October 19, 2019 was one of the toughest nights I’ve ever had as a Yankees fan. The team had battled back from a 3-1 ALCS deficit to bring the series back to Houston, and a ground-ball double play from elimination, out-of-nowhere MVP contender DJ LeMahieu belted a game-tying homer to knot the score.
This was it. This was the moment the Yankees had been chasing for two years ever since their upstart 2017 ballclub got knocked out in seven games by these very same Astros. They were going to win this one, take Game 7 and go on to the World Series with an improbably successful mix of superstars and fill-ins for the many players who’d been injured along the way.