Astros Hold Off Dodgers In World Series Classic

Astros Hold Off Dodgers In World Series Classic
Astros Hold Off Dodgers In World Series Classic

Astros Hold Off Dodgers In World Series Classic

Game 2 of the World Series was a three-act play that carried on for 4 hours and 19 glorious minutes and included more home runs than any game in the championship’s 113 incarnations. The first act lasted for nine innings and provided an untouchable pitcher getting touched up. The second act was the 10th inning, a madcap, back-and-forth novella of its own. And the third was the 11th, where the Houston Astros won the first World Series game in franchise history in absolute style.

Their 7-6 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers featured a game-tying home run, a go-ahead extra-innings home run, an extraordinary bat-flipping extra-innings home run and another go-ahead extra-innings home run that proved the game winner. And though the Dodgers clawed and fought and invigorated the 54,293 at Dodger Stadium who wanted to see them leave here with a two-games-to-none series lead, the Astros forced a split and will take home-field advantage back to Houston for Game 3.

George Springer’s two-run home run in the 11th inning off Brandon McCarthy, who hadn’t pitched since Oct. 1, provided the winning margin for the Astros, who fought off nine Dodgers pitchers and dropped six runs on a Los Angeles bullpen that hadn’t allowed any over its previous 28 innings. The drip-drop started in the eighth inning, when Houston cobbled together a run, and then in the ninth, Marwin Gonzalez homered off the Dodgers’ indomitable closer, Kenley Jansen, to tie the game at 3. In the bottom of the 10th, Jose Altuve led off with a home run, and Carlos Correa followed with another, flipping his bat 25 feet in the air.

It was far from over. Yasiel Puig hammered a home run off Astros closer Ken Giles, who with two outs walked Logan Forsythe, allowed him to advance to second on a wild pitch and let him score on a Kiké Hernandez single into right field. Forsythe slid around a Brian McCann tag after a laser of a throw from Josh Reddick, and the game was tied at 5.

Cameron Maybin led off the 11th with a walk, stole second base and that’s when Springer followed with an opposite field shot. But that didn’t end the scoring.

Charlie Culberson, a Dodgers backup who entered the game as manager Dave Roberts emptied his bench, homered off Chris Devenski, the eighth of the game, with two outs in the bottom of the 11th. Up stepped Puig, who worked a nine-pitch at-bat that ended with a strikeout on a changeup.

What looked like a surefire Los Angeles win wound to a wild conclusion. The Dodgers entered the game 98-0 when holding a lead after the eighth. Gonzalez’s home run was the first to tie a World Series game on the road in 42 years, and Altuve and Correa were the first ever to go back to back in extra innings of a World Series game, and they weren’t even the biggest homers in a game defined by them, as four of the Dodgers’ five hits left the ballpark – and nearly won them the game.

Jansen, so unhittable, allowed a home run to Gonzalez and gave the Astros life as they return home to face Yu Darvish, with Lance McCullers Jr., whose four sparkling innings cinched the American League pennant.

Houston’s night looked fortuitous early, with Verlander flashing the top-notch stuff that earned him ALCS MVP and the Astros’ lineup cobbling together three third-inning hits to score a run off Dodgers starter Rich Hill. Los Angeles pulled Hill after the fourth inning, wary of Houston’s lineup facing him a third time, though it wouldn’t matter much if the Dodgers couldn’t touch Verlander.

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