Jasson Dominguez beamed in front of his locker in the visiting clubhouse late on Sunday evening, recounting the previous 72 hours of a whirlwind weekend in which “The Martian” seemed to make himself right at home in Space City.
Dominguez hit a home run off likely future Hall of Famer Justin Verlander with his first swing in the Majors.
Well, he became the youngest Yankee to homer in his debut and the fourth Yankee to hit two homers in his first three games.
Later, he blasted a go-ahead home run that powered the Yankees to a 6-1 victory and a rare sweep of the Astros at Minute Maid Park.
Second career homer for the Martian! pic.twitter.com/9RlbBEs5iq
— Talkin’ Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) September 4, 2023
“I think it’s going to be big time,” Domínguez said. “I think it’s going to be awesome.”
Domínguez launched a two-run blast in the sixth inning off Houston starter Cristian Javier, helping propelled New York to its first three-game sweep of Houston since Sept 2013, a set that marked the final games on the active roster for Mariano Rivera and Andy Pettitte.
It was all about saying goodbye then; now, it’s about seeing what’s ahead.
“Obviously, nothing’s gone how we wanted to this year, but we’re playing for a lot,” manager Aaron Boone said.
“You never know what can happen. We want to go out and play our best baseball and hopefully make some noise this month. Who knows?”
With Domínguez, Anthony Volpe, Austin Wells, Oswald Peraza, Everson Pereira, and Oswaldo Cabrera in the lineup, Sunday marked the second straight game in which the Yankees fielded six players aged 24 or younger.
It hadn’t happened since Sept 1969, when Thurman Munson, Bobby Murcer, Ron Blomberg, Stan Bahnsen, Jerry Kenney and Tom Shopay played against the Senators.
“We did a good job of managing the small things,” Wells said.
“Going out there, getting first-pitch strikes on defense, and being able to lay off some good pitches from those guys; they’re a great staff, a great-hitting lineup. It was really cool to be in here, and it was a big group effort to get three wins here.”
“I knew he wasn’t going to give me any fastballs,” Domínguez said. “The breaking ball, I was going to sit on it.”
Domínguez joined Yogi Berra (1946), Aaron Judge (2016), and Joe Lefebvre (1980) as Yankees to hit two homers in their first three career games.
“He’s got a chance to be a great player in this league,” Boone said. “He’s off to a pretty good start.
Domínguez’s blast supported Yankees starter Michael King, who navigated five innings of one-run ball, touched only by Kyle Tucker’s first-inning sacrifice fly in a 69-pitch effort.
King lauded the game plan from Wells, who also threw out his first big league runner, as a contributing factor.
“We had a ton of conversations between innings about what we think they were doing, what they were sitting on, different sequences,” King said. “I loved working with him.”
Wells said: “It gives me all the confidence in the world to have the guys on the mound be able to trust me right off the bat. That’s what I’ve been trying to do.”
The Yankees will miss the postseason this year except for a miraculous September, and they could finish with a losing record for the first time since 1992.
Sunday’s win improved New York to 68-69, and they are still 8.5 games behind the third wild-card spot. The Yankees will use September to evaluate Domínguez, King, and all their youngsters.
The series sweep is a blow to the Astros battling for the AL West title. Sunday’s loss drops them to 77-61 on the season.
They are one game behind the Seattle Mariners in the division and percentage points behind the Texas Rangers for third place.
The Astros and Rangers begin a crucial three-game series Monday.
The Astros eliminated the Yankees from the postseasons in the 2015 Wild Card Game and the 2017, 2019, and 2022 ALCS.
The sweep was New York’s first of the Astros since the final series in 2013 when Houston was still deep in their rebuild and the worst team in baseball.
