Angst for the memories: L.A. survives
LOS ANGELES — Joc Pederson sliced a drive over the left-field wall, pounded his chest and danced around the bases, taking as many twists and turns as this World Series itself. Of course, the Dodgers forced the Astros to Game 7.
Chris Taylor hit a tying double off Justin Verlander during a two-run rally in the sixth inning, Corey Seager followed with a go-ahead sacrifice fly and Los Angeles beat Houston 3-1 on Tuesday night to push the Series to the ultimate game.
“Two incredible teams, trying to get to the finish line,” Houston manager A.J. Hinch said.
“It’s only fitting,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said.
Mired in a major slump this season, Pederson was demoted to the minors — and teammates began offering to pay the left-handed hitter for opposite-field home runs in an effort to get him to hit the ball the other way.
In the seventh, he delivered by belting a home run to left field off right-hander Joe Musgrove to make it a record 24 long balls hit in this Series. Pederson pranced all the way to the plate, pointing at the Dodgers’ dugout and rubbing his thumbs and index fingers together to indicate what a money shot it was.
“I kind of black out in a situation like that,” said Pederson, who has three homers in the Series. “I’m going to have to rewatch it to see what I did.”
Two nights after a 13-12, 10-inning slugfest under the roof at Minute Maid Park, Pederson’s homer was among the few offensive highlights as pitching dominated.
George Springer’s thirdinning home run against starter Rich Hill had given a 1-0 lead to Verlander and the Astros, trying for the first championship in their 56season history.
Houston’s offense stalled there, with Los Angeles relievers combining for 41⁄3 scoreless innings. Brandon Morrow retired Alex Bregman on a grounder to strand the bases loaded in the fifth, winner Tony Watson got Marwin Gonzalez to fly out with two on and two outs in the sixth, and Kenta Maeda escaped two-on trouble in the seventh when third baseman Justin Turner gloved Jose Altuve’s grounder and threw a onehop throw that first baseman Cody Bellinger scooped just in time.
After wasting a ninth-inning lead in Game 2 and losing Game 5, Kenley Jansen retired six straight batters for the save and ended by striking out 40-year-old pinchhitter Carlos Beltran.
“I’m not trying to be a hero or anything, but there’s no tomorrow,” Jansen said. “You’ve got to go out there and fight.”
Now it’s on to Game 7 in Los Angeles on Wednesday, with the Dodgers’ Yu Darvish opposing Lance McCullers Jr.
Los Angeles’ Clayton Kershaw will be among those ready in the bullpen behind Darvish, and the entire Houston pitching staff could be available behind McCullers, including Dallas Keuchel and possibly even Verlander.
“I think all of our guys are going to have the adrenaline on their side,” Hinch said. “They’re all going to be ready to pitch. How we use them, how much we use them — we’ll get to the field. They’ll do their throwing program. If it’s one pitch or a hundred pitches, I think we’re going to have to have all hands on deck.”
Darvish was chased in the second inning of Game 3, when McCullers pitched Houston to a 5-3 victory.
“If it was the regular season, I probably would have kept going” in Game 3, Darvish said through an interpreter. “I wouldn’t say it was the worst outing I ever had. I can’t pay that much attention to what happened last time. Just focus on (Wednesday’s) outing and have a good game.”