World Series Game 3-5: Dodgers @ Astros

Sorry for the wait on these, there has been a lot going on in the sports world and I am going to tackle all 3 games in Houston to give you a super article recap heading into a big Game 6. So if you have missed what has been going on, I am here to help.

Game 3 Darvish vs McCullers

Game 3 is the last normal game played in the entire series.  Darvish takes the mound for the Dodgers against McCullers for Houston.  With the series tied 1-1 heading home the Astros have a chance to clinch in front of the hometown crowd and they plan on doing so.  Houston came out of the gate firing scoring 4 runs in the 2nd inning to jump out to a 4-0 lead.  Gurriel kicked it off with a solo dong, and then was followed by RBI singles by Gonzalez and McCann, and then capped off the inning with a SAC fly by Bregman.  The Dodgers had the bases loaded with none out and were only able to squander 1 run in the top of the 3rd.  The Astros scrape up one more run in the 5th to make it 5-1, and that’s all the cushion they would need.  The offense did their job scoring 5 runs on 12 hits, which has been something we’ve needed to see out of the Astros this fall.  

The pitching was pretty close to spectacular for the World Series.  McCullers, who pitched 5.1 innings, ended up letting up two more runs in the 6th before being pulled and only allowed 4 hits.  Peacock came in and had one of the best pitching performances out of the bullpen by any pitcher this October.  Peacock did not allow a single hit, only walked 1 batter, and struck out 4 in a 3.2 inning save performance that was unbelieveable.  His performance may have been overlooked, but not in my eyes.

Darvish took the mound for LA and struggled and I will get to one of the underlying reasons as to why it could be that he struggled. He didn’t make it through the 2nd inning, getting pulled after letting up 4 earned on 6 hits.  The bullpen did a solid job not letting up any more earned runs for the rest of the game, with 5 pitchers taking care of the final 6.1 innings left to cover.  The Dodgers struggled big time in the hitting and fielding department.  Yes they scored 3 runs but off of 4 hits and they won’t get runs doing that.  They also committed 2 errors and when you make errors they always find a way to come back to bite you.  Dodgers couldn’t put it together and they fall 5-3 to the Astros who now hold a comfortable 2-1 lead.  

Baseball Controversy

Now anyone who knows sports always knows that for some reason special made balls for events such as World Series, Super Bowl, etc. always tend to receive complaints for some reason, which to me doesn’t make sense.  Players and coaches from both the Dodgers and Astros have said that the balls that were made for the World Series were “slicker” and “harder to throw breaking balls”.  Yu Darvish in particular spoke to one of the coaches of the Dodgers and said he couldn’t throw his slider the way he has all year due to the fact that he could not get the right grip on the ball.  While Darvish explained this outright, the Astros agree with the same thing in saying it’s harder to throw sliders due to the feel.  The teams believe they are different balls altogether than the ones in the regular season using a different grain of leather to make the baseballs all together.  

Houston Astros pitching coach Brent Strom expressed his frustration when asked about it saying, “It’s obvious. You can see it and you can feel it. It’s not the same. Someone’s got to explain to me why.”  Astros pitchers Charlie Morton and Game 3 starter Lance McCullers conducted a blindfold test.  McCullers would cover his eyes and Morton would hand him a ball and he could tell the difference without having any knowledge to what ball is which.  Justin Verlander said that when signing the balls for fans it was hard to get the ink on the ball sometimes, almost like when signing a receipt which are made from like a slicker paper.

Some also believe that the balls are “juiced”. As you will continue to read this article, you will see that the long ball has become a centerpiece of the whole World Series.  As we progress into the article I will show you reasons to believe that the balls may have been tinkered with in the Fall Classic.

Game 4: Wood vs Morton

Game 4 had a lot riding on it.  The Dodgers were down 2-1, and taking a loss in Game 4 would put them down 3-1 with Game 5 coming up in Houston.  If that happens, the Astros will have the whole city of Houston behind them and they won’t be stopped.  The Dodgers have a MUST WIN GAME on their hands.  The Dodgers have Alex Wood on the mound for them up against Astros stud, Charlie Morton.  Both guys pitched phenomenal games.  Wood went 5.2 innings allowing only 1 run on 1 hit, which was via the long ball from George Springer.  Morton went 6.1 innings allowing 1 run on 3 hits before leaving the game up to his bullpen.

The Astros bullpen unfortunately failed Morton.  Kenny Giles is continuing his terrible play in the playoffs.  He came into the 9th inning with a 1-1 game and they needed him to do his job and get three outs and he failed.  In fact, he failed to not only get out of the inning, but failed to record a single out, letting up 3 runs on 2 hits while taking the loss in this game.

The Dodgers hitting powered them to the win.  They were asked to rise to the occasion and they did big time.  They scored 6 runs on 7 hits scoring all 6 of their runs in the 7th inning or later.  The big swing of the game came when Joc Pederson hit a 3 run homerun in the 9th to put the game out of reach at 6-1.  The Astros did get a homer from Alex Bregman in the 9th, but take the loss 6-2.  Los Angeles got a much needed win to even the series 2-2.

Game 5: Kershaw vs Keuchel

I am gonna start off by saying this game required 14 pitchers from both sides combined to finish out this game.  Kershaw vs Keuchel; everyone thought it would be a great game pitching wise in Game 5, especially since it was a big game to see who takes the advantage heading back to LA.  Wrong.  This game was all offense and a lot of more offense.  I am not even going to get into pitching stats because almost every guy on the mound let up a ton of runs, and it would be useless to go through it.  To give you an idea the Astros ended up winning this game 13-12.  Yes, you read that right, 13-12 in Game 5 of the WORLD SERIES.  

I am not going to give my traditional recap but just gonna list the facts and stats from this game so that I don’t end up writing 4 pages on Game 5.  There was a combined 7 dingers in this game: 2 from the Dodgers (Bellinger 3-run, and Puig 2-run) and 5 from the Astros (Gurriel 3-run, Altuve 3-run, Springer solo, Correa 2-run, and McCann solo).  Cody Bellinger pulled in the best night out of the Dodgers, going 2-4 driving in 4 runs with a 3-run homerun and a triple.  Altuve was the highlight hitter for the Astros going 3-5 with a 3-run homerun and 4 RBI’s.  

The Dodgers were able to tie up the game in the 9th inning, 12-12, and that made the game head to the 10th after the Astros couldn’t walk off in the 9th.  But in the bottom of the 10th, Bregman singled to left scoring Fisher and winning the game for Houston putting them up 3-2 in the series making them 9 innings away from become World Champions.  The series is headed to Los Angeles for a do-or-die game for the Dodgers, as they look to keep their season alive with Rich Hill up against ALCS MVP Justin Verlander.  8:08 is first pitch, will the Astros be crowned the champions tonight?

Written by Nick Kazandjian