LA Dodgers vow to hit out at home
Dodgers relief pitcher Ross Stripling was confident as baseball’s World Series headed back to California.
“If we can just hold them to less than 12 runs, we’ll get some wins,” he said playfully.
Los Angeles players seemed dazed after a 13-12, 10-inning loss to the Astros on Monday (NZT), which gave Houston a 3-2 series lead.
The Astros felt ecstatic and energised, Dodgers drained and dispirited after 5 hours, 17 minutes.
“Baseball is a sport of momentum,” said Houston’s Brian McCann, who started the winning rally when he was hit by Kenley Jansen’s pitch with two outs in the 10th at Minute Maid Park.
Los Angeles wasted leads of 4-0, 7-4 and 8-7. The Astros surged ahead 11-8 and 12-9 before the Dodgers tied the score in the ninth on Yasiel Puig’s two-run homer and Chris Taylor’s two-out single on a 2-2 pitch.
Bouncing back from a rugged defeat in a series can be difficult. Boston was twice within a strike of their first title since 1918 before losing Game 6 in 1986 by a 6-5 score when Mookie Wilson’s grounder went through the legs of first baseman Bill Buckner. The Red Sox wasted a threerun lead to the New York Mets in an 8-5 loss in the finale.
“We had the game won,” Boston outfielder Dave Henderson said after Game 6. “I’m beginning to think somebody up there is writing the script to make it interesting.”
Texas was twice within a strike of its first World Series title in Game 6 in 2011, but Neftali Feliz allowed David Freese’s tying triple in the ninth, Scott Feldman gave up Lance Berkman’s tying single in the 10th and Mark Lowe yielded Freese’s game-ending home run in the 11th. St Louis overcame a two-run, first-inning deficit the next night to win 6-2.
“Sometimes when opportunity is in your presence, you certainly can’t let it get away because sometimes it takes a while before it comes back,” Texas manager Ron Washington said.
“I think that it’s obviously different than a regular season tough loss,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “Obviously the emotions and focus and energy were at an all-time high. But I think that our guys, even on the airplane, just as tough as that was, just looked forward to today, just having an off day, and being ready to win a game [today, NZT].”
Justin Verlander starts for the Astros, tying to win the team’s first title in its 56 seasons. In a rematch of Game 2 starters who did not get a decision, Rich Hill opens for the Dodgers.
Forty-three of the 65 teams with 3-2 Series leads have won the title, including 25 in Game 6. Home teams have won four of the last five Game 6s and 15 of 20.
Last year, Cleveland took a 3-1 lead in the Series, lost Game 5 at Wrigley Field, and failed to win either Game 6 or 7 at home.