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Yankees hope to erase bad memories of Astros Dallas Keuchel

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No more than 7 images from any single MLB game, workout, activity or event may be used (including online and on apps) while that game, activity or event is in progressElsa/Getty Images

Dallas Keuchel proved to be a handful for the Yankees last season in the AL wild-card game.

This past winter, the Yankees tried to address what they believed was a vulnerability against lefthanded pitching, acquiring Starlin Castro and Aaron Hicks to deploy against southpaws. They’re counting on a now-healthy Mark Teixeira to add thump, too.

Their plan gets a difficult test in the Yanks’ season opener Monday afternoon in the form of a familiar, bearded face – Houston’s ace lefty, Dallas Keuchel.

Keuchel, who won the American League Cy Young Award last season and buried the Yanks with six masterful shutout innings in the AL wild-card game last October, will oppose Yanks’ No. 1 starter Masahiro Tanaka at 1:05 p.m. at the Stadium. Tanaka was the loser in the wild card game last year.

“I think Keuchel was a handful for us, there’s no question about it,” said Alex Rodriguez, who is also expected to provide a righty threat against Keuchel. “He dominated us multiple times. He did pretty well against everybody else, as well.”

Then Rodriguez posed a question he doubtless already knew the answer to: “Did he win the Cy Young?” Uh, yes — Keuchel was 20-8 with a 2.48 ERA last year. He struck out 8.38 batters per nine innings, a career-best, and walked only 1.98 per nine. “I think the approach with all good pitchers is get a good pitch and don’t miss it,” Rodriguez generalized.

Good luck, Alex. Keuchel is a master at making hitters swing at the pitches he wants them to, not the other way around.

“What I’ve seen is that he’s around the strike zone when he wants to be and then he gets guys to chase out of the zone when he gets ahead (in the count),” Yankee shortstop Didi Gregorius said. “That’s one thing that really works for him.”

Keuchel has throttled the Yankees in his brief career. In the regular season, he has a 1.13 career ERA in three starts, allowing just 16 hits while striking out 26 in 24 innings. If you add in the wild card game, Keuchel’s ERA against the Yanks is 0.90.

How about these numbers? Active Yankees have combined for a .200 average, .236 on-base, a .329 slugging percentage and a .565 OPS. For comparison, the average OPS in the AL last year was .730.

While the Yankees were not awful against lefties overall – their .749 OPS against them was sixth in the AL – the team felt it relied too much on lefty hitters at the end of the season. In the wild card game, the Yanks had four lefties in the lineup – Brett Gardner, Brian McCann, Greg Bird and Gregorius. The Yanks finished with only three hits, their lowest output since Game 4 of the 2012 ALCS against Detroit.

Masahiro Tanaka will take the mound for the Yankees on Monday.Julie Jacobson/AP

Masahiro Tanaka will take the mound for the Yankees on Monday.

Joe Girardi sat lefty Jacoby Ellsbury against Keuchel, causing a bit of a flap, in favor of Chris Young. Hicks likely will play the role of Young in Monday’s reboot, forcing either Ellsbury or Gardner to the bench.

“Hopefully, with some of the additions we’ve made to our club, we’ll have better success,” Girardi said. “I think we were pretty left-handed dominant last year. I think we have more options this year and we have a better balance to our lineup versus lefties.”

Hicks may help. He’s one of only three active Yankees who have actually homered off the Houston ace – the others are Carlos Beltran and Chase Headley – and he’s 2-for-5 lifetime against Keuchel. Castro hasn’t had much success against Keuchel – he’s 0-for-5 lifetime with three strikeouts – and Teixeira is 2-for-8.

Of course, the Astros aren’t just Keuchel. They have one of the best young players in baseball in Carlos Correa and several other sluggers whose power can blow open an April afternoon. They traded for ex-Phillies’ closer Ken Giles, which presents a nightmare scenario for the Yankees if Keuchel simply gets the ball to him.

“They’re a very good team,” Girardi said. “And they proved it all last year. Obviously, they have Correa for a full year. They’ve added stuff to their bullpen. I mean, they’re very good. So it’ll be a tough three-game series.”

The Yanks probably would help themselves if they forget all about what Keuchel’s done to them in the past. Gregorius is, at least, saying they have.

“He shut us out last year, but it’s a new season,” Gregorius said.

“Everything starts with zero.”

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