HOUSTON _ When Brian Cashman acquired Gleyber Torres from the Cubs for Aroldis Chapman three years ago, a bevy of talent evaluators praised the Yankees’ general manager for having the stones to make the deal and placing a large bet on a very young Torres.
Four games into the postseason, that transaction looks like Cashman pulled off a heist Queens gangster Jimmy “The Gent” Burke would have been proud of, even if Chapman helped the Cubs win a World Series before returning to the Yankees as a free agent.
With assists from Masahiro Tanaka’s dominant pitching and homers by Giancarlo Stanton and Gio Urshela, Torres led the Yankees to a 7-0 victory over the Astros on Saturday night in Game 1 of the ALCS that was witnessed by a sold-out Minute Maid Park crowd of 43,311.