Two down, two to go for streaking Nationals
HOUSTON — Nationals righthander Stephen Strasburg’s time had come.
Famously held out of the postseason seven years ago, he delivered on the biggest stage of all Wednesday.
Strasburg outdueled Astros right-hander Justin Verlander, overcoming a shaky start to lead the Nationals to a 12-3 victory and a 2-0 lead in the World Series.
Game 3 is Friday, when Nationals right-hander Anibal Sanchez opposes Astros right-hander Zack Greinke in the first World Series game in the nation’s capital since 1933.
Kurt Suzuki hit a tiebreaking home run in a six-run seventh inning, and Adam Eaton paraded around the bases pointing to the Houston crowd after a homer in the eighth as the Nationals won their eighth playoff game in a row. They’ve won 18 of their last 20 games overall, dating to the regular season, with the last two over American League Cy Young Award favorites Gerrit Cole and Verlander.
Strasburg, 31, had waited years for this chance. In 2012, he was about two years removed from Tommy John surgery when the Nationals’ brass decided protecting his elbow was more important than pitching him in the playoffs, so he was shut down late in a season full of promise.
Making his World Series debut, Strasburg allowed a two-run homer to Alex Bregman in the first before throwing five scoreless innings to improve 4-0 this postseason. He allowed seven hits and struck out seven.
Verlander, meanwhile, fell to 0-5 in six World Series starts. He yielded four runs and seven hits and was lifted after walking a batter after Suzuki’s homer.
Verlander led the majors with 21 victories during the regular season and struck out a career-high 300 to reach 3,000 in his career. He has a World Series ring, MVP and
Cy Young trophies and three nohitters on his résumé, but he still is missing that elusive World Series victory.
Their dominance against the Astros’ best pitchers has turned the underdog Nationals into heavy favorites to win the title. Only three teams that have lost the first two games at home under the 2-3-2 format have come back to win the World Series. No one has done it since the 1996 Yankees.
Things went wrong immediately for Verlander when he walked leadoff man Trea Turner on four pitches. Eaton singled before Anthony Rendon, a Houston native who said he would have 100 friends and family members at Minute Maid Park for each game, then knocked a ball off the wall in left field for a double that put the Nationals ahead 2-0.
Michael Brantley singled with two outs in the bottom of the first before Bregman’s homer to left tied the score. All eight of Bregman’s career postseason homers have come against All-Stars.
The score remained 2-2 until the Nationals’ big seventh put them in control. Suzuki began the rally with his homer, and Ryan Zimmerman capped it with a runscoring infield single.