatable. Although playoffs present a different challenge altogether, it’s important to acknowledge the Yankees’ strong performance against Houston in 2024.

The sports world churns out a vast amount of content, which is what we specialize in here. There’s always plenty to discuss, whether it’s analyzing players, identifying trends, or expressing frustrations. Recently, I heard a notable soccer manager say something that resonated with me: sometimes teams or players feel trapped in a certain situation, like a drawn picture, that seems permanent. But in reality, things are much more fluid.

Let’s talk about a situation that has felt quite permanent for a while, particularly during the 2022 postseason. Despite some adjustments, this era of the Yankees has struggled notably against the Houston Astros in the playoffs, a team facing its own challenges in 2024.

MLB Next Game – New York Yankees

In early May, the Yankees have already finished their season series against the Houston Astros. Making a strong statement, the Yankees convincingly defeated the Astros in six out of seven games, coming very close to a clean sweep against their recent rivals. However, this dominance doesn’t necessarily guarantee success if they were to meet again in the postseason, assuming both teams make it there, which is uncertain for the Astros at this point (though it’s not certain for any team). This highlights how narratives can sometimes be exaggerated, turning a potential storyline into an absolute truth.

The Yankees have struggled to beat Houston in the playoffs. While you can attribute some of these losses to specific matchup difficulties, most of the time it’s simply been about being outplayed by a better team. It may sound repetitive, but it’s important to emphasize that there isn’t a psychological barrier to overcome here, at least not one significant enough to be a major factor.

 

No team understands this better than the Yankees. Let’s go back to 2004. The Red Sox that year had every reason to believe that they couldn’t overcome the psychological barrier against the Yankees, given a century of painful losses. Losing again would have reinforced the narrative of failure against the Yankees, but that only made their eventual victory sweeter.

This isn’t to draw a direct comparison between the Yankees’ current situation and that of the Red Sox in 2004; they’re incomparable. However, this is new territory for the Yankees, who are usually the dominant team. The bitter taste left by their last playoff meeting in 2022, where the Yankees seemed incapable of responding to a team firing on all cylinders, is still fresh. Whatever the circumstances may be in a potential matchup in 2024 or beyond, it’s likely to be completely unique.

Certainly, it’s interesting to discuss the possibility of finally overcoming Houston. However, there won’t be any additional obstacles to overcome; the Yankees simply need to outplay them, as they would any other opponent. At the very least, they’ve shown the blueprint for doing so in their two regular season series this year.