HOUSTON — Dallas Keuchel already had an October history against the Yankees, turning them back in the 2015 wild-card game.
And on Friday night, the Astros lefty added to that Yankee-killer reputation, doing it on another grand stage, the best-of-seven AL Championship Series.
Twirling seven shutout innings, Keuchel directed the Astros toward a 2-1 victory in Game 1 before an amped-up crowd of 43,116 at Minute Maid Park.
Featuring the same matchup as that 2015 wild-card game at Yankee Stadium, Keuchel bested Masahiro Tanaka, who yielded two runs over six innings.
The Yanks had a chance against Houston’s bullpen in the eighth, as closer Ken Giles was called upon with a man on and one out.
Giles got Aaron Judge to ground out before walking Gary Sanchez. But representing the go-ahead run, Didi Gregorius struck out.
With two out in the ninth, Greg Bird homered off the right-field foul pole, but Giles rebounded to strike out pinch-hitter Jacoby Ellsbury and complete a five-out save.
Combined in those two October starts, Keuchel has tossed 13 shutout innings against the Yankees. But he needed a little help on Friday night.
In the fifth, left fielder Marwin Gonzalez threw out Bird attempting to score from second base on a Judge single, ending the inning — a play that survived the Yanks’ replay challenge.
Houston had taken a 2-0 lead in the fourth on RBI singles by Carlos Correa and Yuri Gurriel.
Keuchel gave up four hits, struck out 10, and his assortment of well-located soft stuff, sliders and curveballs paired with a darting, two-seam fastball, kept the Yankees handcuffed over the first three innings.
In the fourth, Gregorius was robbed of a hit by Jose Altuve’s tremendous diving stab to his right, scrambling up to throw a strike to first base for the second out.
Starlin Castro followed with a single and Aaron Hicks sent center fielder George Springer to edge of the warning track — some 400 feet away — to put away the third out.
It was still a 2-0 game when the Yanks blew an even better chance in the fifth.
After Bird led off with a clean single to right, Altuve (3 for 4) made a rare error — bobbling a ball out of his glove as he attempted to tag Bird, crossing over the second.
That failed attempt at a double play put runners at first and second with none out, but Keuchel quickly retired the next two batters (Todd Frazier lined out, Brett Gardner struck out) before facing Judge.
A well-known 1 for 20 in the AL Division Series with 16 strikeouts against the Indians, Judge had walked and struck out swinging at a slider in his first two times up.
But this time, Judge laced a single to left, only to watch as Bird was thrown out at the plate.
Instead of wind-milling him around third to hurry Bird home, third base coach Joe Espada appeared to have just pointed at the plate — perhaps creating the feeling for Bird that he’d score without a close play.
It was close enough that the Yankees called for a replay challenge, but the Astros prevailed; catcher Brian McCann got the tag down in time and Keuchel celebrated by pounding his glove multiple times and letting out a roar.
Before the game, Yankees manager Joe Girardi said he had no intention of replacing the lefty-hitting Bird in his lineup by using switch-hitter Chase Headley at first base.
“I was going to stick with Bird,” Girardi said, citing Bird’s strong defense and the way he performed at the plate in the ALDS, hitting two homers against Cleveland. “His at-bats have been really good.”
The M-V-P chants echoed around the ballpark for Altuve, who began the Astros’ fourth-inning rally with a one-out infield single.
Altuve stole second base, putting him in position to score on Correa’s line single to left. And after a right-side groundout by Gonzalez moved up Correa, Gurriel grounded an RBI single to center for a 2-0 lead.
Except for a couple of deep outs to center by Altuve and Alex Bregman, Tanaka had handled the Astros without much drama over the first three innings.
Including his seven shutout innings against the Indians in a pivotal Game 3 of the Division Series last Sunday in the Bronx, Tanaka had tossed 10 scoreless playoff innings this October before Houston broke through.
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