Before today's game in Dodger Stadium, José Altuve (Houston Astros) and Giancarlo Stanton (Miami Marlins) were presented with the Hank Aaron Award.
This award is handed out annualy to the most outstanding offensive performers in both the National and American League.
The voting for this award is done by both fans via Internet and a special panel of Hall of Fame-players, including the legendary Hank Aaron himself.
The Awards were handed by Aaron and Major League Commissioner Rob Manfred.
Three other legends took part in the throwing of the ceremonial first pitch.
Legendary Dodger-broadcaster Vin Scully took the mound and introduced lefthanded Mexican pitcher Fernando Valenzuela, who then threw the ball to catcher Steve Yeager.
Vin Scully retired after last season after having been with the Dodgers for 67 years (!) in which he was the announcer of Dodger-games on radio and TV.
Fernando Valenzuela pitched for the Dodgers in 1980-1990 and was both the Rookie of the Year and the Cy Young Award in 1981.
In that year, he was the fill-in Opening Day-starter when scheduled starter Jerry Reuss got injured and threw a complete game 2-0 shutout-win against Houston Astros.
His successful season in 1981 resulted in 'Fernandomania' and the Dodgers won the World Series against New York Yankees.
Steve Yeager played for the Dodgers in 1972-1985 and was one of three World Series Most Valuable Players in 1981, the others being Pedro Guerrero and Ron Cey.
Rich Hill walked lead-off hitter George Springer in the top of the first inning, but retired the next three hitters, including a strikeout for José Altuve.
In his first inning, Justin Verlander retired three Dodgers in a row, striking out Chris Taylor and Corey Seager.
Both Hill and Verlander struckout two more batters in the second at bat.
Houston opened the score in the top of the third inning.
Josh Reddick led off with an infield-hit, which was a bad-hop, as the ball jumped away from second baseman Chase Utley.
Reddick then moved on a sacrifice bunt from Justin Verlander and a single by George Springer.
Moments later, he scored on a single by Alex Bregman, then Rich Hill struckout the next two hitters.
In the top of the fourth, Houston got two baserunners.
Yulieski Gurriel led off with a walk and advanced on a passed ball.
After a flyout and strikeout, Josh Reddick was walked intentionally in order to pitch to Justin Verlander, as pitchers are not that known for hitting the ball that well.
The decision to do this paid off, as Hill struckout Verlander (his seventh strikeout in the game) and so, two runners were left behind.
Los Angeles got its first baserunner in the fourth inning
Justin Verlander had retired nine consecutive batters, but he walked lead-off hitter Chris Taylor in the fourth.
He was forced out and a double play ended the at bat.
...Kenta Maeda pitched in relief for Los Angeles...
...On the photo, he pitches for Team Japan in...
...the 2013 World Baseball Classic against Netherlands...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
In the top of the fifth inning, Los Angeles Manager Dave Roberts brought in reliever Kenta Maeda took to take over from Rich Hill.
The Japanese righthander retired three batters, but two of them hit a line drive into the outfield.
In his past postseason-outings, Maeda had retired all 15 batters he faced.
In the bottom of the fifth, Verlander began with his fifth strikeout and saw Yasiel Puig groundout.
But hereafter, Joc Pederson drilled the ball into right-centerfield for a homerun that tied the score.
And that ended Verlander's No-Hitter.
Maeda's streak of having retired 18 consecutive hitters (National League postseason-record) ended in the sixth inning when Carlos Correa led off with a single.
With one out, Maeda was relieved by lefthander Tony Watson to face lefthanded hitting Brian McCann.
His first delivery ended in an inning-ending double play.
In the bottom of the sixth, Justin Verlander got two quick outs, but then walked Chris Taylor.
That proved to be costly, as next hitter Corey Seager homered to put the Dodgers ahead, 3-1.
Seager was not on the Dodger-roster for the NLCS against Chicago Cubs due to a back-injury.
In Game 1, Seager was 2-for-3.
In the top of the seventh, Ross Stripling took over the Dodger-pitching, but walked Marwin Gonzalez and was relieved by Brandon Morrow.
He got a double play-grounder from Josh Reddick.
A single by pinch-hitter Evan Gattis, but he was forced out.
In the bottom of the seventh, Will Harris became the new pitcher for Houston in relief of Justin Verlander.
He saw lead-off hitter Cody Bellinger reach on an error and advance on a wild pitch.
Bellinger moved to third base on a grounder by Yasiel Puig.
Harris pitched himself out of this possible runscoring situation, as he struckout the next two hitters.
In the top of the eighth, Houston was able to do something back again.
Alex Bregman led off with a line drive down the rightfield-line.
