Two games left to determine Happ from Haplessness.

I watched last night's game in a Baltimore tavern that offered 32 ounce drafts of Natty Bo in plastic cups the size of recycling bins. It had TVs bracketed strategically along the walls; the big screens showing hockey, the rest tuned to the ALCS.

Quickly, the bar made its allegiance known. When Aaron Hicks homered in the first, the place exploded. (Thank you, Baltimore.) And the night's loudest cheer came in the sixth, when Aaron Boone chose to stick with James Paxton. For the first time all series, Boone showed faith in a starter, prompting a roar of approval. The next Astro nearly homered - Gardy snared it at the wall - and you could feel all those heart-of-hearts Orioles fans desperately pulling at their Natty Bo's. 

So, we won a night. Whoopie, you might say. We won a trip to Houston, a chance to be humiliated in their home park, like a cat playing with a half-dead mouse. Tonight's game should be a match of bullpens - a duel that would on paper favor the Yankees. After all, we are reputed to have the best bullpen in the post-season, if not in baseball. But I dunno. Seems to me, as weird as 2019 has been, everything tonight boils down to J.A. Happ. 

It won't matter who starts the game. At the most, Mean Chad Green would pitch two innings, and if we're lucky, keep the Astros from gaining a quick stranglehold. Soon after, the Yankees need three to four innings from somebody, and that's what Happ is for. (After him, it's Loiasiga, Cessa and Ben Heller, who was added to the roster after CC's painful self-immolation.) The only way Boone goes to any of them is if Happ melts down, as he did in the extra innings of game two. So, he will either be an official goat of the 2019 post-season - along with Gary, or the Parrot, or Gia-no-show, or Didi or.. you get the picture, right? 

Happ is 37. He has pitched for the Phillies, Mariners, Blue Jays, Pirates and - wouldn't you know? - the Astros. His break-out year was 2009 in Philadelphia, when he went 12-4 with an ERA under three. From there, he bounced around,  floundering at every stop - until 2016, in Toronto, where he figured out how to pitch. Two years later, we gave up Brandon Drury and Billy McKinney for him, in part because he was supposed to have a thing over Boston. But he never did. Last year, in the playoffs against the Redsocks, he lasted two innings and gave up five runs. Last winter, he offered the Yankees are bargain deal, and they signed him for two years at $10 million. So here we are.

J.A. Happ. Wouldn't you know? I'm not sure whether the juju gods have already made their decision on tonight. But one thing is for sure: they are enjoying themselves.