Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Keeping balls in the park not easy
Teams are on pace to set Series record for most homers
HOUSTON — As a couple of Astros loosened up in the outfield Thursday, the retractable roof at Minute Maid Park made its slow crawl, turning the bright sun into shade.
That might be the only way to keep balls from flying completely out of the yard during this powerpacked World Series.
A day after Jose Altuve, Carlos Correa and the Astros combined with the Dodgers for a Series-record eight home runs in their 7-6, 11-inning win, the baseball world was still marveling over the moonshots.
So were the players who launched them.
“Actually, when I was getting off the plane with (Carlos) Beltran, I was talking to him, and I was like, what was going through your head when Altuve hit the homer?” Astros third baseman Alex Bregman said. “He was like, ‘We were going crazy in the dugout.’
“Then I was like, what about when Correa hit his? What about when they hit theirs and they hit theirs? We were just going back and forth.”
After a Major League Baseball season that set a record for the most home runs, the World Series is off to a flying start.
A whopping 11 homers — six by the Dodgers — were hit in Los Angeles as the sides split the first two games at Dodger Stadium. At this rate, the two teams would shatter the Series record of 21 home runs set in 2002, when Barry Bonds and the Giants lost to the Angels in seven games.
The curveballing Lance McCullers Jr. started Game 3 for the Astros on Friday night against Yu Darvish, and the roof was shut — exactly how the Astros like it.
The highest-scoring team in the majors is 6-0 at home this postseason. The stadium roof hasn’t been open since early June in order to block out the Texas summer heat.
Rain was in Friday’s forecast, and the final call on whether to close the roof rests with MLB. That decision is based in part on what the home team normally does during the year.
“We want it closed. We’ve got to have it closed,” reliever Chris Devenski said Thursday. “I feel the electricity when it’s closed is so much better. And we love playing here.
“We have so much excitement being here (with) the electricity and the vibe. And I feel we feed off of it.”
The Astros had plenty of energy Wednesday night too. Marwin Gonzalez hit a tying homer off Dodgers closer Kenley Jansen in the ninth inning, Altuve and Correa connected back-toback in the 10th, and George Springer hit a two-run shot in the 11th.
There were a total of five home runs hit solely in the extra innings.
“Yeah, (Wednesday) night hurt,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said.
After a few Astros casually limbered up Thursday, the Dodgers held a full, relaxed workout. With the roof closed and park empty, sounds echoed from every corner of the park.
Whistles, hoots, singing, the crack of the bat — it was all loud.
“Hey!” Dodgers outfielder Yasiel Puig shouted, clanking a drive off a distant metal railing in left-center.
In the outfield, a couple players bantered with stadium workers high above. Jansen whooped it up, playing third base and trying to make behind-theback stabs at practice grounders.
Jansen was having fun less than 24 hours after Gonzalez tagged him. The Dodgers had been 98-0 this year when leading after eight innings, the lone club in the majors without a loss in those situations.
Roberts said he checked with Jansen after the game.
“I just wanted to — it doesn’t happen very often that a game is blown when he takes the baseball,” Roberts said. “So I just wanted to circle back with him (and) make sure he was in a good state of mind, which he was.
“And it’s baseball; things like that happen. He was obviously disappointed but prepared for (Friday).”
The Dodgers hoped Darvish was as prepared to pitch at Minute Maid Park as he was April 2, 2013, when he retired the first 26 batters he faced while pitching for the Rangers. That bid for a perfect game was ruined by Gonzalez, who hit a single through Darvish’s legs and into center field.
With the Rangers, Darvish was 4-1 with a 2.16 ERA in six road starts against the American League West-rival Astros. He struck out 56 and walked 11 in those games.
Trying to tame the Dodgers’ bats was McCullers, who ended Game 7 of the AL Championship Series by throwing 24 consecutive curveballs to retire the Yankees’ final five batters in order.
He didn’t plan to throw only breaking balls when he relieved Charlie Morton with a 4-0 lead over the Yankees after five innings.
“The crowd was rocking,” McCullers said Thursday. “I could tell (the Yankees) were pressing a little bit. As I was throwing curveballs and reading the swings, (I decided) not to make an adjustment until they do. It would have been the same thing if I threw a lot of fastballs or a lot of changeups.
“The old saying of ‘don’t fix it if it ain’t broke’ (applied). I just kind of got in the groove and felt like it was working.”
McCullers’ curveball use topped the majors at 47.2 percent of his pitches this year, according to Fangraphs. The Dodgers’ Rich Hill was second at 39.8 percent.
McCullers’ use was at 36 percent in 2015 before rising to nearly 50 percent in each of the last two seasons
“He believes his best stuff matched up against the best stuff of the other guy that he’s going to be better,” Astros manager A.J. Hinch said.