John Flaherty On WFAN: Yankees Hitters Must Drive Up Pitch Counts Vs. Astros' Top Starters

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A big key for the Yankees in the American League Championship Series will be whether their hitters can work deep into counts against the Astros' top two pitchers, John Flaherty says.

Appearing on the "Boomer and Gio" show Friday morning, Flaherty, a YES Network analyst and former Yankees catcher, said the Bombers need to get to the Astros' bullpen as quickly as possible. 

"The Yankees are going to have to find a way to get pitch counts up against (Gerrit) Cole and (Justin) Verlander," Flaherty said. "You're not going to go out there and string together four hits against those guys. You're going to have to get pitch counts up. You're going to have to hope for mistakes. When you get one, you're going to have to do some damage. But again, it's going to be all about the bullpen guys for the Houston Astros."

The Astros might have the better rotation, but the Yankees clearly have the better relievers, Flaherty said.

"(Roberto) Osuna, their closer, doesn't scare me," he said. "I don't think he scares the Yankees. You don't feel like it's an over game once you get to the end of it."

Flaherty said he expects Yankees manager Aaron Boone to deploy his bullpen much in the same way he did during the AL Division Series sweep of the Twins. 

"I think he's going to do the same thing that he did against the Twins and bring his big boys in, in the middle of the game and kind of wait to see how the later innings play out," Flaherty said. "If the Yankees can break out offensively, things get a little bit easier. But with the way that he did it in the Twins series, (Chad) Green is going to be a huge part of it because he can give Aaron Boone multiple innings. Those multiple innings might be later on in a game, the seventh or the eighth inning. With (Tommy) Kahnle and (Adam) Ottavino and (Zack) Britton pitching in the middle innings, I think Green's going to have a huge impact on this series, probably pitching a little bit later than we saw him during the regular year."

Chad GreenJerome Miron/USA TODAY Images

Flaherty said he believes the series will go seven games.

"The Yankees, in my opinion, have to take Game 1 in Houston with (Zack) Greinke out on the mound," he said. "If they do that, I think they win this in seven."

Game 1 will be played at 8:08 p.m. Saturday at Houston's Minute Maid Park. 

To listen to the interview with Flaherty, click on the audio player above.