Astros rough up Darvish, Dodgers

HOUSTON — Yu Darvish has always been close to perfect at Minute Maid Park, where he made his first World Series start in Game 3 for the Los Angeles Dodgers against the Houston Astros.

But the Astros had no problem hitting Darvish in the World Series. He didn’t even make it out of the second inning, and Houston rolled to a 5-3 win Friday night for a 2-1 lead in the Fall Classic.

Darvish was done after Jose Altuve’s double off the leftcenter wall that was the Astros’ fifth hit in the second inning. Kenta Maeda took over with two on and two outs and got Carlos Correa for an inning-ending flyout.

Yuli Gurriel led off the Astros second by sending a 95-mph fastball into the Crawford Boxes in left field to give the Astros the first run of the game.

Josh Reddick, without an extra-base hit his first 54 plate appearances this offseason, then followed with a sharp double down the left-field line. After Evan Gattis drew a walk, Reddick scored when Marwin Gonzalez hit a ball that ricocheted off the wall in left-center beyond the reach of leaping center fielder Chris Taylor.

Gonzalez only got a single since Gattis stopped at second base after holding up to see if the ball would be caught.

The first time Darvish ever pitched on the road against the Astros was when he was with the Texas Rangers. The right-hander from Japan retired the first 26 batters he faced on April 2, 2013.

Darvish’s bid for a perfect game that day ended when Gonzalez hit a single through the pitcher’s legs and into center field with two outs in the ninth inning.

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.

In his first World Series start, Darvish faced 12 batters. He gave up the homer, three doubles and two singles — including the one by Gonzalez that went about 373 feet.

Astros starter Lance McCullers Jr. walked the bases loaded with no outs in the third inning but escaped with just one run allowed as the Dodgers closed to 4-1.

The Dodgers made it 5-3 in the sixth. Yasiel Puig hit an RBI grounder off McCullers and, with pinch-hitter Chase Utley batting, Brad Peacock bounced a runscoring wild pitch off the plate.