HOUSTON — Hours before Austin Wells and Jasson Domínguez made their major league debuts for the Yankees, the former said the latter wouldn’t be intimated by Justin Verlander, the Astros’ starter on Friday night.
“From the first time I played with him, he is unfazed by really anything,” Wells said of Domínguez. “So I mean, for him, facing Verlander, he probably doesn’t even care. It’s just another arm on the mound.”
Lo and behold, Domínguez homered off Verlander with the very first swing of his very first at-bat, taking the right-hander into the Crawford Boxes at Minute Maid Park. The 20-year-old’s first-inning, two-run blast off the 40-year-old, future Hall of Famer gave the Yankees a three-run lead after DJ LeMahieu led the game off with a solo homer.
The explosive first inning paved the way for a 6-2, series-opening win for the Yankees.
Domínguez’s home run also showed why he has received endless — and sometimes unfair — hype since signing a $5.1 million contract with the Yankees as a 16-year-old out of the Dominican Republic. The centerfielder, batting fifth, finished the game 1-for-4.
Wells, meanwhile, singled in his first at-bat, went 1-for-4 while hitting seventh, and caught Carlos Rodón.
The left-handed Rodón totaled three hits, two earned runs, one walk, four strikeouts and one home run over five innings.
The Yankees’ offense didn’t end with those debuting, as Giancarlo Stanton hit a two-run moonshot in the third inning. Aaron Judge then became the fastest player to reach 250 career home runs when he hit Minute Maid’s train with a solo bomb in the fifth inning.
Judge, who has 30 dingers this season, needed just 810 games to record the milestone. He easily surpassed the previous record holder, Phillies great Ryan Howard, who needed 885 games.
Verlander, typically a Yankees killer, permitted six earned runs in just as many innings while also surrendering eight hits and four longballs. He walked one and struck out three.
The Astros scored their runs on a José Abreu solo dinger and a Kyle Tucker double.
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