World Series headed for Game 7
Nats’ bats awaken from slumber to tag Astros ace with record-setting Series loss
Hello, World Series, where you been?
After five mostly listless affairs, the Washington Nationals won a rollicking Game 6 on Tuesday night to stave off elimination and set up what should be a wild Game 7 tonight.
The Nationals rode a dominant performance from starting pitcher Stephen Strasburg and their dormant bats were roused from slumber, with home runs from Adam Eaton, Juan Soto and Anthony Rendon providing most of the offence in a 7-2 win.
The game had a bit of everything that makes post-season baseball fun. There was good pitching, some pulverized baseballs, sterling defence, and even multiple lead changes — the first time anything like that had happened since way back in Game 1.
There was a ridiculous umpiring controversy and then a ridiculous replay-review controversy. There was also plenty of showmanship, particularly when Soto, who became the youngest player to ever hit three home runs in a World Series, carried his bat most of the way up the first base line, an insouciant homage to what Houston’s Alex Bregman had done a few innings earlier. A dash of enmity never hurts at this point.
The Game 6 matchup was an intriguing one from a pitching perspective: two aces, but each with distinctly different trend lines.
Justin Verlander, a perennial All-Star with a long post-season resume, was somehow 0-5 in the World Series, with a 5.73 ERA, no less. The Nationals countered with Strasburg, the one-time phenom finally having a career season. He came into Tuesday night with a 4-0 record in the post-season, and had lowered his career playoff ERA to a sparkling 1.34. Only two pitchers in MLB history had a better number over at least 40 innings: Sandy Koufax and Mariano Rivera.
Verlander was tagged with the loss, and became the first pitcher in baseball history to have an 0-6 record in the World Series. Verlander went five innings, giving up three earned runs on five hits, with three strikeouts.
The game began well for the Nationals, with Trea Turner beating out an infield single. He was bunted over to second by Eaton, somewhat mysteriously given Verlander’s struggles in the first inning this post-season. Rendon drove him in with a single through the hole in a shifted infield to get the Nationals on the board, but after Soto and then Howie Kendrick flew out, it looked like Washington had squandered a chance for a big inning.
The need for more runs was quickly proven in the bottom of the inning, when George Springer led off with a double that was powdered off the left field wall. He scored on Jose Altuve’s sacrifice fly after a wild pitch moved him to third, and then Bregman followed with a rocket of a home run to the short porch in left. The MVP candidate carried his bat up the first-base line — kind of like the funhouse mirror version of a bat flip.
With his deficit turned around into a 2-1 lead, Verlander breezed through the second inning, striking out Asdrubal Cabrera and Victor Robles.
Minute Maid Park was buzzing. Verlander had wobbled, got through it, and now there was the anticipation of a kill shot. But Strasburg settled down, too, with a perfect bottom of the second. It was game on. Washington eventually carried a 3-2 lead into the seventh inning on the back of the Eaton and Soto home runs, chasing Verlander in yet another World Series that wasn’t quite good enough, and that’s when things became really weird.
Yan Gomes led off with a single, and Turner followed by pounding a ball into the dirt in front of home plate in what turned into an accidental bunt.
Robinson Chirinos scrambled to field the ball and threw to first, but the ball hit Turner in the back of the right leg. Both runners advanced, and it looked with Washington would have men at second and third with none out — but then umpire Sal Holbrook ruled that Turner had interfered with the throw because he wasn’t properly to the right of the base line.
According to the letter of the law that’s true, but it’s a rule that’s constantly ignored; players are routinely on the base line in their final strides because first base isn’t in foul ground. To make that call in the seventh inning of an elimination game in the World Series?
Utterly baffling. Confusing things further, there was a replay review of the call — even though such a judgment call isn’t supposed to be reviewable — and then the umpires decided to uphold it anyway.
Meanwhile, various players took to their social media accounts to describe what had happened as varying levels of absurd.
But then, a weird sort of cosmic justice: a batter later, Rendon parked a Ryan Pressly pitch in the left-field stands for a two-run home run that gave the Nationals a 5-2 lead. That was all Strasburg would need.
Game 7 is set for tonight, with Max Scherzer expected to start for the Nationals, against Zack Greinke for the Astros.
It’s taken a long while for this World Series to get going, but the finish should be fantastic.