DODGERS BEAT HOUSTON, FORCE GAME 7:
Pederson HR, Dodger rally vs. Verlander ensure this classic Series goes distance
LOS ANGELES — A dozen outs from the end of their season, pushed by a raucous Halloween crowd and fueled by their own desperation, the Dodgers dug deep.
After five innings of Game 6 of the World Series against the Houston Astros at Dodger Stadium Tuesday night, they trailed by one run, they had one hit, they were leaning on a tattered bullpen, the night was cooling, the sky was spitting, winter was coming.
Then it happened. Everybody shout it together now. It was time for Dodger baseball.
The Dodgers came up with a sixth-inning rally against Astros ace Justin Verlander that included two line drives, a fly ball, and a bounced pitch that hit a savvy veteran on the foot. The bullpen worked out of three consecutive monumental jams with exhausted arms throwing relentless pitches. The fans roared with each throw, each swing, each shovel into the Astros psyche.
By the time the digging was finished, the Dodgers had unearthed with what are the two most wondrous words in the language of Los Angeles. Game Seven. Yes, there will be a final and deciding game in this classic World Series, the biggest game in the 56-year history of Dodger Stadium because, well, how can there not? The schedule was cemented by the Dodgers 3-1 victory over the Astros Tuesday that tied this series at three games apiece.
Seven months and 176 games are not going to be enough to decide this Dodger season, it will come down to one more night, Wednesday at Chavez Ravine at 5:20 p.m., one game for the World Series championship.
The Dodgers will start the veteran Yu Darvish, acquired from Texas this summer just for moments like this. The Astros will start Lance McCullers Jr., a 24-year-old kid who the Astros surely hope is too young to realize the enormity of the situation.
It will be the first World Series Game 7 played here, the biggest baseball game here ever played in this city. And it is happening because of the smallest things, the little jabs the Dodgers threw Monday night in what could have been their final hours. Entering the bottom of the sixth, the Astros led, 1-0, on George Springer’s third-inning home run. Verlander was nearly unhittable. And the Dodgers had already gone through starter Rich Hill and relievers Brandon Morrow and Tony Watson in working out of two earlier jams. Yet instead of panicking, the Dodgers somehow managed to play patient. Leading off the sixth, Austin Barnes watched two pitches then singled to left. Up stepped the team’s elder sage, Chase Utley, 0-for-14 in this postseason yet still cool enough to stand and let a bouncing two-strike Verlander pitch him in the foot, putting runners on first and second.
Next up, Chris Taylor, who connected on yet another two-strike pitch, lining this one into shallow right field for a hustling double that scored Barnes with the tying run and brought several Dodgers bouncing out of their dugout. Moments later Corey Seager drove a ball to the right-field wall for a sacrifice fly to score Utley from third and the Dodgers had a lead they never lost.
This was a victory for an offense that was batting just .213 in the series but did not give up on the fundamentals. This was a victory for a bullpen that had cost the Dodgers two of their three losses in this series, with Morrow, Watson, Kenta Maeda and Kenley Jansen holding firm.
This was also a victory for Dodger fans, who filled the building with constant noise, enough that it even seemed to rattle one notable Astro. Yes, they really let Yuli Gurriel have it, booing him every time he came near a base or a ball. When Gurriel batted, the jeers were even given an assist by Hill, who even briefly stepped off the mound to give fans time to show their anger. Gurriel, of course, is the Astro who was suspended for five games - next year for the racist gesture he made toward Darvish during Game 3.
Those fans are one reason the Dodgers have the best home record in baseball not only this season, but for the last three years. They will need those fans on a monumental Wednesday night. The digging is only just beginning.