PRAISE THE ROOF:

Electric crowd in closed park could be winning edge

After a heartbreaking Game 1 loss and a heartstopping Game 2 victory for the Astros in Los Angeles, the 2017 World Series arrives Friday night in downtown Houston.

If the Astros have their way, that’s where it will end, too — under, preferably, the closed roof of Minute Maid Park.

With the best-of-seven series tied at a game apiece and the next three games at home, the Astros could close it out by sweeping the Dodgers at Minute Maid and eliminating the need to return to Los Angeles for potential Games 6 and 7.

It’s a tall order, but it’s happened for six teams since 1961, most recently the 2008 Philadelphia Phillies over the Tampa Bay Rays.

The Astros have won six consecutive playoff games at home and are 18-2 at Minute Maid since returning to Houston in early September in the wake of Hurricane Harvey. In this year’s playoffs, home teams are 24-9.

Whatever the outcome, the Astros will enjoy the comforts of home — the cacophony of fan noise

enclosed (or perhaps not) by the roof, the inviting short porch of the Crawford Boxes down the left-field line, the presence of an extra bat with the addition of the designated hitter and, perhaps most importantly, last at-bats if the game is on the line.

But based on the Astros’ comments Thursday, the roof’s the thing, both for the familiarity it brings and in terms of the volume, which hit 110 decibels during the Astros’ win over the Yankees that sent them to the Series.

“That’s how we play most of the games here. We’re very used to it. I definitely think it’s part of our home-field advantage,” said Lance McCullers, the Astros’ Game 3 starter.

“We want it closed. We’ve got to have it closed,” added reliever Chris Devenski. “I feel the electricity when it’s closed is so much better. And we love playing here. We have so much excitement being here and the electricity and the vibe. And I feel like we feed off of it.”

The Astros said the roof will be closed for Game 3 and that the roof status for Games 4 and 5 will be announced later. The team’s policy is to close the roof if there is a chance of rain and if the temperature is below 65 degrees. Friday’s game time temperature is projected in the 50s, and Saturday’s high is expected to be in the mid-60s, possibly dropping as game time approaches. Sunday’s high is expected in the low 70s with a low in the mid-50s.

‘A controlled environment’

Major League Baseball would prefer to have the roof open, as it did, to great howls of displeasure locally, in the 2005 World Series in which the Astros were swept by the Chicago White Sox.

“We were all fired up about the roof being open, because it seemed to be messing with (the Astros’) minds,” said Geoff Blum, who hit a game-winning home run for the White Sox in Game 3 of the 2005 series but now calls Astros games for AT&T SportsNet Southwest.

Now wearing his figurative Astros hat, Blum said, “The roof is great because it gives you a controlled environment. Because of the way the stadium is set up, with the roof open you don’t always know where the ball is going to go when it’s hit.”

Sounds ominous … but the Astros were 8-6 at Minute Maid with the roof open this year. And with the most proficient offense in baseball, the ball could fly if the wind is blowing or swirling and the Astros are cranking.

At this point, however, any conversation about Game 3 and home-field edge disintegrates into a series of “Yes, but …” scenarios.

Yes, home teams have dominated this year. But a year ago, after the Indians and Cubs split the first two games, visiting teams won four of the next five.

Yes, the Astros have been good at home this year, going 47-31 at home plus their six home playoff wins. But the Dodgers were a creditable 47-34 on the road and closed out the Cubs for the National League pennant at Wrigley Field in Chicago.

The three games in Houston will employ the designated hitter, which is not used in games played in National League parks. That means veteran Carlos Beltran should be back in the lineup, where he could be a threat despite a thus-far anemic .158 batting average for the playoffs.

A quirky ballpark

But the Dodgers get to use a DH, too. And a year ago, it was the National League, in the form of Chicago’s Kyle Schwarber, who had the advantage at DH during the World Series.

In the 40 World Series where the DH has been allowed in American League ballparks, American League teams have won 21 titles and National League teams 19. Among the winners were the 2005 White Sox, who got a .429 average out of their DH that year to .167 for the Astros, who at the time played in the National League.

“Both teams have to adjust,” MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said last year. “Each of them has to adjust at some point in the Series. And given that we play the game two different ways during the year, that makes some sense to me.”

Given that baseball continues to be a childishly simple, infernally complex game of pitchers throwing round balls to batters wielding round bats that can send 98-mph fastballs flying in the other direction at 110 mph, the game could be decided by the quirks of the playing field.

In that regard, there could hardly be a more stark contrast than Dodger Stadium, with its perfectly symmetrical dimensions — 330 feet down each foul line, 385 feet in each of the power alleys — and the carefully calculated weirdness of Minute Maid Park, with its dozen nooks, crannies, gates and ledges from foul pole to foul pole.

But with all its quirks, it’s home for the Astros and their fans.

“No matter if (the roof is) opened or closed, we’re going to take it one pitch at a time, and we’re happy to be playing in front of our home fans,” said third baseman Alex Bregman. “And there’s something special when we play at Minute Maid Park in front of Houston people.”