New York Yankees at Houston Astros: Game 6 GameThread

In the immediate aftermath of last night’s 4-1 win for New York in Game 5 of the ALCS, both Yankees’ skipper Aaron Boone and Houston Astros’ manager A.J. Hinch acknowledged that they’d be going with starters by committee in Game 6 tonight in Minute Maid Park after an overnight flight from the Bronx to Texas.

“It will be a bullpen game,” Hinch acknowledged, after the Astros let the Yankees off of the ground when they had a chance to lock up a spot in the World Series.

Instead they headed home with a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven series with the manager and his staff trying to figure out how they would handle the pitching in Game 6.

“We’ll talk about it on the plane ride home,” Hinch added.

Boone was asked, after his team avoided elimination, what it said about the current state of the game that both teams would be going with a bullpen game in Game 6 of the ALCS?

“I think it’s both teams trying to get outs and trying to do it the best way we can,” Boone said.

“We’ve had some -- obviously a lot of guys go down this year and different people not available. We’ll just do our best to piece it together.”

Boone also talked about going back to Houston and needing to win back-to-back games to keep the season alive, and what, if anything, he’d say to motivate his team to keep fighting.

“I don’t need to say a word tonight,” the manager said. “Those guys took care of business today, man.

“They came in and got it done. And right after the game, we do our presentations and stuff, and it was energized, it was focused, it was intense.

“First goal after last night was to get on the plane. And now we’ve got an opportunity to go play in a tough place. We look forward to that and can’t wait.”

Will the Yankees live to play another day? Will the Astros earn a spot in the World Series? We find out at 8:08 PM EDT tonight...