The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Sluggers putting Series home-run record at risk
Dodgers, Astros sent 11 out of park during the first two games.
HOUSTON — As a couple of Astros loosened up in the outfield, the retractable roof at Minute Maid Park made its slow crawl Thursday, turning the bright sun into shade.
That might be the only way to keep balls from flying completely out of the yard at this power-packed World Series.
A day after Jose Altuve, Carlos Correa and Houston combined with the Los Angeles Dodgers for a Series-record eight home runs in the Astros’ 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? He was like, ‘We were going crazy in the dugout,’” Astros third baseman Alex Bregman said.
“Then I was like what about when Correa hit his, what about when they hit theirs? And they hit theirs,” he said, laughing. “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.
Already 11 home runs had been hit — six by Los Angeles — as the sides split the first two games at Dodger Stadium. At this rate, they’d shatter the Series record of 21 in 2002 when Barry Bonds and the Giants lost to the Angels in seven games.
The curveballing Lance McCullers Jr. started Game 3 for Houston on Friday night against Yu Darvish, and the roof was shut — exactly how the Astros like it.
The highest-scoring team in the majors entered Friday 6-0 at its home this postseason. The top hasn’t been open since early June in order to keep out Texas’ summer heat.
Rain was in the forecast, and the final call on whether to close the roof rested 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,” Houston reliever Chris Devenski said. “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 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-to-back in the 10th and George Springer hit a tworun shot in the 11th.