Rightfielder Yasiel Puig made a great diving attempt to catch the ball, but barely missed it and saw it jumped over the wall for a ground-rule double.
Puig was angry at himself for not making the catch, but Bregman was on second base.
Hereafter, Dodger Manager Dave Roberts made another important the decision.
He first relieved his starter after four innings and now, he brought in his closer Kenley Jansen for a 6-out appearance.
Jansen got a grounder, but that moved Bregman to third base.
Hereafter, Jansen gave up a runscoring single to Carlos Correa that made it a 3-2 score.
The run was the first one given up by Dodger-relievers after a postseason-record of 28 consecutive scoreless innings.
A pop-out accounted for the second out and Jansen closed with a strikeout.
And so, the Dodgers were still leading, despite being outhit 7-2 after eight innings.
...Houston's 3B Alex Bregman made some...
...nice plays; He also had 2 hits, 1 run, 1 RBI...
...On the photo, he plays for Team USA in...
...the 2014 Haarlem Baseball Week...
...in Haarlem (Netherlands)...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
Tonight, Jansen was less successful and was credited with a Blown Save for the first time in the postseason!
After giving a run in the eighth, Jansen gave up a lead-off homerun to Marwin Gonzalez in the top of ninth inning that tied the score at 3-3!
With two outs, George Springer doubled down the leftfield-line, but he stranded.
In the bottom of the ninth, Houston-closer Ken Giles took the mound.
He retired the first two batters, but hereafter, rookie Cody Bellinger drove the ball into deep rightfield for what appeared to be a walk-off homerun.
However, the ball stayed in the field and was caught by rightfielder Josh Reddick just in front of the wall.
And with that, the game went into extra innings.
Houston struck in the top of the tenth inning off of new pitcher Josh Fields, as José Altuve and Carlos Correa began the at bat with back-to-back homeruns!
Hereafter, Yulieski Gurriel doubled, which led to another pitching change.
With Houston now leading 5-3, Tony Cingrani took over the pitching and got a flyout.
After an intentional walk, a double play ended the at bat.
In the bottom of the tenth, the Dodgers answered immediately.
First, it became an one-run game again when Yasiel Puig led off with a homerun off of Ken Giles, which only the third basehit tonight for the Dodgers.
Giles followed with two strikeouts, but then walked Logan Forsythe.
Moments later, Forsythe got into scoring position on a wild pitch.
He then scored the tying run on a single by Kiké Hernández, who himself advanced on the throw to the plate.
A pitching change followed, as Chris Devenski took over.
He began with a pick-off on second base.
That could have become a throwing error, but instead, the ball hit 2B Umpire Laz Diaz.
Hernández might had a chance to advance on the throwing error, but he now stayed on second base.
He stranded there, as a flyout ended the at bat and the game continued.
In the top of the eleventh, Brandon McCarthy became the next Dodger-pitcher.
He was the last available pitcher for the Dodgers, except for the scheduled starters for the upcoming games.
McCarthy was added to the World Series-roster on Tuesday.
He gave up a lead-off single to Cameron Maybin and after he had stolen second base, George Springer drilled the ball into right-centerfield for a 2-run homerun that gave Houston another lead, 7-5.
The next three batters were retired, but Houston was back on top.
The game wasn't over yet!
Corey Seager lined out to centerfield, Justin Turner lined out to third base, then Charlie Culberson homered to make it a 7-6 score.
This was the eighth homerun in the game, which is the most ever in a World Series-game.
But hereafter, Chris Devenski struckout Yasiel Puig to end the long game, which lasted four hours and 19 minutes.
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Houston evens World Series with hard-fought win in 11 innings
LOS ANGELES, California (USA) -
Houston Astros recorded a hard-fought 7-6 win in eleven innings in Game 2 of the 113th World Series against Los Angeles Dodgers on Wednesday-evening (October 25).
With that, best-of-seven Final is now evened at 1-1.
Los Angeles won the opener on Tuesday with a 3-1 score, thanks to a 2-run homerun by Justin Turner.
The game initially again was a pitching-duel.
The Astros outhit the Dodgers 14-5, but the Dodgers led 3-2 after eight innings while having hit only two basehits.
Houston came alongside in the ninth off of closer Kenley Jansen when Marwin Gonzalez homered to force extra innings.
In the next two innings, five more homeruns were hit.
In the 10th, Houston took a 5-3 lead on two homeruns, then the Dodgers came alongside in its 10th at bat, which also included a homerun.
In the 11th, both teams homered again.
However, the one George Springer hit for Houston had a runner on base and gave his team a renewed lead.
In total, a record-setting total of eight homeruns were hit by the two teams combined.
