Have the New York Yankees officially closed the gap with the Houston Astros after big 10-3 victory? | Baseball Bar-B-Cast

Yahoo Sports senior MLB analyst Jordan Shusterman and senior MLB analyst Jake Mintz analyze how the gap between the New York Yankees and the Houston Astros has changed overtime, mostly due to the Astros getting worse. Hear the full conversation on the “Baseball Bar-B-Cast” podcast - and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen.

Video Transcript

So I was in the building last night, Yankee Stadium, Yankees Astros.The Yankees are good.The Astros are not about a year and a half ago after the 2022 A L CS in which the Houston Astros pulverized the New York Yankees in a brisk sweep granted three of those games or one run affairs, but it was pretty definitive.Aaron Boone expressed to the media that there was a legitimate gap in quality between the New York Yankees and the Houston Astros.The quote now paraphrasing was something like they're the standard we need to catch up to where they are.Do you remember this?I do, I do.Yeah, yesterday at the pregame press conference.Yours truly, Jake Mintz.I asked Aaron Boone, I said, Mr Boone, you said this two years ago, has that gap closed?Do you think that gap is closed?And now Aaron Boone is not gonna sit there up on that Dais and he's not gonna say the Astros are but, and we're bomb.He's not gonna, that's not how these guys do things, but in so many words, he conveyed that he believed the Astros pitching right now is pretty but, and he did so by complimenting the pitching staff of the 2022 Astros, which by the way that team could chuck that pitch deserved it.But by comparison, these Astros particularly, particularly the starting rotation has been quite flimsy last night was supposed to be the stopper.It was Justin Verlander, the future Hall of Famer, the Astros best starting pitcher, probably you could talk to me about from Valdez, whatever it was supposed to be.The Astros number one against the Yankees, number five, Louis Hill.And instead it was a mismatch, the Yankees kicking the snot out of Houston, uh by a final score of 10 to 3 in what felt like the beginning of a funeral for the Houston Astros dynasty.Verlander allowing three home runs.It felt very definitive.I think being around the Astros pregame, I got the sense that they still think they're good like, and I think they are, I think the Astros are good, however, they have certainly dug themselves quite a hole to climb out of.There are now 11 games under 500 and yesterday's performance against New York did not feel like the beginning of a turnaround if the gap has closed.I do think it has as much to do with the Astros coming down as the Yankees going up.Right.And the Astros had been the standard for so long and through a variety of things, some of which you can blame them for, we've talked about some of the infrastructure stuff, some of which, which is just a, a rash of injuries, right?And they're calling on guys that they didn't expect when, by the way, injuries that include Justin Verlander who, you know, started the season late and it still kind of settling into the season.All of those things contribute to it.But that is my interpretation is that, that the gap maybe has closed.But I think it is more about the Astros coming down than everybody else rising up.