"Now, I truly feel from the bottom of my heart that we have the ability to compete for the World Series championship! Let's kick their butts and make the Yankees great again!"

This current Yankees team is mostly made up of young players full of vigor and eager to make a name for themselves. With Sabathia using the 2009 championship as an example for motivation, the atmosphere at Delmonico's has become fervent, and the whole team's cohesion has transformed.

The exciting night quickly passed, and the time came to the early evening of the next day. As the bustling Big Apple City gradually became cloaked in night, the crowds outside Yankee Stadium in the Bronx visibly increased—if you observed every fan dressed in Yankees gear carefully, you would notice immense joy on each of their faces.

After all, with the backdrop of capturing two consecutive away victories and the next three matches all held at home, both professional media and ordinary fans believe there's little suspense left in this series.

Even the Astros players themselves found it difficult to maintain any optimism for the upcoming three consecutive games at Yankee Stadium:

"If we couldn't win at home relying on electronic signals to cheat, how can we expect to win on the road?"—this is a cloud hanging over the minds of many Houston Astros players.

Not to mention, with an already unstable bullpen, even Dallas Keuchel and Justin Verlander, the only aces the Astros have, couldn't secure victories. Will they rely on today's starter, Charlie Morton, a league-level two-tier pitcher, to suppress the Yankees' lineup?

Even as the core player Jose Altuve tried to boost morale using the example that the team's regular season away record was even better than at home, such methods were still proven ineffective:

After losing two crucial home games, the team, which won 100 games in the regular season and was labeled as the strongest Astros in history, has lost coherence and is nearly collapsing.

It was with such emotions that the Astros players entered the center of Yankee Stadium and began their game amidst the deafening boos from home fans.

The Yankees' starting pitcher today is Tanaka Masahiro, who has performed excellently in the playoffs. In the first inning, he maintained his outstanding performance from when facing the Indians, delivering a three up, three down inning, triggering enthusiastic applause and cheers from the stands.

And when the Yankees' half of the inning began, on the Astros' side, their head coach A.J. Hinch decisively gave Lin Guanglai an intentional walk: they had already suffered enough in the last game, even a pitcher of Justin Verlander's caliber couldn't suppress him, so there was no hope for Charlie Morton.

But after Lin Guanglai got on base, when Hinch saw Aaron Judge coming up to bat second for the Yankees, he couldn't help but sigh: facing a lineup led by two top batters, one left and one right, the cost of a walk is often much greater than when facing other teams.

And Hinch's worry became reality the next second:

For some unknown reason, on a favorable count of 1 ball and 2 strikes, Charlie Morton, the starting pitcher today, inexplicably shook off the catcher's calls for a breaking ball and chose to challenge Aaron Judge with a fastball in the strike zone.

It should be noted that Judge is the league's best hitter against fastballs this season. Even the Indians, who completely conquered him, only dared to use breaking balls in their duels against him.

Facing a 94 mph fastball delivered to the high inside corner of his strike zone, Aaron Judge immediately swung and made contact, hitting it perfectly on the sweet spot of the bat. Then, using continuous force with his body, he pulled the ball out over the right field stands, bringing Lin Guanglai on base home as well.

"So strong, buddy. I knew you could do it!" After easily running back to home plate to score, Lin Guanglai didn't rush back to the dugout but stood near home plate, waiting to celebrate together with Judge when he returned.

Aaron Judge's resurgence is undoubtedly great news for the Yankees. If his form can recover, relatively, Lin Guanglai will face much less pressure during offensive plays—at least no team would dare to intentionally walk him when a fully empowered Judge is batting behind him.

Seeing their team's outstanding performance, over fifty thousand home fans at Yankee Stadium naturally exploded with excitement; while over at the Astros' dugout on the third base side, a large group of players wore expressions of devastation.

In the top of the second inning, Tanaka Masahiro, taking the mound again, encountered little to no resistance. Aside from issuing a four-ball walk due to slightly unstable control, he effortlessly got three outs, delivering 4 strikeouts over two innings, continuously shutting down the Astros' lineup.

Having been mentally unbalanced before the game, combined with continuous offensive obstacles, the Astros players' defense also faltered under these circumstances:

In the bottom of the second inning, with two outs and no one on base, facing a weak ground ball hit by Starlin Castro towards third base, the Golden Glove level third baseman Bregman made an incredibly basic error, turning an easy-out into a hit;

Then, a fast forkball thrown by Charlie Morton failed to drop completely, which Aaron Hicks took advantage of, sending it to an empty spot in the left-center field, resulting in a single.