World Series Game 1: Astros vs Dodgers Recap
October 25, 2017
The Fall Classic has finally arrived! The Dodgers and Astros last night squared off in the first game of the series in Los Angeles where the Dodgers took the win 3-1. That was backed up by the power in their bats and the dominance on the mound. Both teams haven’t been to the World Series in a considerable amount of time. The Astros last were in the World Series in 2005 representing the National League but now represent the AL after 12 years. The Dodgers have taken their time before they returned to the World Series. It has been 29 long years going back to 1988 since the Dodgers made it to the World Series. Finally both teams met and here is how game 1 went down.
The Dodgers played a fantastic game in Game 1 as expected. This year the Dodgers have one of the most stacked squads in all of baseball and they beat the D-Backs in 3 and beat the Cubs in 5 and want to continue that dominance. Arguably the best pitcher in the game, Clayton Kershaw, took the mound and pitched one of his best games in his postseason career. He struck out 11 allowing 1 run on 3 hits in 7 innings of baseball. He had the Astros guessing all night, only allowing the one run via the home run to Alex Bregman. The bullpen did a stellar job not allowing a guy to reach first base in the final 2 innings and top closer in the game, Kenley Jansen, did his thing picking up the save. As for their hitting, the Dodgers only got 6 hits, which isn’t a great amount, but the fact is they strung their hits together and put up runs in those innings. They didn’t leave much on base and really put their hits to use. They got 3 runs, one from a solo home run from Chris Taylor and 2 on a 2-run shot from Justin Turner. The NLCS co-MVP’s show why they both received the honor with a great first night. Returning to the lineup is Corey Seager, who was out the entire series against the Cubs and a good sign is he came back and went 2-3 on just seeing 4 pitches.
As for Houston, it wasn’t so pretty. Bregman did hit a homer but the recurring theme for Houston has reared its ugly head around. The bats go silent. They cannot be silent in the World Series or they will lose, there is no margin for error. The Astros, no matter who they are playing, can not win a game in the Fall Classic getting just 3 hits. They need to take Game 2 to show their offense and use home field to their advantage. Their offense has been high powered all season and it can’t run out of gas this time of year, this is the time they need it the most. One bright spot tonight was the pitching. Keuchel didn’t have an awful game. He went 6.2 innings allowing 6 hits but only 3 earned runs striking out 3. If your offense is helping you out, allowing 3 runs is not gonna kill you, but if the offense is silent, like it was, it will make you look bad. The bullpen also pitched very well not allowing a hit through 1.1 innings and getting their job done. It will be up to the offense to win games going forward and we’ll see if they will rise to the occasion.
Game 2 is tonight and we are gonna see ALCS MVP Justin Verlander take on 37 year old Rich Hill and it could be a good matchup. Verlander will hope to lead the way to a series split and take the Astros home with ability to clinch the series in Houston. We know tonight the pitching will show up, it’ll all be up to the offense to see who wins these games. Game 2, who do you got?
Written by Nick Kazandjian
