Before tonight's game in Minute Maid Park, the ceremonial first pitch was thrown by American Football-player J.J. Watt, who is the Defensive End of Houston Texas in the National Football League.
Currently, he is out for the season after sustaining a fractured tibial plateau fracture in his left leg in the fifth game of the season on October 8.
In recent weeks, Watt has raised more than 37 million dollars for relief and recovery efforts for the Houston-area to help the victims of destructive Hurricane Harvey in August.
A few days after Harvey had left the area, the players and coaches of the Houston Astros added a patch to their uniform with the word 'Strong' in support to the citizens of Houston.
In the top of the first inning, Houston-starter Lance McCullers retired the side.
The inning ended with a long running catch by centerfielder George Springer on a line drive by Justin Turner.
Moments later, Springer led off the first Houston-at bat off of Yu Darvish with a double.
With one out, he advanced to third base on a flyout by José Altuve, but a grounder ended the inning.
In the top of the second inning, Los Angeles also recorded its first basehit when Logan Forsythe singled with two outs.
He stole second base, but stranded there.
Houston opened the score in the bottom of the second inning when Yulieski Gurriel led off with a huge homerun into leftfield.
He got his homerun-power not from a stranger, as his father Lourdes Gurriel also was famous for his powerful swings and long homeruns.
After Gurriel had homered, Josh Reddick doubled down the leftfield-line, then Evan Gattis walked.
The second run was then added when Marwin Gonzalez drove the ball into leftfield for a double.
There, leftfielder Kiké Hernández jumped up and barely missed the ball which hit the wall and enabled Reddick to score.
The scoring wasn't over yet, as Brian McCann connected for a runscoring single that made it a 3-0 score.
With one out, a sacrifice fly by Alex Bregman increased the lead to 4-0.
Houston underscored its offensive power this season when next hitter José Altuve hit the ball into deep left-centerfield for a double.
And that led to an early pitching-change, as Yu Darvish was replaced by his countryman Kenda Maeda.
He got an inning-ending flyout.
In the top of the third inning, the Dodgers got the bases loaded with no outs when Lance McCullers ran into problems with his control.
The righthander walked Joc Pederson, Kiké Hernández and Chris Taylor to get three baserunners.
Hereafter, first baseman Yulieski Gurriel started a nice 4-6-1 double play on a hard grounder by Corey Seager, but brought in Pederson to score the first Dodger-run.
McCullers recovered and a grounder ended the at bat.
With one out in the top of the fourth inning, Yasiel Puig hit a line drive towards third baseman Alex Bregman, who reached to field the ball.
However, he was unable to do that and touched the ball which then turned into foul territory in leftfield.
After arriving at first base, Puig hesitated a little before turning to second base.
And there, he ended up just short and was eliminated.
In the top of the fifth inning, it was Joc Pederson who drove the ball into centerfield for the Dodgers with one out.
He also continued to second base, but was more successful than Puig, as he slid in with a double.
Pederson moved to third base on a grounder, but the inning ended when centerfielder George Springer made another outstanding catch.
He made a diving catch on a line drive by Chris Taylor and with avoided giving up a run.
...Yulieski Gurriel hit a double and...
...homerun for Houston...
...On the photo, he plays for Cuba...
...during the 2013 World Port...
...Tournament in Rotterdam (Netherlands)...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
Houston added another run with two outs in the bottom of the fifth.
With one out, Tony Watson took over the pitching from Kenta Maeda and got a grounder from Yulieski Gurriel.
But hereafter, he gave up a single to Josh Reddick, who then scored the fifth Houston-run on what began as an infield-hit.
Reddick took off when Evan Gattis hit the ball back to Watson and reached on an infield-hit.
However, Watson's throw to first base ended up foul territory for a throwing error.
Reddick was waved home and scored to make it a 5-1 score.
The Dodgers had a productive top of the sixth inning.
Corey Seager led off with a walk, then Justin Turner doubled.
Hereafter, Lance McCullers struckout Cody Bellinger for the third time and then was relieved by Brad Peacock.
Yasiel Puig then went after the first pitch he saw and grounded out, but that brought in Seager and made it a 5-2 score.
With two outs, veteran Chase Utley was inserted as pinch-hitter.
With a 2-2 count on Utley, Peacock threw a wild pitch that enabled Turner to score and narrow the deficit to 5-3.
With one out in the bottom of the sixth, Brandon Morrow became the new Dodger-pitcher, but he got two baserunners.
George Springer reached on an error and Alex Bregman walked, but Morrow followed with two strikeouts.
After the Dodgers had stranded a runner on first base in the top of the seventh, Yulieski Gurriel led off the bottom of the seventh for Houston with a double.
A pitching change followed and Tony Cingrani took the mound.
An attempt to move Gurriel to third base failed when a bunt by Josh Reddick popped up and was nicely caught by a deep playing and diving first baseman Cody Bellinger.
With first base open, Evan Gattis was then walked intentionally.
An infield-fly followed, but then the bases got loaded when Brian McCann reached on an infield-hit.
Another pitching change followed, as Ross Stripling took over from Cingrani.
With two outs and the bases loaded, George Springer then drove the ball into deep centerfield, but there, Chris Taylor caught the ball just in front of the fence.
In the top of the eighth, Brad Peacock retired the side, including two strikeouts.
He continued his strong outing in the ninth and again retired three consecutive hitters to earn a save.
Peacock threw 3 2/3 hitless and scoreless inning, striking out four hitters.
The last time a pitcher earned a save in the World Series by throwing that many innings was in Game 6 of the 1981 Series.
Back then, Steve Howe threw 3 2/3 inning for Los Angeles Dodgers after taking over from starter Burt Hooton.
The Dodgers won 9-2 against New York Yankees and with that won the World Series, 4-2.
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Houston takes lead in World Series on good pitching
HOUSTON, Texas (USA) -
Houston Astros has taken a 2-1 lead in the 113th World Series against Los Angeles Dodgers by winning Game 3 on Friday-evening (October 27) with a 5-3 score.
Los Angeles won the opener on Tuesday at with a 3-1 score, thanks to a 2-run homerun by Justin Turner.
The next day, Houston recorded a hard-fought 7-6 win in eleven innings, a game that featured a record-setting total of eight homeruns.
George Springer hit the most important fourbagger, as it gave Houston the lead (again) in the eleventh inning.
Houston opened the score in the second inning when Cuban Yulieski Gurriel led off with a homerun, which was the beginning of a 4-run rally.
Los Angeles collected only four basehits off of starter Lance McCullers, but hereafter, reliever Brad Peacock became the hero of the game.
He closed the game by throwing 3 2/3 hitless and scorelss innings.
Houston recorded 12 basehits, including three by catcher Brian McCann.