All Astros in decisive Game 7 of ALCS

HOUSTON – Fifty feet from home plate, Jose Altuve's bat hit ground. The ball touched down 314 feet further, in the third row of the right-field seats.

He had swung hard, and he had not let go. The smallest man on the field carried his weapon until he was certain that his fly ball was a home run, that his Houston Astros had a two-run lead, that their season was a step closer to lasting at least another week.

Then, he flipped it. He flipped it with so much joy, so much excitement, and soon his dreams were fulfilled. The Astros shut out the New York Yankees 4-0 on Saturday night at Minute Maid Park, surviving a hardscrabble American League Championship Series in seven games to secure their spot in the 2017 World Series.

Houston won its second pennant, becoming the first major league team to win one in each league. The Astros' only other World Series visit, in 2005, ended in a sweep at the hands of the Chicago White Sox. This year, a date with the Dodgers awaits, beginning Tuesday night in Los Angeles. Dallas Keuchel likely will face Clayton Kershaw in Game 1.

No road team won in this series. The Astros have lost only twice at home since Hurricane Harvey made landfall on Aug. 25.

"This city, they deserve this," Astros pitcher Lance McCullers Jr. said.

Houston gave up only three hits Saturday, with Charlie Morton going the first five innings for the victory and McCullers the final four for a 12-out save. Evan Gattis broke a scoreless tie with a fourth-inning home run off CC Sabathia, and Brian McCann added a two-run double following Altuve's homer in a three-run fifth off Yankees reliever Tommy Kahnle.

But Altuve hit .320 in the series with two homers, four RBI and five runs scored for an Astros team that struggled offensively much of the time against the Yankees. "For those who have followed the Astros, we've seen this: We go as Altuve goes," Houston manager A.J. Hinch said.

Once the Astros went ahead Saturday, they never let New York back in it. In the fifth, the Yankees had runners on first and third with one out when Todd Frazier chopped a ball to third. Alex Bregman fielded it quickly and threw home, where McCann caught the ball inches from the dirt and applied the tag to retire Greg Bird.

Despite winning all three ALCS games at Yankee Stadium, New York scored only three runs and had 20 hits in the four games at Houston, striking out 48 times, and fell one victory short of its 41st pennant.

Yankees manager Joe Girardi's contract is expiring and he has not said whether he wants to return for an 11th season in the Bronx.

"I love what I do, and I've always said the first thing that I do is I always talk to my family. They come first," Girardi said.

When McCullers finished the eighth by striking out Aaron Judge on three pitches, he let out a primal yell. When McCullers finished the ninth with a Bird popout, the stadium crescendoed into a frenzy. Five minutes after it finished, fans broke out into the first of what will be many chants.

"BEAT L.A.! BEAT L.A.!"