HOUSTON — “Incredible.” “Amazing.” At this rate, the Yankees may run out of adjectives describing Juan Soto by Memorial Day.
Soto delivered again, lacing a go-ahead single off Josh Hader in the ninth inning as the Yankees rallied for a 4-3 victory over the Astros on Sunday at Minute Maid Park, completing a four-game sweep. It was the first Opening Series sweep by New York since 2003 against the Blue Jays. The Yanks have won seven consecutive games in Houston dating to last September.
The knock marked a three-hit afternoon for Soto, who drove in Gleyber Torres with the deciding run to wrap up a series in which he collected nine hits in 17 at-bats (.529).
Clarke Schmidt allowed three runs and seven hits over 5 1/3 innings in his season debut, running into trouble the third time through the batting order.
Having limited Houston to Jose Altuve’s third-inning homer through the first five frames, Schmidt allowed doubles to Altuve and Kyle Tucker in the sixth. Yainer Diaz slapped a game-tying single facing Jonathan Loáisiga, and a run charged to Schmidt, who walked none and struck out five.
The Yankees had not scored first in any of the previous three games of the series before getting to Astros starter JP France for three runs over 5 2/3 innings.
Jose Trevino knocked in Giancarlo Stanton with a bloop hit in the second inning, and Jon Berti picked up his first Yankees hit and RBI with a run-scoring single in the fourth. Aaron Judge lifted a fifth-inning sacrifice fly, marking Judge’s first RBI of the season.
