Altuve, Greinke pull Astros from brink of deep hole
WASHINGTON — The World Series finally showed up again in Washington, 86 years later — and, sparked by Jose Altuve, the Houston Astros finally showed up in this World Series.
Altuve doubled twice and scored both times, Zack Greinke repeatedly worked out of trouble, and the Astros made sure they wouldn’t go quietly despite looking listless while falling into a big hole at home, beating the Nationals 41 on Friday night to cut their deficit to 21 in the bestofseven Fall Classic.
“I just liked the competitiveness of our atbats,” Astros manager AJ Hinch said. “We were kind of pretty focused on handing the baton to the next guy, which is really important. We’re at our best when we do that.”
Houston can even things up in Game 4 on Saturday night at Nationals Park. Washington
will start lefty Patrick Corbin, while Hinch said he’ll go with rookie Jose Urquidy.
Washington’s eightgame winning streak, tied for the longest in a single postseason, ended with a sloppy performance in the first Series game hosted by the nation’s capital since the Senators lost to the New York Giants in 1933.
A sellout crowd of 43,867, dressed mostly in red for the occasion, soaked it all in, standing in unison at key moments, booing ballstrike calls that hurt their team, chanting “Let’s go, Nats!” often and even getting to do their “Baby Shark” singandclapalong when that children’s tune blared as a walkup song in the sixth.
But the wildcard Nationals were unable to move one win from a championship, undone by an inability to come through in the clutch: Birthday boy Juan Soto, MVP candidate Anthony Rendon and company were 0for 10 with runners in scoring position, leaving 12 runners on base.
How big was this win for Houston? No team ever has come back after dropping the first three games of a World Series.
Maybe that’s why several Astros players gathered for a private meeting following their 123 loss in Game 2 on Wednesday. Whatever was said apparently worked.
After playing what might have been their worst baseball of 2019, the Astros suddenly played more like the club that led the majors with 107 regularseason wins.
Greinke, the 2009 AL Cy Young Award winner, only lasted 42⁄3 innings, and allowed seven hits and three walks, but managed to give up just one run. He was followed by five relievers who combined to give up two hits across 41⁄3 innings.
Josh James earned the win, striking out Ryan Zimmerman with two aboard to end the fifth. Roberto Osuna heard boos when he entered in the ninth but got three outs for a save.
Josh Reddick delivered an RBI single in the second, Robinson Chirinos homered in the sixth and Houston scored four runs in 51⁄3 innings off Anibal Sanchez, who had taken a nohitter into the eighth inning of his previous start, in Game 1 of the NL Championship Series against St. Louis two weeks earlier.